It is selling on a base that has less marketshare. The Witness is a game people on laptops can play. Unless he is speaking relativity, then that is a bad thing honestly.
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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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It is selling on a base that has less marketshare. The Witness is a game people on laptops can play. Unless he is speaking relativity, then that is a bad thing honestly.
Yep, I think anyone who has spent some time with this game, would agree with this. I'd say the current pricepoint is more than fair for what you're getting.
If people have data caps that prevent them from downloading a game from Steam, how would pirating it via torrent be any different?
GhostTrick
Banned
It's not because you have a laptop that you're going to play on it. But I guess that if you have a PS4, you're likely to play on it. Please dont give me the marketshare/userbase thing. I think that beyond 35 millions of people, userbase for that kind of game remains as limited.
No it doesn't. But it does mean a lot of lost sales because many people who would've paid, can easily pirate. It's very hard to quantify piracy, but there are a lot of people pirating the game who could've easily bought it. Once they download and play it they'll never buy it.
I mean so many people are paying $40, to see thousands and thousands of people pirate and play for free. It creates resentment and hostility.
antennaehead
Member
This thread is crazy.
I do wonder however whether the price point on The Witness is that high exactly because it is a niche title that's not going to sell millions.
I do wonder however whether the price point on The Witness is that high exactly because it is a niche title that's not going to sell millions.
aggienader
Member
Yea I want to be edgy, so I'll use the term cry baby. Bah!
Either buy the game or don't, but for the love don't pirate the game.
Question: If you have $30 to spend on a game, but the Witness is $40...
Are you really thinking aaaagghhh!!!! that means I need to illegally download the game?!?!
Steam sales have conditioned me to never purchase a game for more than $10.
For many people, I imagine $40 is a tough pill to swallow for a puzzle game.
come on now, PS4 doesn't have piracy so clearly The Witness sold 1 million already there
/s
Tesseract
Banned
sssstententen
Member
Yeah but I'm sorry but this is probably all price point related.
Had it even been $30, I'd probably have been more interested, but it being $40 makes me want to wait for a sale.
I know its a fantastic game but its the new year with tons of games coming up and I need to budget accordingly, and $40 for an indie that might only last 4-8 hours is not a good value proposition.
That said, I really want to play the game and will definitely buy it on sale later down the line.
Guy really should've learned from a game like Undertale. Sure, this game is much more involved graphically and probably price wise, but Undertale is close to a million sales a few months out is fantastic, has rarely been on sale. I think this game would be selling like hotcakes if it was priced at $20-25
Had it even been $30, I'd probably have been more interested, but it being $40 makes me want to wait for a sale.
I know its a fantastic game but its the new year with tons of games coming up and I need to budget accordingly, and $40 for an indie that might only last 4-8 hours is not a good value proposition.
That said, I really want to play the game and will definitely buy it on sale later down the line.
Guy really should've learned from a game like Undertale. Sure, this game is much more involved graphically and probably price wise, but Undertale is close to a million sales a few months out is fantastic, has rarely been on sale. I think this game would be selling like hotcakes if it was priced at $20-25
Breaking the law is always bad huh? That's not how ethics work.
Yeah, I haven't seen this brought up too much. I've seen a lot of people on gaf say it looks great but they don't play puzzle games. I imagine there is a large portion of the general gaming populace that feels the same. By pricing it at $40 I think they're ensuring that the hardcore fans of puzzle games will be able to support The Witness alone.
But really I do think the game is just worth that amount by any measure, be it length or quality.
I dont get the "Its not that bad because of reasons" posts.
Yes, it may not be as bad as our perceptions without data, but regardless, the team is losing money on people who are stealing the game instead of paying for it.
Is it any different if they lose 50.000 or 500.000 from a "this is wrong and people should not do it" perspective?
Yes, it may not be as bad as our perceptions without data, but regardless, the team is losing money on people who are stealing the game instead of paying for it.
Is it any different if they lose 50.000 or 500.000 from a "this is wrong and people should not do it" perspective?
Yeah, because there's a huge difference between 50,000 and 500,000 in the real world where people are going to try to get stuff for free.
There's also a lot of hyperbole here about pirating. He's going to make another game. The game will continue to sell way after the hype around it dies down.
Probably, all I know is that PS4 is selling similar to a market that has a markshare in the hundreds of millions. Unless of course he is speaking on relative terms.
Also the other digital medias are a little different and a much bigger industry than gaming, with many people not having the technological ability to download movies/music despite how easy it is.
aggienader
Member
No doubt. So wait for the game to go on sale?
Seeing people defend piracy here is sickening. "It's too expensive." Well fuck off then, that doesn't give you the right to pirate it. At worst you're denying developers money (in this case an indie dev ffs) and making the industry worse as a whole, and at best you're a selfish SOB who's convinced yourself that what you're doing isn't morally bankrupt.
Adam_Roman
Member
Not sure if this was asked yet but how did people react to The Talos Principle being priced at $40? I know that kept me from buying it but I bought The Witness, and my brother bought The Talos Principle but not the Witness. Thankfully we have the Steam Family Share thing set up.
Sylverstone14
Member
Can't believe people are actually trying to justify this. Well said.
