That's a weirdly worded paragraph. The first three sentences are fine, then the fourth sentence is marketing copy awkwardly squeezed in ("Nanosuit lets you be the weapon as you defend NYC from an alien invasion"), then closes with a generic statement about piracy.
Will be interesting to see what effects this has, though. Apart from the simple fact of early availability to pirates, these kinds of leaks can change the early review climate, since now reviews can come from all sorts of sources, not just the journalists given preview copies. What effect that has might depend on how good the game is (and how close to done the leaked version is).
A worse outcome than just the leaked version being available would be if it led to a flurry of negative reviews of the pre-release version, the way leaks of bad films have a much more negative effect on opening-weekend sales than leaks of good films do--- the didn't-see-it-because-everyone-said-it-sucked effect can be larger than the didn't-see-it-because-I-already-pirated-it effect.
The best outcome for EA would probably be a flood of reviews of the form: "wow this is an amazing game but a few things are broken in the leaked version, which I assume will be fixed by release".
A similar thing happened many years ago when an early version of Half-Life 2 got leaked. Reaction was tepid at best, Valve went back and basically re-made the entire game (delaying an already delayed game for substantially longer), but ultimately resulting in an award-winning game with an amazing (for the time) new engine. The pirating of the leak was of course highly illegal, but you could easily argue that Valve wouldn't be where they are now without it. (Half-Life 2 also contributed to the success of the Steam download service, another first for the company.)
I highly disliked Far Cry, it was the epitome of graphics over gameplay. The graphics were astounding, but the gameplay was a tedious uncoordinated piece of crap. Story basically had all the point of a Mario game, stealth didn't exist as the AI could seemingly spot you from 200ft away with their backs turned (maybe a little exaggeration).
I disliked the game so much that I've essentially avoided any game with 'Cry' in it since playing Far Cry.
IMO the best outcome for EA would be a pre-release that with such great reviews that I would actually consider playing the demo, although that still requires the HDD space that I'd likely prefer to waste on a blu-ray rip of virtually any movie as I'd expect it to entertain me for longer (I love the 5hr gameplay that most FPS now provide, real 'bang' for my buck when I can usually spend less for an RPG that'll give me anywhere from >20 to 100 hours like Mass Effect/Dragon Age)
Here's a rewrite that I think is much more pleasant, and would build good will, and probably increase sales:
Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites. Crytek and EA are a bit shocked, but surprisingly ok with the news. Saves us the trouble of writing a demo! So check out the pirated, unofficial demo, and be sure to buy the full game when it comes out on March 22nd.
And try not to spoil yourself too much on the leak, the full game is much better already!
I'm not sure how wise this was. I couldn't resist the Half-Life 2 leak, and it did actually detract from my experience of the final game. It was buggy, crashed a lot, many of the levels were completely untextured or unscripted, but there was enough dialogue already in the game to spoil the plot. I agree it could use a more pleasant rewrite, but in their position I would want to put people off playing the leak for that reason alone.
Oh, and they have made a demo - it's been out on the 360 for a couple of weeks I think.
They're probably trying a lot of things... that message there, blaming piracy, it's not meant for you.
It's also not meant for people who play console games but don't use the internet much and don't know how to use a torrent site.
It's meant for the marginal person who could go either way - who might grudgingly torrent a movie or music album that can't be bought in his home country, but feels guilty about it and wants to support content creators.
There's people who are going to buy, no matter what - this message doesn't affect them. There's people who aren't going to buy, no matter what - this message doesn't affect them. There's also a marginal group of people who might buy or might not - they're trying to appeal to them.
Or who knows, maybe they really are just blaming piracy while letting the ship sink. I'd buy that explanation too.
Ultimately I think this is very unfortunate. I seem to remember reading that Crytek said that they were releasing Crysis 2 on consoles as well as on PC due to the high piracy the original Crysis had (the original being a PC exclusive, and piracy on consoles being much less than on PC).
Something like this could be the straw breaking the camel's back for Crytek releasing their next game on PC (and I don't blame them).
"Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market"
That sounds quite oddly phrased. Why is it not "the PC gaming market" or something to that effect? Why should anyone care about a specific distribution model?
