Fallout 3 and GTA IV: Is piracy a growing concern on the Xbox 360?
Earlier today, news regarding the leak of Fallout 3 (Xbox 360 build) onto torrent sites, spread across the Web like wildfire. Reports indicate that the DVD image showed up on torrent sites about two days ago. It is not that surprising to see an Xbox 360 game pirated, however, what is surprising is that the game was leaked three weeks prior to its official launch date.
Many may question how Fallout 3, a game set to launch on the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 28, was leaked so early in advance? According to Tom’s Games, Peter Hines stated, “We’re looking into it. Since we haven’t sent out a single disc, it greatly reduces the number of places this might have come from.” It sounds like the leak might have come from the manufacturing center where the discs are kept before shipping out to retailers.
According to Tom’s Games, the group that leaked the image onto various torrent sites was also responsible for pirating many other recent titles. Other recent Xbox 360 titles that have been pirated by the same group include: Fracture, Saints Row 2, Blitz: The League II and NBA 2k9. Grand Theft Auto IV is another game that became controversial after it was leaked before the game had even launched.
Another game that has gained a great deal of publicity due to piracy, is Spore. This game is said to have been downloaded over 500,000 times so far via torrent sites. Half a million in lost sales has got to be a huge hit to EA’s bottom line.
Several years ago, many in the video game industry believed that the next gen home consoles would be impervious to piracy, but this belief has quickly turned out be false. Earlier, we covered a story regarding the leak and hack of the new Xbox 360 Dashboard even before its release. This is concerning as it could mean that the piracy prevention that has been implemented in the upcoming Dashboard might have been circumvented.
This might mean that piracy may be a growing problem on the Xbox 360. Traditional PC developers such as EPIC Games and Bethesda Studios seems to have shifted focus from the PCs to the consoles in order to escape from piracy issues. However, with the development costs sky rocketing, piracy on the home consoles could severely impact the bottom line for the studios.
During the PS2 era, developers were not as worried about piracy, mainly due to the low development costs and a huge install base of 150 million PS2 units. With only around 20 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide, half a million pirated units would be a substantial loss for the studio. For now, we can only wait and see how big of a problem this becomes.
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38 Responses to “Fallout 3 and GTA IV: Is piracy a growing concern on the Xbox 360?”
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October 11th, 2008
Piracy is only going to end up hurting us in the end….as legitimate gamers.
Which will mean higher game prices (which in turn may turn people to pirate games) or extra anti-piracy measures that only end up hurting the legitimate user anyways…..
As a side note…. is this why 360 kept it’s userbase after RROD – a system that is able to be pirated ?? Just asking….
October 11th, 2008
‘Half a million in lost sales has got to be a huge hit to EA’s bottom line. ‘
500k downloads does not equal 500k lost sales at all. Don’t become an industry mouth piece…
As for the 360’s piracy issue, blame it on bad design this time around. Its far harder for avaerge Joe to break out a hot iron and put a chip into a machine than it is to flash firmware.
October 11th, 2008
wow. Sony’s decision to use blu ray as it’s media source just looks a hell of a lot better to developers this day. Think about it!!
October 11th, 2008
Highest attach rate.
End of story.
October 11th, 2008
yes… it is a big problem for the 360…
Specially when Gears of war 2 wont be released on PC for… piracy… which is stupid…
360s can be as easilly modded as the PS2s were… and they are very cheap…
October 11th, 2008
lowest survival rate
end of story
October 11th, 2008
Spore was pirated so much because legitimate customers that bought the game didn’t want to install the malware/virus that came with the official version….
some stole it just to spite EA games because of the insane DRM…
also as always, most of the people that pirate games would never have bought them even if they couldn’t pirate…
That said, I hope the uploaders get caught and sent to prison… oh and the PC version of the game will be launching the same time as the xbox one so Beth hasn’t shifted from PCs… the odd thing is that a console version got pirated before the PC version even though Beth don’t have any DRM on the PC version…
October 11th, 2008
Anyone who thinks bluray is piracy proof is just real dumb. The reason Bluray has not been pirated is because when was the last time you saw a computer in someone’s house not the store that had a bluray drive in it? At the moment Bluray drives are mostly found in PS3’s stand alone players and the few computers and laptops that are out there. If bluray is actually accepted as the main form of media in the future then bluray will be hack acttacked. Stealing has been going on for years even back down to the Nentindo. I remember copying the cartridge to disk on the coppier back in the days. It’s nothing new. If your liggit then that is good if you pirate I really could care less. That is why I let DWH off the hook.
October 11th, 2008
Besides in the begining didn’t they have a contest to see who could hack the PS3 and no one could. But after that eventually someone did. So it’s just a matter of time.
