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The most popular torrent file for StarCraft II has been downloaded 2.3 million times. For a game that weighs 7.19GB, that amounts to around 15.77 Petabytes of data downloaded. On August 9, TorrentFreak reported that the total number of pirated copies of StarCraft II totaled 260,000, making it the most pirated game of 2010, and we wouldn't be surprised if it has maintained that title as well. By comparison, Blizzard sold 1.5 million copies in the first 48 hours and 3 million by September.
Interestingly, BitTorrent has actually helped Blizzard attain those sales. The company uses its own BitTorrent-based client to deliver digital downloads to paying customers, effectively reducing load on its servers. It's also worth noting that the company has downplayed piracy as a significant problem. "For World of Warcraft, we have been able to work well around the piracy issue and we think we'll be able to do the same with StarCraft II," Blizzard told MCVUK, pointing to the new Battle.net platform.
As you've undoubtedly heard, StarCraft II doesn't support LAN, so pirates only get the single player experience -- and a diluted single player experience at that. Progression milestones like achievements are only available with a Battle.net account and an Internet connection. With multiplayer being the focus of the game, one has to wonder how many of the 2.3 million illegal downloads have translated to legitimate sales, especially since Blizzard doesn't provide a free public demo of the game.
User Comments: 37
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sounds like someone really wanted a demo...well anyone who buys the game gets a "guest pass" to give to a friend. But do you really neeeeed a demo for a game like SC2?
I bought it on release day and didn't get a guest pass. I think you have to buy the SUPER expensive collectors edition to get guest passes.
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I have to agree with Chazz here. Blizzard does have some DRM setup in their game, and normally I really hate the DRM gaming companies put in their software. But with Blizzard I didn't even notice it. Any DRM that Blizzard has setup in SC2 didn't hinder my game play one bit.
I also really like how Blizzard handled this. They didn't freak out. They didn't start a witch hunt. They calmly stated - its not really an issue.
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TorturedChaos said:
I also really like how Blizzard handled this. They didn't freak out. They didn't start a witch hunt. They calmly stated - its not really an issue.
Man I wish more companies had the same attitude.
Instead of blaming Torrenting for low sales and less profit,
why not admit it (we'll use EA, as an example) you make alot of sh*t games!
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Way to expensive. I can see why it is getting pirated a lot. Bring it down around $40 or lower and I bet those numbers go down and sales go up. I want to buy the game but no way am I paying that price. But unfortunately to get the more reasonable price I have to wait a year.
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Oh my goodness, way to go Blizzard... and PC gamers hahaha =P
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If I didn't have to buy the game three times, I wouldn't have pirated it.
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Lokalaskurar said:
Bwahaha! So 0,4% of *all* of mankind's produced data this year, was in fact torrents from a single popular game!
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well. The pirates here are not getting the full game experiance, no Multiplayer no stats on there Battlenet so there loss. Im sure blizzard will be losing no sleep over this. I expect a fair few downloaded copies turned into Paying subscriptions to the games services.
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Am I the only one that didn't like it?
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my hard drive could fit all that no problem
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TomSEA said:
Don't even get me started on this. It's these f*****rs that are slowly but surely destroying PC gaming.
It's one of the best selling games of the year, what the flying puck are you talking about?
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You people who say piracy destroys pc gaming are stupid and don't know what you are talking about. First of all, people who pirate games don't intend to buy in the first place, so whether they pirate or not, the game makers lose nothing. And those who do buy only buy titles that are worth buying. The game makers are the ones to blame. If they really want to stop piracy, stop making crappy games and make games people would actually enjoy. Most people buy games to play mostly online anyways. It is hard, if not impossible to play online without a genuine copy (unless on hacked servers).
Ironically, Starcraft 2 was removed of the LAN feature in order to stop piracy.
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