GhostTrick
Banned
You know that for now, it sold 24000 units on Steam ? Are you really telling me that with such numbers, sales are related to userbase ?
Kwansu Dudes
Member
As a cry baby, puzzle games seem incredibly niche and for $40, that's quite unprecedented. Granted I don't follow indie development, but I haven't seen many puzzle games priced at this point.
I also believe that the majority of people who pirate games have zero intention of buying the game anyway.
Really? It's not rational to be obsessed or upset that people are stealing your game that you paid $6m to develop over 5+ years? You serious?
People not feeling the game was worth $40 and use that as justification to steal it?
If you told me you were in the same situation and had no problem with it you would be lying.
It's not. The price point is where it's at (it's certainly not high) because it's a massive game that clearly took a metric ton of effort to create.
The point is they're not stealing, they're pirating. Pirates rarely would have purchased the game anyway, the team isn't losing anything. The original is still there, and no sale is lost.
We can say piracy is wrong and people should not do it, but also have some perspective. We've got people in this thread saying that devs shouldn't make PC versions of games because of this and the PS4 version will save it, when the developer themselves have stated that the PS4 version has not sold more than the Steam version, anyway, so they have at least half their sales on steam right now despite the piracy. Furthermore, the developer has also stated that they're making enough money to make another game like the witness, and that they only feel like they could have made enough money to make two games like The Witness if they had better sales. There's no need to blow this out of proportion.
EdReedFan20
Member
Forgive my ignorance, but how exactly is it being heavily pirated? Isn't it only available on PSN and Steam? Is piracy a thing on Steam?
I'm not seeing many posts defending piracy. Explaining why something happens isn't condoning it.
It would be nice if people quoted the posts they are referring to because you're fighting an opinion that isn't heavily represented in this thread.
A lot of people are saying "You can expect this to happen if the price is high" not "This should happen when the price is high".
I think you're mistaking a nuanced understanding of piracy, why it might occur and how it effects developers for "defending piracy".
Not a single bit of your post makes any justification for stealing the game.
Lanrutcon
Member
Well, pricing influences the decision to purchase. That's kind of a fact. The only problem is that there's a segment of the population that doesn't take no for an answer. Piracy is unfortunately a fact of life until technology firmly puts a hold on it, or people change on a fundamental level. And that's oversimplifying things grossly.
Already Torn
Banned
Aw man, this is the best post in the thread. Perfect choice of GIF and you actually explained why you used it too.
It would be nice if people quoted the posts they are referring to because you're fighting an opinion that isn't heavily represented in this thread.
A lot of people are saying "You can expect this to happen if the price is high" not "This should happen when the price is high".
Netherscourge
Banned
^This.
The price of the original product is irrelevant. I laugh at those trying to dictate the "proper" value of something based on their own personal opinion. Or wanting to get a "sample" of it first before buying.
As in all things... If someone can get something for free, they'll get it for free. Even IF they can afford it. Even IF they like it and the developers and hope for more of the same in the future.
Those who pay for something after pirating it are an extreme minority and are actually encouraging more piracy by coming onto forums like these and making it sound like piracy is a public service.
Resident_UA
Member
Good assumption. I haven't met a single person who pirates games and also buys them. If somebody is OK with pirating even $1 would be too high of a price. So equating sales to pirating is just crazy talk. It doesn't make pirating OK, it's just not a realistic look at the problem.
Have you listened to a CD on YouTube that wasn't posted by the musicians official channel? What about SoundCloud? You're taking profit from musicians by not going through an official source.
Boss Mog
Member
Denuvo says otherwise.
Tesseract
Banned
blow released a drm free version
arts&crafts
Member
I dont know if "every pc owner in the world" counts as marketshare. My mother, both my grandmothers and my 2 sisters own computers and none have steam or play videogames. That is just my direct family. Actually 2 of my brothers also dont play videogames.
BlackRainbowFT
Member
A lot of people say that the 40$ price tag had nothing to do with it, and I only partially agree.
Pirates are going to pirate, that much is true... but I'm sure there are a lot of "gray hats" that sometimes pirate and sometimes don't (for various reasons); for those people then yes, pirating might equal a lost sale and the steep price might have pushed them to pirate instead of purchasing.
(FYI, I don't think the game is expensive as it has a crap ton of content and some of the finest vistas I've ever seen in a video game...)
Pirates are going to pirate, that much is true... but I'm sure there are a lot of "gray hats" that sometimes pirate and sometimes don't (for various reasons); for those people then yes, pirating might equal a lost sale and the steep price might have pushed them to pirate instead of purchasing.
(FYI, I don't think the game is expensive as it has a crap ton of content and some of the finest vistas I've ever seen in a video game...)
Have you read up on this game? With 4-8 hours you're just scratching the surface. To just complete it, you're looking at 40 hours, 100% could be 80+ hours.
DRM-free version available through Humble. That would be the fastest way to seed it to the world. Just post it on a popular torrent site and off you go.
Have you only met a single person?
Those numbers I fully expect to increase and yes, I believe it is still tied to userbase. It could be that there isn't much games to choose from on PS4 or could be due to Tomb Raider lol.
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