Modern Warfare 2 most pirated game of 2009

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Considering the entertainment industry records shattered by Modern Warfare 2, it's only natural that the blockbuster FPS was also popular among pirates. TorrentFreak collected data from several sources, including reports from all public BitTorrent trackers, and Infinity Ward's military shooter ranked as the most torrented game of 2009.

With 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version alone, Modern Warfare 2 was distributed twice as much as last year's "winner", Spore. The "accomplishment" is remarkable when you take into account that MW2 was released on November 10, while the second most stolen title, The Sims 3, was released five months earlier on June 2 and accumulated 3.2 million downloads.

Other "contenders" include Prototype with 2.35 million (released June 2009), Need For Speed Shift at 2.1 million (released September 2009), and Street Fighter IV with 1.85 million downloads (released July 2009). MW2 was also the most pirated Xbox 360 game, while New Super Mario Bros. was the most popular Wii torrent.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/37451-modern-warfare-2-most-pirated-game-of-2009.html

 

[TomSEA]

And people wonder why companies try to engage in some form of DRM to protect their product.

 

[Steve]

Why do they wonder that? Clearly those that pirate a game never had any intention of buying it in the first place and will look to pirate with or without DRM. Meanwhile the poor suckers that paid for it have to deal with dreaded and pointless copyright measures such as DRM. Makes no sense to me?

 

[TomSEA]

Oh, I'm aware of that. My point really is that looking at these theft figures it's hard to blame the companies for making some effort to try and stem the theft bloodletting. Even though DRM has been a miserable experiment in that effort.

If there were a fool-proof method to stop the theft and didn't impact honest users, you know it'd be an industry staple.

 

[Guest]

Well I'm guessing these are the people waiting for dedicated servers support.

 

[BlindObject]

Yeah alot of copies of it got pirated it, but I don't think many of those can play on multi player, which is what this game is all about I think. I don't think those copies work online unless you really work on it.

 

[HaMsTeYr]

You know, for someone who bought the original game, unlike games which are already developed by valve like team fortress and the such, i found trying to get MW2 installed on my machines such a pain when i had to use steam to get in.

Also not to mention that i have to wait AGES to launch the game from steam for some god forsaken reason. I still haven't finished the game till today despite being a big MW fan :x Its just the irritating long start up times that really get to me.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Next major get rich quick idea: Invent a fool-proof DRM!


EDIT:

Its just the irritating long start up times that really get to me.

Next next major get rich quick idea: Replace all Xbox Playstation and Nintendo harddrives with SSDs containing pirated games.

 

[KG363]

People torrented because IW decided to exclude dedicated servers. It's, in a flawed way, a way of fighting back. Why pay for a half-a$$ed product? Or at least that is the way of thinking. I own a legit copy and love the game, although dedicated servers would have been better.

So, all of the boycotters pirated the game, as well as the usual pirates who have never payed for a game. This will just make studios less inclined to develop for the PC. Pirating is a very dumb way of retaliating

 

[Guest]

over 4 million gave IW the finger for all the nasty stuff they did to PC gamers.... same happened to spore ... I shed no tears ... LOL at IW

 

[Guest]

> This will just make studios less inclined to develop for the PC.
> Pirating is a very dumb way of retaliating

Sure it is dumb but damn they should feel good sticking it to IW ... IW have to wonder if they had done good to PC gamers, how much more hundred of millions they could have lining their pockets... I think many have divorce MW2 and Future IW titles after they got screwed by IW

 

[Relic]

This is no real surprise, the hype MW2 had was going to make it the best selling game and most pirated. The EA/Spore debacle showed that angry gamers would resort to piracy to prove a point (granted its not the best way...). And I think that same anger brought these really high numbers. Even with that I still think if they delivered a great PC game and not a port with no dedicated servers the game would be on the top list of pirated games simply because of all the hype but not 4 million. This might just give Activision the perfect reason to not bring any more Call of Duty games to PC.

 

[Puiu]

The most pirated and also the most profitable game ever. It just goes doesn't influence sales in a bad way too much.

 

[ET3D]

What I'd love to see is a comparison of the number sold to the number pirated on the various platforms. Frankly, even just the number sold on PC would be enough, since that's the most hard to come by number. I feel that companies really have little reason to develop for the PC these days, since console versions sell tons more (and get pirated less), but it's hard to get the stats.

BTW, I suspect that if this game did have dedicated servers, people would have pirated it even more.

 

[Guest]

i believe there was less than a million PC sales

so only 1 person bought the game for every 4 people that pirated it.

IW should feel bad

 

[Kibaruk]

I must admit I have played "backup"ed games, and frankly most I don't play after a week or a couple days, haven't seen a real decent game in a long long time, at least none has filled me to the point of playing it until the end and then play it again and again.

Why on heavens name would I pay $50 or $40 or whatever to drive-test a game I won't be happy with?

When I play online I turn old school CS1.6 =P

 

[Guest]

I downloaded NFS undercover and MWs this year and i am glad i did,because after playing undercover for about a day i was bored and i was really disappointed with MW2,if i had bought them i would have wasted my money.
I mainly play games on my ps3 so i try them out on my pc 1st.

