This is a pretty cool story.
A couple of guys form an indie company and create their first game - about a company that makes games.
They're selling it for $8.
But at the same time they also released the game on Pirate Bay for people to download for free.
But there's a catch...
QuoteThat version had a nasty surprise waiting. After a few hours of play, those running the pirated game start to see messages about the toll that illegal downloads are taking on the company's sales.
"Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally," reads one sales report. "If players don't buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt."
And yet another twist....
QuoteThe cracked version of "Game Dev Tycoon" is no longer available on The Pirate Bay. "They took it down, which is quite interesting in its own right since they never take anything down from legal take-down notices," Klug said
source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/29/technology/innovation/game-dev-tycoon-piracy/index.html
Very clever, though the a-holes who regularly pirate are probably too selfish to see beyond their own short-sighted wants.
Now that's funny!
Decided to download the demo to see what's there. I've also watched a bit of a play through from TotalBiscuit. Seems there's a surprising amount of depth in this thing!
I read that in an Israeli news site. It's pretty darn funny.
It's not the first time devs decided to punish pirates with faulty versions. There was one for Arkham Asylum, and as far as I can recall Illwinter's Dominions 3 was the first to introduce this.
However none have made it this good, or got rid of the major problem it caused (whenever someone complained about a bug he would immediately be labeled a pirate).
Liked the demo well enough that I bought the full version. It's actually a pretty neat little game.
Sadly, CliffCom went under. We invested ridiculously in a brand new game engine, then decided to self-publish a Time Travel game called "Hey look! Jesus!" It was not the massive hit that was expected. It was all downhill from there. :-[
Gotta love the fact that Pirate Bay actually took down that version. Says a bit about them.