Spore = Most Pirated Game of 2008... and ever?

Spore definitely has the tools to top all the Sim-type games in history, with all the hype carrying it for many, many years. It is a dream Will Wright fought for it to be a reality, and was responded with tons of positive feedback. All the advertising, marketing, and previewing hype came to fruition as it being one of the best offerings 2008 has to offer, and in many ways, a mainstay that has now set a bar as to how Sim games should be done. It is so successful that they have now followed it up with an add-on for your creatures, as you may be able to locate in various gaming outlets.

But with all the hype and the success, there has to be some sort of price to pay. And unfortunately, it came as nothing short of a surprise.

Spore at top of the piracy charts


As THE BBC will tell you, along with many other news sources, Spore has topped another list: the most pirated. In fact, it is SO pirated that in hindsight, EA has lost 1.7M units worth of potential sales, a nightmare caused by the ever-so-unpopular DRM issue, wherein the original version allowed three times for it to be activated. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find out how frustrating that can be. And to say the least, the rest is history.

This is one of the rare cases when the game is so amazing and stellar in its genre, but thanks to certain issues in other business aspects like marketing, copyright issues, and basic PR. It's such a sad case really, but it could've been worse. Hey, EA is still the biggest game giant in the world right now, so I'm pretty sure they'll be able to recover to some extent. But wow, what a way to screw up the plans of Mr. Will Wright, yes?

And let's face it, piracy is an all-too-common issue that is basically connected to the way our economy works. Gaming, TV, music, movies, prawn (you get it, right?), you name it. It's all thanks to the screw-ups of the economy (or rather, the ones who played around with the stock market, the mortgages, and anything money-related) that people are forced out of their hands to search for cheaper / free means of entertainment. So yeah, everything is generally a crash based on circumstance, not by free will. Had they offer cheaper and easier legal means to obtain such sources of entertainment, especially in certain third-world countries, then it is easier to handle this situation, right?

Here's a little tidbit for you economics / finance majors out there: you may consider Meredith Whitney, financial analyst and current wife of John "Bradshaw" Layfield of WWE RAW, a goddess for being the one woman who has actually foreseen the global economic crisis even before it was even declared when she predicted the rough fall that the Citigroup would experience. Oh, how right she was, and how we hope we would have listened to her back then.

See, the world is in a bad state, and it won't be a surprise that now, people will find more means for free (and illegal) forms of entertainment. This is a time when game companies must step up to ensure their own survival in the long run, as well as find better means to distribute their offerings to their customers easier and cheaper. Times are changing, especially right now when the economy is not in the right condition. I'm also pointing at you, World of Warcraft. I love the game so much, but I think it's time to reconsider adjusting your prices further, don't you think WoW?




Sorry, Bumbaloobygigantumama, but you're technically a pirate too. (Source of pic: BBC)