 

[BMfan]

BTW, I suspect that if this game did have dedicated servers, people would have pirated it even more.

I canceled my order because of that,and i'm glad i did because because my friend bought it and is much happier playing COD 5 online.

 

[Guest]

"i believe there was less than a million PC sales

so only 1 person bought the game for every 4 people that pirated it.

IW should feel bad "


hey ***** guest that posted it, you that clueless, or you just being sarcastic/trolling? MW2 sold almost 4 million copies or so on day 1. It sold about 10million copies in the first week. The pirated #s for this game are pathetic compared to the number of sold legal copies. The legal sales is something well over 500million dollars. Hell by now its probably topped a billion dollars in sales and a few million more copies with christmas in all. Piracy didnt hurt MW2 one damned bit, IW still got back all the money they spent and then some with plenty left over to take money baths in for all their employees. Long as there are fanboys, piracy wont do crap to this stuff.

 

[Guest]

Perhaps its time we consider a class action suit against the likes of MS and Sony that are paying big bucks to companies to undermine the PC market. They are trying to drive everyone into buying a console so they can trap them into there high end products that offer less quality.

With the high prices of games, I don't blame anyone for pirating the software anymore. Most people I know that do, later buy the game, they just don't want to spend all that money for something they quit playing after the first day or so.

 

[Guest]

Bend over IW, so we pirates can pluck you in the butt.

 

[Guest]

Many games on PC these days don't release demos before games are launch, as a result many people got accustom to testing first via p2p or what ever.

I don't mind if all those developers that keep attacking the PC users, pack up and leave. Independent developers are the backbone of the PC community and will filling the void left behind.

PLEASE LEAVE ALREADY!!!

 

[chivenyc]

Count me as one of those who downloaded the pirate version. I was going to buy the game, but once IW f***ed the PC community in the ***, I decided to f*** them back.

DICE's BFBC2 will get my $60.

 

[Guest]

" "i believe there was less than a million PC sales

so only 1 person bought the game for every 4 people that pirated it.

IW should feel bad "


hey ***** guest that posted it, you that clueless, or you just being sarcastic/trolling? MW2 sold almost 4 million copies or so on day 1. It sold about 10million copies in the first week. The pirated #s for this game are pathetic compared to the number of sold legal copies. The legal sales is something well over 500million dollars. Hell by now its probably topped a billion dollars in sales and a few million more copies with christmas in all. Piracy didnt hurt MW2 one damned bit, IW still got back all the money they spent and then some with plenty left over to take money baths in for all their employees. Long as there are fanboys, piracy wont do crap to this stuff. ""

Dude he said PC SALES not sales overall, if i remember correctly gamespot said there were roughly 400,000 pc sales of mw2 in the first week, so he actually overestimated it by quite a bit. They made their money back because all the goody 2 shoe console gamers went out and bought the game, allowing them to continue making a profit and producing games. Personally, i've never pirated; if i disagree with something about a game, i'm just not going to buy it thats all.

 

[Relic]

What I'd love to see is a comparison of the number sold to the number pirated on the various platforms. Frankly, even just the number sold on PC would be enough, since that's the most hard to come by number. I feel that companies really have little reason to develop for the PC these days, since console versions sell tons more (and get pirated less), but it's hard to get the stats.

BTW, I suspect that if this game did have dedicated servers, people would have pirated it even more.

You're right companies who don't care at all for the consumer and are straight greed driven the console is by far the best platform for them. And I highly doubt that if this game was a quality PC title it would be pirated more. IW angered a lot of supporters of MW who wanted a quality squeal and got a port instead. It still would be high thou but I just don't see it being 4 million.

"i believe there was less than a million PC sales

so only 1 person bought the game for every 4 people that pirated it.

IW should feel bad "

hey ***** guest that posted it, you that clueless, or you just being sarcastic/trolling? MW2 sold almost 4 million copies or so on day 1. It sold about 10million copies in the first week. The pirated #s for this game are pathetic compared to the number of sold legal copies. The legal sales is something well over 500million dollars. Hell by now its probably topped a billion dollars in sales and a few million more copies with christmas in all. Piracy didnt hurt MW2 one damned bit, IW still got back all the money they spent and then some with plenty left over to take money baths in for all their employees. Long as there are fanboys, piracy wont do crap to this stuff.

Since you didn't read his post he was referring to PC only. Piracy did hurt there PC sales and I'm sure made a point with Activison. Probably not one that is releasing a quality PC game, but one of simply abandoning the PC market as a whole. If you have legitimate PC sale numbers please do share so far from looking around I can't find a definitive answer just estimations around 10%.

Count me as one of those who downloaded the pirate version. I was going to buy the game, but once IW f***ed the PC community in the ***, I decided to f*** them back.

DICE's BFBC2 will get my $60.

Just don't support them that's a lot easier imo...and yes supporting there competition is even better. I personally will be getting BFBC2 as it looks awesome, but I hope its not $60 that'd be the same nonsense Activison did for MW2 just charging $10 more because of greed >.< .