"The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content," said the company.Source: BBC
"Downloading, possession and distribution of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, including making the game available on the internet, is theft.
I can see why the leak to the Internet before there release date can be infuriating to the developers, they have worked long (years) and hard, and now to see the fruits of your work stolen and disseminated on line (and they are not making a cent on it) that must hurt. I know I be pissed off.
I believe that if you work your ass off you should be compensated for doing so. That’s why I purchased Half Life 2 via Steam and not the retail version (Vivendi Universal) so that valve could get most of the money. If the game is ½ as good as the hype it will be worth the money.
21.10.2004 10:12 #1
I wonder how this got leaked... They get to advertise their product for free banking on the fact that the pirates are passing out free samples! AOL built their business and continue to so by giving us free internet because they know that "FREE" hype is what sells their product. With all the competition in the game companies industry and how smart we have become as consumers, we both know that we won't buy without the word of mouth of someone we know or a test drive of the product first!! I would be willing to say that the companies cause their own leaks... SMART AS HECK!!
21.10.2004 12:59 #2
Its true that the leaking is done by one of the staff members themselves. Eg:- If an employee if fired for no reason or fired eventhough for a good reason, but the employee needs the job to live, he'd get mad, I know i would, so he just leaked it to the net because he figured the company won't make much money due to piracy. Second opinion is that the company might have planeed the whole thing in order to attack the piracy as early as possible and shut it down all over the over (friggin impossible!). Think about it. Halo 2, Half life 2 and Doom3 all the most expected games.. They all fall in place. They found the opportunity to attack piracy. I'm not really sure if this theory is right, but it "can" be a possibility.
21.10.2004 17:44 #3
Hmmm... could be. Either one of these could be correct. The fact that all of these games got leaked seems rather odd. Half-life 2, ok, I understand. Doom3, yyyeah, alright, so someone got in there too, but Halo 2, and now GTA: San Andreas? This is beginning to become a bit hard to believe. I won't doubt them just off-hand, but that's not going to make be buy the game, try to find a "leaked" version out there (probably read "demo"; potentially learn more about the game), or get pissed at p2p users because I'm broke, I'm lazy, and I don't like getting my games that way anyway. ;) If you want it, buy it. If you want it for cheap(er), wait, then buy it.
If it really is just marketing, the whole "Oh, we just got ripped off! Sympathize us." thing is getting old. But, either way, I'm getting tired of reading about it. In-house or not, it's all about security, people.
22.10.2004 09:55 #4
although its leaked it does'nt really matter because i think everyone will buy the original anyway, i for one am doing the same, i've downloaded it for the sole purpose of keeping myself entertained till the original release in the UK, then i will purchase the original for full price (guess i'm just too impatient!) and the fact that the americans get it first also pisses me off! due to the fact that it was made by R* North located in Scotland, UK! why the hell do we get it second!
22.10.2004 14:46 #5
only ones that can give those games out are the deploylers and poeple who have it before release they need to clean house hehehehehehehe
22.10.2004 17:27 #6
"only ones that can give those games out are the deploylers and poeple who have it before release they need to clean house hehehehehehehe"
I agree, leak can't do much damage to a good game. In fact it's a good advertising. I believe most people rather support the developer than the pirate copies if the price is right. I don't think leak/pirate copies can be killed technologically nor it will go away. I think it's a warning sign for developers, a demand and challange from the customers. Only a good product with competitive price can bring the customer back.
22.10.2004 19:35 #7
exactly
23.10.2004 04:25 #8
Well, I think for GTA, the leak will hurt sales of the game. True, it is a good game, but there isnt a big multiplayer factor like there is for HL and DOOM. The reason I've already preordered HL2 is because I want to play the mods and such online, which you cant do with an illegal version. If I snatched a version of GTA online, I dont see any reason why I would bother to go buy it.
23.10.2004 06:30 #9
<rant>Nothing new really. 90% of games hit the net before their retail release date. Once a game goes into manufacturing people working can snatch one up, or maybe someone who has rights to have finished copies for promoting and review purposes eg. Game Magazines, game sites, tv shows etc. Some are shipped to retail stores a week before they are allowed to hit shelves...Someone can even grab one then. Anyway you look at it its still a form of theft. Hmm but yet you have 10,000 people d/ling GTA Andreas. Thats alot of thieves...and I bet ya' if more people new where and how to do it, the amount of copies would increase dramaticaly. I feel there is a good balance, no company is going to go bankrupt from piracy. There are plenty people that want boxes, books, and art with their media, therefore they would purchase it. I will be honest. I have d/led my share of media. I have d/led games I would have never paid money for...played them...became a fan and bought. Game company profits thanks to pirating. It balances out! Everyone is going to have diffrent views on the subject.</rant>
23.10.2004 08:40 #10
Well, the fact that there are anouncements of such leaks is what's, to me, getting old. I mean, if the statistics you guys are saying are true, then the story's old even before it makes headlines. It's like saying, "It's leaked on the net! Go find it! (Oh, it's also wrong, so if you get in trouble, it's not our fault.)" Or, if the leak was made via marketing, the legality of it doesn't really matter, does it? It's their fault for leaking it in the first place. Those stories could then just take up one line of news: "It's official, <this game> has been leaked on the net." I do believe there are sitest that actually do that.
"Pre-Play" before you "Re-Play", is it? That's an interesting strategy idea, and it cuts out the good from the bad. Why hasn't someone capitalized on this idea? Oh, wait, they have, and it's legal. (They call them rental stores, I think.) Now, if they were just not so penny-pinching... Anything $5 and over for a new game rental is rediculous, and monthly rental deals aren't much cheaper, unless you consider it like a 'cable' company of some sort. I'm thinking half that price on single rentals, and I'm all over it. $3 is a stretch, and 3.50 is just beyond reasonable, in my opinion. Think of how many people would go out and test games with a 2.50 price tag? I would. Then they sell the game at the end of a month or two at a discounted 20% off. That's 4 rentals, and you've covered the game if it was just a regular sale.
24.10.2004 10:21 #11
I neglected to mention the lack of PC games in rental stores. That could be worked out with the manufacturers too, if they were really serious about it.
24.10.2004 10:24 #12
exactly. i would never have known about any of the leaks had it not been for the announcements. i agree that rental fees are way too expensive and should be lowered. and you should be able to rent PC games, but they are much easier to copy and companies dont trust consmuers enough to let that happen.
24.10.2004 14:59 #13
I think there really could be a good strategy in renting PC games, even online. People could download games via steam that expire within a certain time limit in which the "registration code" or something of the sort would be invalid, this could be especially used for online games, since some sort of registration must be provided on a separate server to even play online. The only problem, as stated, is hackers. It's a risky proposition, but they do it with major software online, why not games? Because major software vendors assume "professionals" and major/small business companies are trying out their software, and not "Joe Shmoe"?
You could also look at it as a paid extended demo of sorts. I understand that demos are hard to make, but if there's a way you could just cut out, say, the last 1/4 of the game rather than just one level, limit some features, or something of the sort, then piracy would not be quite as big of a problem. If the game's good enough that you wouldn't most likely get to the end of the demo by the end of a single rental, then what they cut probably wouldn't even be noticeable until it would've been rented a second time. This would all be after the game's released, of course. The biggest problem there would be bandwidth. If they want to sell 'em in stores for 2.50 instead of rental stores, and they're extensively longer than demos online, but not the full game, I'll buy them too! lol! (As stated before, it's never gonna happen.) ;)
25.10.2004 21:32 #14
