Indie Game Pulled After Piracy Threatens to Bankrupt Developers
Project Zomboid, an isometric Zombie Survival RPG, has been taken offline after a rather annoying pirated version hit torrent sites. The pirated version of the game checks the main Project Zomboid servers for updates by re-downloading the latest version of the game (something prior pirated versions didn’t), which in turn costs the developers money. The pirated versions are not just free, they are actively costing the devs.
In a blog post this morning the game’s developers explained that whilst the pirated version hasn’t yet caused them a huge amount of trouble, it potentialy could cost them an unknown about of money.
We’ve always turned a blind eye to pirate copies, even on occasion recommending people who had problems with the legit version try a pirate version until the issues are resolved. We realise the potential viral benefits of pirate copies, and while obviously we’d prefer people to purchase our issue is not with those.
However, these ‘auto updating’ versions of the game could screw us completely. We have a cloud based distribution model, where the files are copied all over the world and are served to players on request, which means we are charged money for people downloading the game.
An interesting point the devs make in their post is that with an auto-updating version of the game (which has a similar business model to Minecraft, i.e. pay before it’s finished and get all the updates free) there’s very little reason a gamer with pirated copy would ever both buying the full game. It’s not like a demo or gimped version, it’s the full, auto-updating version of the game that’s being played.
Not cool pirates. Not cool at all.
Shouldn’t there be, like, authentication on that?
As for their second argument, surely that goes for every game? Even a non-updating version could be updated illicitly, and it’s not like most pirated releases are “demos” or “gimped versions”. What reason, outside of regular morality, does that take away?
piracy exists and will always be there.
devs had to think about it before developing such an odd auto-update feature for their game…they messed up by their own, therefore they have to blame but themselves.
the game could have been good, i hope devs pull their heads off their arses, ask forgiveness to the paying customers for the nuisances and sort their mess out asap.
@bambboocha: The pirated version checked for updates by re-downloading the entire game every time. Regular versions of the game don’t do this.
@bambboocha: Also, you’re wrong.
…Son of a gun, this is the game i was talking about in the pub before the joco gig in manchester.
It will suck golf balls if project zomboid team loses out because this game is awesome, so awesome after i discovered it and bought it myself i convinced my mates to shell out thier hard earned cash to buy it.
@Bamboocha
“they messed up by their own, therefore they have to blame but themselves”
Read that sentence again….now blink…now slap your head and say “DOH!”
Please can someone give updates when it will be back up again.
@Tommy H: They have a bit of an update here: http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/2011/06/545/
@ John Kershaw:Excellent thanks for the update
For now I wait with bated breath.
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Screw waiting with bated breath i’m going back on evil genius!
it was takin down by google thing because they wasnt selling anything so go fuck yourselfs it wasnt pirates
Ah, Mr. Copper. Old news is old, and you are clearly a troll, I know, but I shall indulge.
Google indeed hindered the progress of The Indie Stone, and put them in some financial unease. This much is certainly true. However, as the article above clearly states, Mr. Copper, the particular method employed to pirate the Pre-Alpha version of Project Zomboid meant downloading the game files from the legitimate servers every time the game was started, which of course costs money to The Indie Stone. Therefore, while Google only interrupted the inflow of purchases, the pirated copies of the game were actively costing the development team every single time it was started.
So YOU go fuck yourselve.