Championship Manager Gets 90% Piracy Rate

[Telefrog]

From Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56607) comes more "piracy is killing PC games" news.

Following in the unfortunate footsteps of World of Goo, developer Beautiful Game Studios' claims that its Championship Manager series of PC soccer simulators is the victim of a 90% piracy rate.

"That's not just a number in the air, we can measure it and we know that there are a huge amount of pirated copies," said Beautiful GM Roy Meredith.


Meredith does go on to say the following:

"There's a real issue around DRM... I'd love to defeat pirates, but actually, with all this mess on Spore and Football Manager, which I haven't been able to play this year... I spent about three hours trying to go through this registration process and I really want to play it, but I've got other things to do with my life."

[pomeroy]

Awesome. Another stupid DRM/piracy thread.

[KingGorilla]

Awesome. Another stupid DRM/piracy thread.
The first of the new year?

[pomeroy]

The first of the new year?

It's a Festivus MIRACLE!

[iHap]

I don't buy those numbers. There isn't a real way to actually count how many people have pirated said software.

[Hotcod]

can some one just write a copy and paste for this threads? you know, ever pirated copy is NOT a lost sale, there is no way to judge these numbers in any meaning manner, punishing the people who do will and are going to buy your games in a feeble attempt to stop pirates most of who would never have brought it in the first place is stupid... that kind of stuff we all know off by heart at this point.

But i have to say it is nice to see some one not using there stupid number as an excuse for more drm and so on. It's nice to see that at lest that part of the whole mess is starting to sink in somewhat.

[Hemalin]

Is this the title that IGN gave a 2?

[biosc1]

No one likes Championship Manager anymore anyways...not since they changed a few years back.

This is just an excuse because Worldwide Football Manager is taking more and more market share (as is should with the old developers from CM working on it).

[RandoM51]

I don't buy those numbers. There isn't a real way to actually count how many people have pirated said software.

Actually it is pretty easy if you plan for it in advance. Makes for an interesting EULA to read, though. ;)

I'll give you a basic scenario:

1. Game has no online-specific DRM, but goes online to get roster updates.
2. Pirates crack the disc-based DRM or it has no DRM at all and they ignore it.
3. While downloading roster updates the client sends a unique hash in the request. A fairly unique hash could be easily generated simply by oh, say, plugging in the sector locations for 10 different pieces of game data into an equation.
4. The developer/publisher then compares the number of unique hash signatures requesting roster updates with the number of actual copies they've sold.

Most of the difference in those two figures should be attributed to piracy.

[Telefrog]

I don't buy those numbers. There isn't a real way to actually count how many people have pirated said software.

Yes there is. You can simply count torrent downloads.

Now, did every one of those torrented copies result in a lost sale? That's another matter entirely.

[Narradisall]

What do you expect from the football hooligans?

[KingGorilla]

So many of these developers and publishers seem to measure piracy either as Mini-nova downloads or comparing Unique IPs to copies sold(I personally have patched from countless locations on my PC, dozens of IP addresses maybe hundreds given that everyone in the US has a dynamic IP).

And again, there is no money in advertising how much money you lose to the public. Notice how in the credit crunch the MPAA has clammed up on piracy, striking deals with Google even in cases? It is hard to get money when ypou advertise that the majority of your audience(so you say) is not willing to spend money for your product.

[SilentScreams]

Is this the title that IGN gave a 2?

No, that was Football Manager. The guys who make Football Manager (Sports Interactive) used to make Championship Manager but left and started making FM a few years ago. CM hasn't been the same since. I'd give Championship Manager a 2 and be perfectly justified.

Which leads me to my next point...piracy probably isn't behind their lack of sales. Their games lack of quality is behind their lack of sales. The original fanbase all followed Sports Interactive to FM. I'm willing to bet FM hasn't had the same problem because it's a great game.

[iHap]

Actually it is pretty easy if you plan for it in advance. Makes for an interesting EULA to read, though. ;)

I'll give you a basic scenario:

1. Game has no online-specific DRM, but goes online to get roster updates.
2. Pirates crack the disc-based DRM or it has no DRM at all and they ignore it.
3. While downloading roster updates the client sends a unique hash in the request. A fairly unique hash could be easily generated simply by oh, say, plugging in the sector locations for 10 different pieces of game data into an equation.
4. The developer/publisher then compares the number of unique hash signatures requesting roster updates with the number of actual copies they've sold.

Most of the difference in those two figures should be attributed to piracy.
But are they as smart as you are?

Yes there is. You can simply count torrent downloads.

Now, did every one of those torrented copies result in a lost sale? That's another matter entirely.
The number of times a torrent has been downloaded is still full of BS.

[TheFlyingOrc]

But are they as smart as you are?

Yes, they are. What he described is way easier than making a video game.

Piracy hurts mediocre games the worst. Great games people buy anyway, bad games wouldn't have sold anyway.

[squirrelTactics]

I don't buy those numbers. There isn't a real way to actually count how many people have pirated said software.

You wouldn't BUY those numbers...

[Panthera]

Counting how many people download the patch and comparing to the number of games sold is about as good as you'll get, and that seems to be what they're basing it on.