Working with Pirates

Last week an Indie company made the headlines on a gaming websites because they chose a different type of advertising for their game. A special build of the game was released on a torrent site for free.

Before the morale debate starts I would like to state that I downloaded games illegally before(like most of you) and to some point I understand why some people do it regularly.

For 18 years I lived in Lima: the capital of Peru (South America if some of you don’t know); unlike the UK, US, EU(Developed countries), getting, I mean buying games it is much harder.

First of all not all the games are available, the release dates are different (months after released in USA), but more importantly the prices at retail are the same or very close to the ones in America.

In Peru the minimum wage is 200$ dollars a month, where a game retail price is around 40-60$, making buying videogames a banality. I’m not here to debate why is ok to get games without paying for them, we know they are not a necessity, just hear me out. I know what is it to be a teenager and the only way to get your games is to get pirated versions of them.

Here are some ideas in how we can “work” with pirates.

1) Engage the pirates: Don’t threat pirates as your enemies or loss revenue, but instead as potential customers who haven’t been reached yet. Indie Developer tinyBuild released a special build of their latest game No Time to Explain! on a torrent site for free.

The developer told Gamasutra: “Basically, on release day, we rushed to make a version of the game that is actually all about pirates”, “People were going to pirate it anyway, so we figured if we make something funny out of it (give everyone pirate hats in a pirated version of the game), gamers would appreciate that and start talking about it”

“Plus, we think it’s a great distribution channel that just hasn’t been monetized properly yet”

2) Reward Customers: DRM is not the way to stop piracy. If you are a customer it feels like you are being treated like a criminal and being kicked in the crotch.

Don’t assume all your customers are potential criminals. Imagine you go to shop to buy some clothes, and while doing so a security guard follows you all the time; that is like DRM, it doesn’t think you are a criminal but is there just in case you might end up doing something funny.

Give customers incentive for buying from you, even coffee shops give me a stamp for each coffee I buy. Why not after 3 new videogames I buy you give me 50% discount on the next DLC?

I’m sure there are a number of ways to reward customers for choosing to buy new games, giving incentives instead of punishing them for doing so.

3) Create a community: Give your customers a place where they can meet and play like-minded people. Games like FIFA give you the chance to connect with football fans around the world, create avatars, watch videos, join leagues and much more.

4) Lower prices: The current prices in the UK for a new game are between 35 £ and 45 £. I personally don’t buy games at released dates because I found it ridiculous to pay that amount for a videogame.

I Wait till the game price goes down or becomes platinum (in case of the ps3), and buy for a reasonable price. I’m pretty sure the publishers will sell more games if they sell them at 20-25 £ than at 45£.