Game Developer Promotes Game on Torrent Sites
Written by Ernesto on November 07, 2009Game developer RedLynx has been exploring a novel marketing technique for its products. Instead of trying to get all its titles removed from torrent sites, the company itself is distributing ‘hacked’ copies of the games, hoping to convert torrent site users into paying customers.
Last summer the gaming company RedLynx decided to market its new game Trials 2 on various BitTorrent sites. Instead of worrying that the game might end up being pirated, the company decided to upload the bike game themselves as a promotional tool.
“Piracy is here, so how can we take advantage of that? What we did actually, on day one, we put that game immediately on all the torrent networks ourselves,” RedLynx CEO Tero Virtala, told a panel discussion at the Develop game conference.
The company didn’t upload the full game, but a slightly altered version which excluded the leaderboards that are required to play against other users on the Internet, hoping that it would convert some ‘pirates’ into paying customers.
“That game relies really heavily on the server side – the leaderboards are the soul of the game,” Virtala said. “I don’t know if it’s helped, I’d assume so because even though the version that we put on the torrent networks wasn’t the full version, it’s the version of the game without the actual soul, without the leaderboards to play against other players,” Virtala said.
Unfortunately the company has no way of knowing whether the free marketing on torrent sites has paid off. Thus far RedLynx has sold almost 150,000 copies of the game, but unlike the CEO claims, it is also available on torrent sites in a version where the leaderboard functionality is hacked.
It is good to see that companies are recognizing that giving away games on torrent sites can actually help to market their products. Making demo versions of a game available to the public is not necessarily a novelty, but uploading these onto torrent sites is an opportunity that only a few have taken advantage of.
Previously: IFPI Loses: Telenor Will Not Block The Pirate Bay
Next: Anti-Piracy Group Throws in the Towel, Pirates Walk Free
46 Responses
Anyone got a link to the game XD
Another industry evolves….
looks back and sees music industry coughing in their dust.
Maybe iinet should use this kind of promotions to rub some dirt into the mouths of afact. It would be kind of hard to any lawyer to say how bad bit torrent is when game devs give their stuff away for free using the programs these lawyers hate so much.
They’re going toward what we, customers, want. I’m not a big gamer, but if they all did that and I like the game, I would definitely get a legal copy, as long as it doesn’t contain some DRM crap or any limitations that annoys the sh!t out of us of course.
It’s nice to see some company finally realizing that.
gaming industry that at least 30% of gaming pirates DO buy their games !! after downloading them. 1st for online play , 2nd game devs and industry has our full support cause they really put effort in their products and unlike the studios , pay back the same to to gaming by making better products.
to top this , this is very good move by RedLynx.
http://torrentz.com/search?q=Trials+2
I would also get legal copies of good games if they cared to drop the prices a bit. I mean, ~60€ is a lot to a student with a very low income. I gotta buy some food too, all I’m sayin’
i buy valve games, and anything good. i like to try the FULL game b4 i buy it. if its not that great, i remove it. if it meets my cut, i buy it.
If they sell even one game (or service) because of this, it’s better than selling zero games/services.
There is so much more than could be tied in to the product. I never tried the game, but perhaps they can sell special edition games, actual bicycles and other types of related hands-on products. Perhaps even sell pre-paid cards that could be used to download music and other games at a discount. I’m no marketer or promotions master, but there is so much more than can be done with giving away a freebie over through torrent technology.
Once they figure out they can save so much money in manufacturing and packaging and simply let everyone else promote and distribute their game for absolutely free, that is one large cost that they no longer need to worry about. Pass that on to savings for ‘torrent only’ purchases at a much reduced price making it more attractive to torrent users.
Surely someone should be able to figure something out.
Good idea ive always been a fan of these games and now a company has finally realised what toorents can do for them i might just go and buy. more like this :D
Just by it.. I give them a WOW!
If I were a “hacker” I wouldn’t hack it.. because they deserve it.
