From
this link about Galactic Civilizations II.
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Digg is reporting that a website is implying that we want Galactic Civilizations II to be pirated. Absolutely not! Of course we DO NOT want our game to be pirated. We're a small company, every lost sale hurts us.
This got started because sales reports on Galactic Civilizations II have been much higher than anticipated. We've now outsold the first Galactic Civilizations in North America in the first 10 days. Last week we were apparently the #1 PC game at Walmart.
Naturally, some peple have taken the conclusion that because we don't have copy protection on our game, that we invite piracy. That is not the case, we simply think there are other ways to stop piracy than CD checks, strict DRM, etc.
What we do is provide a serial # that users can choose to enter when they install and use that unique serial # to download free and frequent updates.
Our license allows you to install the game onto as many machines that you own that you want as long as only one copy is being used at once.
How many sales are lost because people want to have a game on their laptop and desktop and don't want to drag CDs around so choose not to buy the game?
Our company also makes utility software. We've been around a long time -- 14 years now. Our software gets pirated. We don't like it but piracy is a fact of life. And not every pirated copy means a lost sale.
The question isn't about eliminating piracy, it's about increasing sales. It's about trying to make sure that people who would buy your product buy it instead of steal it.
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I like the way they think...
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
WoW had authentication codes on their CDs then authenticate to a server.
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Not entirely true. There are no auth codes for the discs themselves. They've even gone to a downloadable system and you just buy your account code online. MMOs are inherently a bit different though.
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Originally Posted by Ustwo
You do need the CD key to patch and Stardock is a niche gamer company. I doubt their budget runs into the 10's and 100's of millions like some do. Still my younger brother downloaded it off bit torrent and played it.
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Define "niche gamer company" please?! Sins and GalCiv have been top chart sellers for several months each. Just because they are not EA does not mean they are not major players. Do you remember Cavedog? They were shortlived and small budgeted, but Total Annihilation was the number one RTS seller for a good long time, even beating Starcraft for a while (outside of Asia).
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Originally Posted by willravel
This argument is still about wanting piracy to be easier.
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Originally Posted by LoganSnake
Piracy has never been hard...
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What Logan said. Piracy can't really GET much easier. Seriously. It was easy 20 years ago and it's easy today. People who want the game for free WILL get it for free, damned near every time. Regardless of DRM scheme, regardless of publisher, regardless of possible consequences. DRM does NOT protect sales, ever! Show me one study that proves that it does using sound logic and realistic data. I bet you can't! Think the whole thing through logically and you'll see what I mean. *shrug*