Gaming What happens when pirates play a game development simulator and then go bankrupt because of piracy?

When we released our very first game, Game Dev Tycoon (for Mac, Windows and Linux) yesterday, we did something unusual and as far as I know unique. We released a cracked version of the game ourselves, minutes after opening our Store.

The cracked version is nearly identical to the real thing except for one detail… Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers. So, as players spend a few hours playing and growing their own game dev company, they will start to see the following message, styled like any other in-game message:

Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally.
If players don’t buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt.

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Slowly their in-game funds dwindle, and new games they create have a high chance to be pirated until their virtual game development company goes bankrupt.

Oh that, that's too damn funny! Hmm"A game development simulator"?
Seriously, who would pay for that?

I wouldnt pay for such a game in the first place. Sounds pretty boring for me.

Just played the demo, it was kind of fun.

Cool marketing campaign they're doing by doing that, haha.

FireCat said:

Oh that, that's too damn funny! Hmm"A game development simulator"?
Seriously, who would pay for that?

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People who like tycoon-esque games? You're obviously not the target market.

camelCase said:

People who like tycoon-esque games? You're obviously not the target market.

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I liked a lot of those games, but this just sounds stupid.

What if we make a Game Dev Tycoon and release it pirated while playing
Game Dev Tycoon then will the people stop downloading pirated
Game Dev Tycoon?

Pirapception?

New Game:

Pirate Games Simulator 2013.

Motto: Harder than QWOP. Wackier than Surgeon Simulator 2013.

Yes, so crappy a game that more than 3000 people torrented, played and uploaded their play data to the company's server in one day.

The difference being that the vast majority of those people never would have bought it to begin with. Also probably hyped by the game company.

You see... What I tend to do is If I am unsure of a game I will torrent it. If I like it, I buy the game. I admit I torrented this game, then I purchased it cause I enjoyed it. Its addicting actually I constantly want to keep releasing a new game when I should really go to bed and go to work where I don't make Millions of dollars releasing a new game

Almost every game i ever bought was a disappointment. I dont buy games anymore unless i really know they are good. That is, i only re-buy old games i once owned but lost the CD's or something else happened to them.

Yes, only Minecraft is worth all your $20, $30, whatever.

Does anyone else miss the era of great RPGs on the Playstation? So many good ones... what happened to those? Where did they disappear to?

KMilz said:

Does anyone else miss the era of great RPGs on the Playstation? So many good ones... what happened to those? Where did they disappear to?

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Thank Final Fantasy and its everlasting plotline.

KMilz said:

Does anyone else miss the era of great RPGs on the Playstation? So many good ones... what happened to those? Where did they disappear to?

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Yeah, back when we had like six disks to play through, and it took us a week to figure out how to get out of the first dungeon?

Varine said:

Yeah, back when we had like six disks to play through, and it took us a week to figure out how to get out of the first dungeon?

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That's a hell of a plot. Is it worth your money?