@9: I do agree with you.. Torrent tech is too much powerfull. I think that’s why companies are not using it.. they are afraid of being out of control after they use it.
i’ll give it a try :)
@7: If you cared enough to look at the site, the full game is actually only $9.99
games manufacturers have been doing this for years. all the big game manufacturers are already doing it even if is is unspoken
download the cracked “single player” version from the filesharing networks and if you want the full game experience you buy the online “multiplayer” version protected by authentication servers
even better, if you want the ultimate gaming experience you buy an xbox360, ps3, Wii and HD TV (why not also take a HD cable or satellite subscription too) and spend hundreds of dollars a month on DRM games for the consol that you tried first on the PC. that is what everyone does and that is where the money is, in the gamer networks
the very very few game manufacturers that are complaining about filesharing are mostly medium size companies that do not understand why nobody wants to play their games. could it be that nobody has heard of your games? you have gotta get your games onto the gamer networks, fighting filesharers is going to war against your own success
http://www.h33t.com is on his dance mat tonight, did you know you can use your hands too? is not a pretty sight but it is the most fun i have had with the family. yeah that and Guitar Hero 5!
Yeah a lot of games do use torrents for games especially mmorpgs the korean game makers are fans of using bit torrent to give away free games because they can ass rape you with “special store” products i know i spend 100’s on a free game. rofl. Silkroadonline… but I also noticed when bought metal gear solid to download the online updates they also offered http downloads or bittorrent downloads although it didnt go to fast so i stopped it and went for http
But, you can only do this if your game doesn’t suck. People will get it for free, realize it sucks and not buy it. I wish I would have had this opportunity with a few games I paid $40 for that sucked.
@9 Nov 07, 2009 at 01:26 by diarRIAA
If they sell even one game (or service) because of this, it’s better than selling zero games/services.
There is so much more than could be tied in to the product. I never tried the game, but perhaps they can sell special edition games, actual bicycles and other types of related hands-on products. Perhaps even sell pre-paid cards that could be used to download music and other games at a discount. I’m no marketer or promotions master, but there is so much more than can be done with giving away a freebie over through torrent technology.
Once they figure out they can save so much money in manufacturing and packaging and simply let everyone else promote and distribute their game for absolutely free, that is one large cost that they no longer need to worry about. Pass that on to savings for ‘torrent only’ purchases at a much reduced price making it more attractive to torrent users.
Surely someone should be able to figure something out.
absolutely
Nice to see someone is adapting to the change.
i played the game on both pc and xbox (trials HD) the pc game lacks a lot compared to the xbox game thats the one reason i haven’t bought it if they were the same game i would have already gotten it
as for the games on torrents advertising it will only work for a select few game devs as there are only a few devs who actually make good games enter valve they made half life and are now huge because they make good games i don’t know how it works for EA and there shotgun approach
on another note one of the major parts of the gaming industry is to push the bounries and make a better game than the rest (including graphics, story, gameplay and ofcourse multiplayer) the movie industry applies the same model as EA shotgun
pathetic to see all the little kiddies here saying that all games suck. Yup, when you take everyone else’s hard work for free, you devalue it.
Enjoy your minimum wage jobs in factories kiddies, because by devaluing IP, you are going to end up carrying boxes by the time you leave school.
I don’t do online gaming but if I did, perhaps I’d consider subscribing to this “leader board”. I guess it’s equal to providing a service. Depends of what it’d cost though.
Game development is really labour intensive and expensive (have worked in that field). They’ve got to get back the money spent on development.
Saying that, still be aware that EA Games and the likes are still greedy and very aggressive corporations, on all fronts.
It would be better if all games were open source and not created for profit at all. Not sure how feasible that would be.
Online content (tied to a cd-key) has always been and will always be the best way to fight piracy. It’s the reason I’ve bought the games I have.
The other trouble with the pricing of games is that people in places like Romania and Ukraine also want to play, and perhaps use the “leaderboard” functionality of this game?
How are they going to be able to afford the pricing which might be already be offputting for Germans, Brits and Yanks?
Their income is a fraction of ours, even though in many cases they have the same education, skills and talent.
They are going to pirate, and as long as they do it, why shouldn’t we?
They give you the full version of the game, minus the online features.
The game is reasonably priced at $10.
Good move.
There is no reason not to support it by buying it if you want all the features. Anyone downloading the hacked full version, you better be poor as dirt or I think you should feel terrible about yourself.