October 11th, 2008
Ignoring Bourne’s idiotic comment which had no relation to the topic whatsoever, I don’t believe piracy is having the impact that some would believe. As devise said, 360 has the highest attach rate, which would mean that a higher concentration of licensed games are attached to 360s.
Anyway, why would anyone want to have a pirated game anyway? Unless things have changed, having a chipped 360 prevents the user from accessing Xbox live, which is where a lot of the enjoyment is sourced from with the Xbox experience.
October 11th, 2008
@ CAD, all valid points. However with this crowd I am sure they’re going to disagree with it.
October 11th, 2008
I never found any PS3 Mods here but it is cool what can be with everything else.
http://www.mad-mods.ca/news.php
October 11th, 2008
Oh I do agree Harry. It definately stops you from going online. I guess that is the trade off of a modded 360/Xbox. If you want to play online you need the original disk. You can’t play online from the hard drive. That’s why some people have 2 360 because 1 is modded and the other ligit. I would personally like to do that because I don’t believe in buying games that don’t have an online component to it. Once I finish the game it will just sit there until I trade it. That is why most times I just rent those types of games. I much rather rent them and copy them and buy the games with online that I want to play. There is no replay value if there is no online.
October 11th, 2008
After seeing what Bethesda has done to the Fallout franchise, I hope this sends them broke.
October 11th, 2008
Piracy expands as more and more crap comes to market. If we had quality titles at reasonable prices, there would be no impetus for piracy. At least none that REALLY takes away from sales.
So which is worse game devs, piracy or reselling? Both exist because you game devs don’t make it compelling for us to BUY and hold on to your games.
And like was said, Mike, don’t be a tool. You’re buying into the games (and RIAA and MPAA and IFPI and . . .) developers unsubstantiated contention that every unit pirated is a unit sale lost. That is just plain and simple not true and can’t be supported by any stats except those provided by the affected industry itself. If you disagree, you need to start reading TechDirt and get wise to the economics of “scarxe goods”!
October 11th, 2008
Piracy expands as more and more crap comes to market. If we had quality titles at reasonable prices, there would be no impetus for piracy. At least none that REALLY takes away from sales.
So which is worse game devs, piracy or reselling? Both exist because you game devs don’t make it compelling for us to BUY and hold on to your games.
And like was said, Mike, don’t be a tool. You’re buying into the games (and RIAA and MPAA and IFPI and . . .) developers unsubstantiated contention that every unit pirated is a unit sale lost. That is just plain and simple not true and can’t be supported by any stats except those provided by the affected industry itself. If you disagree, you need to start reading TechDirt and get wise to the economics of “scarce goods”!
October 11th, 2008
OH NO!!!
Ive been let off the hook by CAD…
Hey idiot… when I went to buy my laptop… I saw a $900 laptop SONY LAPTOP… which had a blu ray drive… most of the new PCs and Laptops have blu ray players in them…
If the blu ray could be pirated… BELIEVE ME there would be modded PS3s everywhere… Im not saying that the PS3 is immune to piracy… it may be cracked when blu ray is more main stream and the modders try a little harder… but right now… its not modded…
Well hairry… the reason people and me buy pirated games are… as I said… where I used to live… we had to import games from other countries… if my 360 was not modded… I would have to import the games from the same country the console was from… which is never guaranteed by the asshole importers…
also… my internet speed was 4 kbps … so I couldnt access LIVE even if I wanted to… but I can download PS3 firmware via download helper and stuff…
and its REALLY REALLY cheap… I could get you 10 pirated games for the price of a legitimate copy… and considering that a legitimate copy costs as much as the rent… its more economical to buy pirated games…
October 11th, 2008
but at the end of the day… it helps me buy better… I think whether the games Im buying are worth the money… for example…
Gears of war… WORTH BUYING THE ORIGINAL
God Of War … WORTH IT
MGS4 … WORTH IT
GTA 4 … WORTH IT
Soul Calibur … not worth it…
so in a way… piracy has helped me in more ways than one… also I have 52 PS2 games… so i dont give a shit what you say…
October 11th, 2008
nice article and nice read.
I do agree with what your saying but does 500,000 downloads really equal 500,000 in loss of sales? I don’t think so. That couldn’t be more wrong.
October 11th, 2008
@harry sachz:
Thats actually incorrect.
The tradeoff is that you can do watever you want with an original loaded. With a copy you can play online and if you get detected then your 360 is banned from live.
@DavidB I %1000 agree
The deal with blu ray is probably just because there is no money in it for chippers or anyone to even try. Just a quick search online shows blu ray blanks to cost anywhere from $15 EACH for the 25gb and $30 for the 50gb’s. Who’s going to get thier ps3 chipped and spend $25 on a pirate game.
