Where is the evidence for that claim? It's really not outlandish to assume that a sizable number of people would be willing to pirate a $40 game, but at the same time pay for a $5-10 game on sale.
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The Witness is being heavily pirated. J. Blow says piracy could impact his future.
- Thread starter Raylan
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Where is the evidence for that claim? It's really not outlandish to assume that a sizable number of people would be willing to pirate a $40 game, but at the same time pay for a $5-10 game on sale.
OnionPowder
Member
Sometime today is when they'll start to be accurate, since it's almost 72 hours past since release.
The root of the problem is how many people are stealing the game.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
"Huh wow look at all these downloads of people playing this game for free after my years of hard work, I guess I should just completely not think about all that potential money I'm not getting because people feel entitled to my product."
Maybe I'm being too hard, for all we know they are just trying demoing it to make sure it runs on their computer!
Maintenance
Member
Reading this thread feels like 2005.
runningjoke
Member
This game is really fantastic and I hope Blow and his team get to keep in business.
But I'm not surprised it's heavily pirated. Just look at the price reveal thread
But I'm not surprised it's heavily pirated. Just look at the price reveal thread
Snkfanatic
Banned
What? If you poured a lot of effort into something and people were effectively stealing it you wouldn't be upset?
I find that very hard to believe.
So two things here.
1) As others have said, one pirated game does not equal one lost sale. We have no idea how many people actually intended to buy the game and pirated it instead.
2) I don't think it's really fair to start talking about sales 3 days after release. Word of mouth about The Witness is spreading and I expect sales to go up as more people hear about it. Undertale didn't sell amazing in its first couple weeks and now it's a million seller.
I don't pirate games and I'm strongly against doing so these days, but I also feel like using piracy as a scapegoat for poor sales is usually disingenuous.
Newsflash - PC games still sell well despite piracy. The myth that everyone who plays on PC pirates everything is just that. Grow up.
Kenzodielocke
Banned
For me it seems like he indicated it with these tweet.
I feel sorry for him anyway.
Edit: Isn't it a very easy game to pirate ? Like it's a .exe file ? I heard he had something like that to make it accessable for everyone.
Ivan Amiibo
Banned
That's a little extreme for "it might impact my next game, just sayin'" (vs. SUE EVERYBODY metallica style)
I think he's just saying "if you like it, consider buying it." hope this doesn't mean he's concerned about the current number of sales.
PlatypusDude
Member
And people wonder why there is nothing between smaller scale indies and large AAA games these days.
Gipsy Danger
Member
What the fuck is this? Honestly.
Garrett Hawke
Member
It's not unavoidable anymore. Denuvo is making a serious dent in cracking efforts to the point where AAA releases that use it aren't cracked for a good few months post launch, which is when the majority of money is made.
xrnzaaas
Member
The game would've been number 1 on torrent sites as well if it costed 9.99. Most people who download pirated games won't buy them no matter what... you just have to deal with that (or release your games only for the consoles 
). Anyway he should be good, everyone who played the game has loved it (and probably recommended it to friends) so I'm pretty sure it'll maintain good sales in the upcoming weeks.
). Anyway he should be good, everyone who played the game has loved it (and probably recommended it to friends) so I'm pretty sure it'll maintain good sales in the upcoming weeks.bananafactory
Banned
Exactly. It's weird that people think these people will happily steal 8 years of someone's hard work with all disregard for moral conscience, but if it was $20 they'd be like "oh hey I should make sure I buy it and give the dev hard earned money"
Not likely
Raven117
Member
Pirates going to pirate? Worry about things you can control and not about things you can't. They were never going to buy the game regardless. They weren't potential customers. They could have been possibly with better marketing/messaging, but even then, probably not.
The game will be fine.
Personally, the price is too high and there are a bunch of games he is competing with right now and around the corner. =x
The game will be fine.
Personally, the price is too high and there are a bunch of games he is competing with right now and around the corner. =x
Already Torn
Banned
I can see people not wanting to pay for it. I would never pirate, but I'm waiting for a sale (or PS+?) despite the rave reviews. Gotta save up for Street Fighter.