Especially because this is a very small and therefore vulnerable game company.
pizzatorrent.com is cooking not dead.
http://www.torrent-eye.co.uk
Download Loads of free content :)
“Yup, when you take everyone else’s hard work for free, you devalue it.”
Err no, other way round. When you buy a game for £40, and it sucks, it is a waste of money.
Now that’s call evolution.
Had this game as a trial version on my xbox, shit was amazing!!!!!
They should also pay attention to Apple. 2 billion apps sold for say average…1 buck? Now that’s good business; keeping it really cheap and affordable for everyone = big bucks for the company.
Yes. $10 is cheap. But for the families below ultra poverty levels in Romania, Turkey, former Soviet Republics, and the slums of China, Phillipines and India…$10 is about one months income.
There will always be people that are simply too poor to ever afford to pay, some that are too cheap to buy, some that like to try and then choose to buy a quality product for a reasonable price, and there are those that will buy no matter what. The RIAA/MPAA/corporations keeping attacking the try-before-buying and potential cheapskates that may become paying customers one day.
A customer that is called names and attacked will most likely never buy your products again. If you owned a fruit/veggie market and had customers touching, sniffing and examining the product…then you fly in and call them thieves and criminals and threaten to sue them all, would most people come back? NOPE!
The greedy RIAA/MPAA/corporations just don’t get it. And they wonder why piracy is becoming more and more rampant. Idiots.
And yet, even though they gave out the core game, for users to try and then buy if they wanted, a week later, the original version of the game “with the leaderboard” appeared on torrent sites, and people went crazy downloading them..people downloading the hacked full version:1 mil:..people who bought the game..150,000..I’d say this is stealing..they already gave us what is possible.the game..except for the leaderboard..but what did we do?/..we hacked the leaderboard and others downloaded them..and who lost??the company who had the heart to give the game on torrent sites..
@31: Where are you even from??.I am from asia, and $10 would not even support a baby for a month..Average salary for a picker(lowest paying job that you can ever find in china) pays about 130-150 per month..a picker is someone who just roams around neighbourhoods and informs the trash collectors of where the trash is at..
excellent move on behalf of this game studio, what the industry doesnt realize is that a lot of supposed ‘piracy’ is , is actually people making sure that they arent going to get ripped off when they buy the games being hyped to them, piracy is THE ‘try-before-you-buy’ system, and with online functionality included in the paid version, and a guaranteed virus free edition to test out before you spend your cash, this cant lose.
kudo’s to the dev’s brave move!!
+1 RedLynx
I wanna see selling charts.
AWESOME initiative. I have done that dozens of times already (download the ‘pirated’ version of a game and buying afterwards – God of War II, Rogue Galaxy, Sim City 3000, Blue Dragon … just to mention a few).
I will have to agree that less than half of the games I downloaded were worth buying. However, that’s what competition is and if you fail then you’ll see what Mr Darwin was talking about ;D
As for offering services along with the game, there are types of games that can’t really offer much in online services (i.e.: God of War… duh). However, if those games are good enough and entertain the users they will be bought and my case is a pretty good example. I have finished God of War II 3 times b4 I bought the game and it’s right here in my hands smiling at me, simply because it deserved to be bought – it actually had the power to be a good entertainment.
Great.
They invented shareware.
Again.
See, this is such an awesome idea.
This is what everyone needs to do.
remember kids
one download =/= one sale lost
quote=37
“Great. They invented shareware. Again.”
He’s got a point there…
Really smart move, if u like it U buy it-!
@31
” Yes. $10 is cheap. But for the families below ultra poverty levels in Romania, Turkey, former Soviet Republics, and the slums of China, Phillipines and India…$10 is about one months income.”
Yea they should be allowed to pirate them. So they can play the game on their pimped out pc of 10 dollars?
This is actually pretty funny. So is it going to come with it’s own virus?
http://www.newdgamez.com
Everyone is quick to find some flaw or fault. At least they’re trying, unlike fat slobs like EA.
+1 for a good initiative.
Actually great idea! I wish all the developers to do so.
Great.
They invented shareware.
Turkey’s first torrent support website http://www.torrentdestek.com
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