Anywhoos, why do you think MS thinks the future is digital distribution
That why you can buy your games for $XX a pop, and NOT be able to resell them to anyone once you’re bored.
October 11th, 2008
red_ring_of_death ps3 rules
but 360 IS sweet
when can just download and play ALL my games
on my MODDED 360
October 11th, 2008
fallout,GOW1.5,FABLE PLUS MORE
can have ALL THE DLC
IM NOT BUYING IM DOWNLOADED THE GAME
HAHAHAHAHA
October 11th, 2008
im tired of supporting 2nd rate console, im going out to buy a ps3.
October 11th, 2008
this is why ms should adopt bluray.. it will stop these hackers to a certain degree.. the main advantages with bluray is the storage, can u imagine downloading 50-100gig data just to play a game, u might as well go and buy a legit game because it will cost u less..
October 11th, 2008
Quote: “Piracy expands as more and more crap comes to market. If we had quality titles at reasonable prices, there would be no impetus for piracy. At least none that REALLY takes away from sales.”
100% agree
As for Digital downloads as the future, do you guys really believe that it will be pirate proof ?? I don’t think so.
Cmon game developers and retailers, make the games cheaper and you may find more people will buy them instead of doing the wrong thing.
New PS3 games are going for $110 retail in Australia. In my opinion that is outrageous.
October 11th, 2008
once a thief will always a thief, how’s fallout 3 be a crappy game.. i love these people that pirate games will always make excuses…
October 11th, 2008
“can u imagine downloading 50-100gig data just to play a game”
Quite easily yes. The internet just keeps getting faster and my ISP doesn’t give a hoot about bandwidth limits (shaw cable). PS3 ISOS are already out there (I think they dump them thru installing linux on the ps3 hardware) for download and people are already downloading them. Can they play them? Not yet…
October 12th, 2008
SW
You make a very valid point. That is to expensive for pirates. Better of buying a used copy. MS may think the future is Digital Distribution but Sony thinks so to. Just Remember that PS3 is the first console to have a retail game, not arcade or whatever PS3 calls it, as a full download on PSN. I believe there is two war hawk and some game from EA.
October 12th, 2008
burnout
October 12th, 2008
@ SW, thanks for clearing that up, I was unsure, as I don’t have a modded 360 (Had a modded original Xbox, but never planned to go online with that anyway).
And you made a good point about the price of blank Blu-Ray discs. But you forgot to add the odd $5 or $10 the pirate puts on top of the price of the disc. So if a game was on a $30 50gig disc, and the pirate adds $10 on top of his game, that’s $40, which is only $20 less than an original copy. It doesn’t seem worth the effort.
@ Spidey – $110!?!?! are you shitting me? I know the economy sucks right now, but does a game in Aus really cost nearly double what it costs in the US? Dude, use play-asia.
October 12th, 2008
Harry I’m presuming a person who jsut downloads for themselves
Do people still sell pirated games? Been years since I’ve been to any computer shows or markets lol
October 12th, 2008
SW, fair enough! I am pretty sure there are still people that sell games, as a lot of people have bandwidth limits etc with their isp.
October 12th, 2008
You can go online with a modded Xbox 360 if you got the right firmware. Dual boot
October 13th, 2008
@ Spideydog, mate you’re not shopping around then. The most I have played for a PS3 game was $85 and that was for GTAIV. I’ve looked into Playasia and while there are some bargains around it may not be worth it. As for digital downloads, till Australia gets it’s ass out of the digital stoneage that form of distribution is going to struggle. Nothing like the feel of a disc in a case with a little manual I say. On topic, Pirating anything is bad mmmmkay, but I can understand why it flourishes.
October 13th, 2008
Yeah if you shop around you can get a better price, but generally from EB games and alike stores, that is the asking price for a new release, top rated game. I wait a few months then buy when the price comes down.
Not really interested in Dig Downloads, I like having a disk. I save the downloads for the PSN games.
@ Harry – m8 I feel sorry for the US at the moment, luckily our economy is holding up well and the rate cuts are allowing us to pay off our house quicker
(this may be due to the outrageous game prices…lol)
October 13th, 2008
Sue about 500 random downloaders and wipe them out clean, I mean take their FN houses if need be, and this will stop piracy 1,2,3, fast.
October 14th, 2008
@james That’s stupid. The thousands of people that downloaded MP3’s and got sued for hundreds of thousands of $ did not stop the MP3 downloads.
Try thinking before you post.
October 16th, 2008
Piracy won’t be stopped. Even if downloading becomes illegal, people are still going to mask their IP’s or else they will switch to proxy. And if they stop doing that, DVD and game rentals will be at the highest it’s ever been, because they’ll rent it and rip it like that.