DeviantBoi
Member
Bought it on PSN and got a refund after I found out that I couldn't play it because it makes me sick.
If it had cost $20, I would have just added the game to my ever-increasing list of games that I buy and don't play and forgotten about it.
But 40 bucks is 40 bucks.
If it had cost $20, I would have just added the game to my ever-increasing list of games that I buy and don't play and forgotten about it.
But 40 bucks is 40 bucks.
Canada Dry
Banned
This is why all PC games should come after console release.
Um, did I miss where he.. says this? What's your point?
Not everyone who pirates the game would have bought it, sure. But it's not like they're entitled to pirate it because they weren't going to buy it anyway. Unless you're trying to say that nobody who pirated the game would have bought it if that wasn't an option?
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
you can try it out on steam and ask for a refund if you dont like it.
The excuse that you need to pirate a game to test it out is bullshit
Portal 2 was also released by Valve, and the Witness is released by Jonathan Blow whos entire body of work is Braid
Its not shocking that people might balk at a 40 dollar game from one but not from the other.
GhostTrick
Banned
It is. It made 3 days. But I also believe it's too early to raise worries after 3 days. Some games tooks a bit more than that to go up. Take Helldivers for exemple, which has been doing in the 20k-30k range in the first week, then quickly goes up in the following days and weeks with word of mouth, now sitting at 140k.
Should have used that Denuvo, I hear it's all the rage these days.
Bought it on the PS4 myself, but I'll probably double dip on the PC at some point when there's a sale. Great game, well worth $40, would have easily been worth $60, has more content that most full priced games these days.
Bought it on the PS4 myself, but I'll probably double dip on the PC at some point when there's a sale. Great game, well worth $40, would have easily been worth $60, has more content that most full priced games these days.
99,999% of those pirates wouldn't have bought game anyways. They are not lost sales.
They were all bought on the store, The Witness for steam isn't available anywhere else( Humble store gives a DRM-free download)
They were all bought on the store, The Witness for steam isn't available anywhere else( Humble store gives a DRM-free download)
Lostconfused
Member
Not really since they aren't likely to be paying customers and that wouldn't solve this "I am too poor to make another game" issue that he is complaining about.
Lanrutcon
Member
My 2 cents:
It's new release. It being at the top of the pirate list atm means nothing. Give it a few days and it'll be buried under the next release, and so on and so forth.
The price point is...debatable. Not saying it's a $20 game, but I wouldn't have questioned a $30 tag.
And lastly, it's a very unique game and I don't regret purchasing it at all. Very relaxing, and very satisfying. The prettiest IQ test I've ever experienced
It's new release. It being at the top of the pirate list atm means nothing. Give it a few days and it'll be buried under the next release, and so on and so forth.
The price point is...debatable. Not saying it's a $20 game, but I wouldn't have questioned a $30 tag.
And lastly, it's a very unique game and I don't regret purchasing it at all. Very relaxing, and very satisfying. The prettiest IQ test I've ever experienced
Do you know numbers?
Piracy is disgusting and I sympathise...however, I'd be very surprised if The Witness isn't selling very well indeed. Speculating here, obviously, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't generate more revenue than any of his previous games. Though maybe he's invested a lot more than I'm supposing in the game and hitting profitability will be harder than I imagine.
Anyway, even if he is making rakes of cash it doesn't excuse the piracy.
Anyway, even if he is making rakes of cash it doesn't excuse the piracy.
You're not entitled to a game just because you can't pay for it. That's wrong and devs should speak out against it.
The piracy apologists in this thread holy shit.
Yes, this is clearly the message to take from this story.
No, because I understand how the digital world works. Everything that can be pirated will be pirated, to some extent. You do the best you can to provide a good value to people and focus on your fans who actually bought the game.
YianGaruga
Banned
How the fuck do you make a story out of that tweet.