Ok, let me make a nice analysis of responses about that post:
1) EA is obviously upset. They are asking people to wait to buy the game. This has two main reasons. The first being that the beta release is still buggy and will give a bad impression. The second being that they don't want people who would have otherwise bought the game get impatient and download it. Possibly seeing what a heap of crap it is.
2) EA did not bash the community. They just said "fans, please support us, piracy hurts our industry." Piracy of course referring to actually downloading and helping spread it. The response is basically "piracy is good, stfu, fuck off, you deserve it assholes". The response is completely blown out of proportion unless the OP was modified later on.
3) EA has nobody to blame but themselves. However they know this, and did not blame anyone else in the post. The responders seem to think otherwise.
4) I hate EA as much as the next buy, but lets be fair here.
_delirium|15 years ago
Will be interesting to see what effects this has, though. Apart from the simple fact of early availability to pirates, these kinds of leaks can change the early review climate, since now reviews can come from all sorts of sources, not just the journalists given preview copies. What effect that has might depend on how good the game is (and how close to done the leaked version is).
A worse outcome than just the leaked version being available would be if it led to a flurry of negative reviews of the pre-release version, the way leaks of bad films have a much more negative effect on opening-weekend sales than leaks of good films do--- the didn't-see-it-because-everyone-said-it-sucked effect can be larger than the didn't-see-it-because-I-already-pirated-it effect.
The best outcome for EA would probably be a flood of reviews of the form: "wow this is an amazing game but a few things are broken in the leaked version, which I assume will be fixed by release".
Qz|15 years ago
electromagnetic|15 years ago
I disliked the game so much that I've essentially avoided any game with 'Cry' in it since playing Far Cry.
IMO the best outcome for EA would be a pre-release that with such great reviews that I would actually consider playing the demo, although that still requires the HDD space that I'd likely prefer to waste on a blu-ray rip of virtually any movie as I'd expect it to entertain me for longer (I love the 5hr gameplay that most FPS now provide, real 'bang' for my buck when I can usually spend less for an RPG that'll give me anywhere from >20 to 100 hours like Mass Effect/Dragon Age)
djtumolo|15 years ago
Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites. Crytek and EA are a bit shocked, but surprisingly ok with the news. Saves us the trouble of writing a demo! So check out the pirated, unofficial demo, and be sure to buy the full game when it comes out on March 22nd.
And try not to spoil yourself too much on the leak, the full game is much better already!
ZoFreX|15 years ago
Oh, and they have made a demo - it's been out on the 360 for a couple of weeks I think.
rlm|15 years ago
lionhearted|15 years ago
It's also not meant for people who play console games but don't use the internet much and don't know how to use a torrent site.
It's meant for the marginal person who could go either way - who might grudgingly torrent a movie or music album that can't be bought in his home country, but feels guilty about it and wants to support content creators.
There's people who are going to buy, no matter what - this message doesn't affect them. There's people who aren't going to buy, no matter what - this message doesn't affect them. There's also a marginal group of people who might buy or might not - they're trying to appeal to them.
Or who knows, maybe they really are just blaming piracy while letting the ship sink. I'd buy that explanation too.
wdewind|15 years ago
beaumartinez|15 years ago
Something like this could be the straw breaking the camel's back for Crytek releasing their next game on PC (and I don't blame them).
MichaelGG|15 years ago
That sounds quite oddly phrased. Why is it not "the PC gaming market" or something to that effect? Why should anyone care about a specific distribution model?
GrandMasterBirt|15 years ago
1) EA is obviously upset. They are asking people to wait to buy the game. This has two main reasons. The first being that the beta release is still buggy and will give a bad impression. The second being that they don't want people who would have otherwise bought the game get impatient and download it. Possibly seeing what a heap of crap it is.
2) EA did not bash the community. They just said "fans, please support us, piracy hurts our industry." Piracy of course referring to actually downloading and helping spread it. The response is basically "piracy is good, stfu, fuck off, you deserve it assholes". The response is completely blown out of proportion unless the OP was modified later on.
3) EA has nobody to blame but themselves. However they know this, and did not blame anyone else in the post. The responders seem to think otherwise.
4) I hate EA as much as the next buy, but lets be fair here.
That is all.
to|15 years ago
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