Archives for piracy category
We don’t live in Brazil, but from what we hear, it’s not one of the most gamer-friendly places out there. Piracy runs rampant and whenever any kind of controversial game releases, citizens usually find their government won’t let ‘em play it. But, hey, things are kinda looking up!
Reader Renato wrote in to us saying the PS2 has finally officially released in Brazil and that consumers can get it from the Sony Style store now … for the low, low price of 799 BRL (about 461 USD). That’s right, Brazilians no longer need secure safe passage for emigrating consoles or pay ridiculous sums of money to third-party distributors and can instead pay ridiculous sums of money directly to Sony for a locally-supported PS2! Isn’t that awesome?
[Thanks, Renato]
Congratulations to Serge808 on being the first to comment. You’ve been emailed a free Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta code. All beta codes have been awarded. Click here, for more information on this giveaway. Official rules apply.
Sony finally launches PS2 in Brazil (or, welcome to 2000!) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 7:00pm by David Hinkle
Filed Under: brazil, import, imports, piracy, playstation, playstation-2, ps2, sony
We hope your recent forays into piracy merely involve you donning a hook and eyepatch for a debaucherous costume party, or else you likely received a message from Microsoft like the headline of this post. The company recently dispatched a wave of bans to owners of modded Xbox 360s who’ve been playing pirated copies of games. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to IGN that “we have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs.”
The spokesperson went on to explain that this batch of console bans wasn’t conducted on any particular time frame, and that the company was merely following up on its standing policy against piracy. In other words, Microsoft isn’t trying to ruin your Halloween weekend — it just, you know, worked out that way.
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Happy Halloween! You’re banned from Xbox Live. originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 7:00pm by Griffin McElroy
Filed Under: Mod, ban, burned, console-ban, microsoft, piracy, pirates, xbox-live
If you’re one of those JERKS who loves pirating games for the 360, be warned: Microsoft’s got a special goodie bag ready for you, and it’s loaded with poison and apples with razors in them.
A Microsoft spokesperson told IGN “”We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs [...] to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE.”
Apparently, the banning has been going on for about the past week, as evidenced by the amount of whiners on the Xbox.com user account suspension forums.
Arrr, matey. Pirates not be welcome here.
Microsoft Performs Mass Xbox Console Banning [IGN]
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Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 8:05pm by John
Filed Under: News, Xbox 360, bans, microsoft, modded, piracy, xbox-live
Only a day after iPhone developer Smells Like Donkey complained of an 80 percent piracy rate of its game Tap Fu, another developer has made an even more alarming claim. According to Fishlabs, its latest release, Rally Master Pro 3D, achieved an astonishing 95 percent piracy rate in its first day of release. Fishlabs’ Michael Schade told Mobile Entertainment News that the 95 percent piracy rate corresponds to “many thousands.” When discussing whether the recently implemented in-app purchasing feature would help curb piracy, Schade was skeptical, saying, “I doubt that.” He added, “We will see in the future how well in-app purchases fight piracy.”
Another developer reports insane iPhone piracy rates originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on October 27th, 2009 at 11:01pm by Richard Mitchell
Filed Under: fishlabs, iphone, piracy, rally-master-pro-3d
Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch is a lot like Sony’s PSP in many ways: they both play games, movies and music — and now both can struggle with the effects of piracy. According to iPhone developer Smells Like Donkey, about 80 percent of all downloads of Tap-Fu were illegally downloaded.
The developer notes that learning how to pirate games off the iPhone is surprisingly easy, thanks to “a kernel patch that bypasses Apple’s DRM system” that “would take an average person 5 minutes in Google to find.” Additionally, the developer discovered that an average of zero percent of pirates end up purchasing a legitimate copy of Tap-Fu — it seems marking the game down to $1.99 didn’t discourage anyone from taking a free ride.
“It is kind of depressing,” the developer admits. However, other iPhone developers are encouraged to take a proactive approach in lieu of Apple’s slow response to the piracy situation. “Detecting a pirated app is quite simple to do,” the developer notes. “Probably the first thing we’ll try is popping up a message reminding people that they really should buy the game if they like it and conveniently provide links to do so.” An alternate plan to generate revenue? DLC. “This forces the pirates to change their strategy significantly and it might be a while before it becomes feasible to attack this system.”
[Via Develop]
Developer claims 80 percent piracy rate for latest iPhone release originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on October 26th, 2009 at 1:30pm by Andrew Yoon
Filed Under: apple, drm, iphone, itunes, piracy, smells-like-donkey, tap-fu