Gaming journalism is a joke
Gaming journalism is a joke
Seriously, I dont think Jonathan Blow was going to get a lot of money from a bunch of Ukranian teens.
EvilKatarn
Member
And yet Denuvo is hated for its haltering of game archival. Plus I bet this isn't anything new to Blow because Braid was pirated plenty as well.
Dr. Black Jack
Member
come on people, a man's gotta pay for piss jugs somehow, the alley just isn't the same
It's complicated. While I don't think $40 is too steep a price on a personal level, but the marketplace might be showing that it actually is too steep a price to ask for what he's made. It's not necessarily due to it being indie, but because it's a puzzle-only game that doesn't fit the feedback loop a lot of people are used to.
You can't argue that something isn't overpriced if the market isn't accepting it at $40. It's too early to see if that's the truth of it, but hey.
That said, I can understand how some people would have an easier time purchasing it at $20, or even $30, compared to $40. $10-$20 is a decent amount of money to a lot of people, and you can argue all you'd like about whether or not they should be spending money on games if their budget is that tight--but it also doesn't necessarily matter. You want to reach a wider market, and sometimes that means pricing your product accordingly.
You can't argue that something isn't overpriced if the market isn't accepting it at $40. It's too early to see if that's the truth of it, but hey.
That said, I can understand how some people would have an easier time purchasing it at $20, or even $30, compared to $40. $10-$20 is a decent amount of money to a lot of people, and you can argue all you'd like about whether or not they should be spending money on games if their budget is that tight--but it also doesn't necessarily matter. You want to reach a wider market, and sometimes that means pricing your product accordingly.
Deft Beck
Member
Piracy doesn't equal lost sales. Those who pirate the game do so because they either lack the money to buy it, or are curious about the game, but due to the lack of a demo or other trial mechanism, need to vet the game.
$40 for an independent puzzle adventure game is pretty steep. Yes, Portal 2 was $60, but it had the marketing power of the first Portal, EA's publishing support at retail, as well as two storylines, Steam cross compatibility, and more.
The Witness has almost no marketing power aside from Jon Blow's name and the chance that somebody remembered that he made Braid eight years ago outside of the hardcore audience, such as the browsers of this forum.
I'm sure it's a polished, mechanically sound experience, but there are a lot of factors against it being a smash success.
$40 for an independent puzzle adventure game is pretty steep. Yes, Portal 2 was $60, but it had the marketing power of the first Portal, EA's publishing support at retail, as well as two storylines, Steam cross compatibility, and more.
The Witness has almost no marketing power aside from Jon Blow's name and the chance that somebody remembered that he made Braid eight years ago outside of the hardcore audience, such as the browsers of this forum.
I'm sure it's a polished, mechanically sound experience, but there are a lot of factors against it being a smash success.
£30 is a lot for an indie puzzle game I've no idea if I'll like, I'd imagine a lot of people look at the price and are put off.
FloorEssence
Neo Member
Every new release goes straight to the top of torrent charts. Doesn't indicate how much it's actually being pirated
OnionPowder
Member
Which didn't come out for almost a year after release, so what's your point. It launched at $60 with none of that stuff, and by the time most people were done with it they added some extra content creation tools.
People just do this kinda shit. As others have said, it's best just not to think and worry about it. There is only a SMALL overlap between potential customers and pirates, most people that do this are just looking for any kinda freebie they can get.
I still hope the game sells well, and I think it's going to be more of a marathon than a sprint for it. There's not a lot of advertising behind it and it's a bit expensive for an impulse buy. I'm not saying that it's too much money for what it is, however. The price is justified.
Also lol @ people saying "don't release on PC." You guys can do better than that.
I still hope the game sells well, and I think it's going to be more of a marathon than a sprint for it. There's not a lot of advertising behind it and it's a bit expensive for an impulse buy. I'm not saying that it's too much money for what it is, however. The price is justified.
Also lol @ people saying "don't release on PC." You guys can do better than that.
It was two tweets, and not really that vitriolic either. I don't think he's obsessed.
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