Although Steam has stymied the problem, some developers have gone out of their way to sympathize with the pirates. Dennation Games, the developers of the recent indie hit Hotline Miami, have taken that solution one step further by providing technical support in the comments section of their cracked game on The Pirate Bay.
The following is the first comment one of the creators of Hotline Miami left underneath the torrent for his game:
He then went on to provide links to a few Pirate Bay users that were having technical issues with their copies of the game. As evidenced by his attitude on The Pirate Bay along with several tweets he sent out, he and his development team hope everyone who enjoys the game buys it through either Steam or Good Old Games, but as he says, “I know what it’s like not having money.”
Last year we put together a feature detailing ten fun ways to prevent piracy without alienating the gaming community. Dennation Games’ decision to not only forego any action against the pirates, but instead engage them just as wholeheartedly and helpfully as they engage paying customers seems to be the most effective way to deal with a tricky situation like this. When Louis C.K. released his stand-up special last year for five dollars and asked people to please pay if they could, he made over one million dollars.
Piracy is a problem without many real solutions, but content creators understand the inherent risk of putting their hard work on the internet. The press Hotline Miami’s developer has received just by being pleasant to those who can’t or won’t pay for their game might even outweigh the lost profit from piracy. I guess if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Be sure to check back for our review of Hotline Miami later this week.
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Follow me on Twitter @JacobSiegal.
Source: Eurogamer
