Funny how he mentions PC piracy but doesn't mention used game market on the consoles. For the publishers/developers used game market=piracy because they do not see a single cent from used game sales. The retailer does however.
If you look at the total amount of units sold on the PC vs consoles and then compare the used sales vs pirated copies I bet you will find that used game sales are a much bigger problem then the PC piracy. Besides there are piracy on the consoles also but shh don't tell that to anyone.

Verno wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 11:18:
Just stick him on ignore then, no sense complaining about it when you have the tools available. It's been three months for me and it's made the site a lot more readable, he was a silly one note song.

I never killfiled anyone, ever. However some here in Blue sure make me think twice about it.

"We made a PC version of Bulletstorm, and it didn't do very well on PC and I think a lot of that was due to piracy. It wasn't the best PC port ever, sure, but also piracy was a pretty big problem."

Oh and yeah they do not want you to to dl it and try it, they want you to digitally purchase it or physically purchase it and have NO way to return it when you figure out its a crappy PC port.

They already did away with large boxes and decent manuals, but hey since the actual content of most of these games are miniscule you do not need a box or even a manual.

Knowing EA, Bulletstorm 2 was in the works before Bulletstorm was.

EA rarely funds anything they can't make into a serialized franchise so that's an amusingly safe bet

And Beamer once again being the fucking industry apologetic. No surprises there either.

Just stick him on ignore then, no sense complaining about it when you have the tools available. It's been three months for me and it's made the site a lot more readable, he was a silly one note song.

In spite of EA saying the original "under-performed," a sequel to Bulletstorm was in the works at People Can Fly

Knowing EA, Bulletstorm 2 was in the works before Bulletstorm was.

To the people buying the whole "Piracy is huge thing" you are brainwashed, piracy is made out to be much larger than it actually is, these people go to their board meetings and tell them this is why they failed, when in reality it is not the issue, Piracy is the "Get out of jail free card". Private research on this from different non affiliated groups have time and time again said it really is only about 10% or less of what they claim and the US is actually very low, yet the MPAA claim its higher and cry losses and are actually able to get tax write offs over it and act like fascist nazis in other countries. Every download is not a sale, and marketing plays a large factor never mind the current economy and it has been found that most people "able" to purchase a product will even after downloading. I used to purchase 4 boxed games per month, I may have returned 1 and received my money back. Guess what the things they claim are pc games are mostly console ports with very little effort in utilizing the pc's capabilities. The gaming and movie industry are running out of ideas and pushing out loads of garbage, then they play the "piracy card" , lol

Quite believing the hype because "piracy" is actually going to be used to get more control over the internet and cut off Americans from REAL INFORMATION not conspiracy theory stuff. Gee I saw a 2 hour History channel episode of engineers talking about why the 9/11 could not have happened the way it did, it never aired in the US, but if you want to believe everything you read without using logic or researching it go for it. The first of many things they will do when they get control over the internet will be shut off site like the one with 1500+ engineers asking for a REAL investigation into 9/11, so yeah feed the piracy hype by all means.

Beamer wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:04:
If people didn't want to play it then it wouldn't have been pirated like crazy.

Correlation does not equal causation.

Verno wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:18:
The lack of a real multiplayer mode didn't help (they had some weird hybrid co-op thing), I remember a friend of mine telling me he felt genuinely ripped off and he bought it on the 360.

The competitive co-op thing was surprisingly fun. I expected crap, it was actually entertaining enough for me to put 12-15 hours into it.

But yeah, I grabbed it for $40 and that wasn't the right price. $20 would have been better. At $5 it's a steal.

Step 1: Bad PC port of FPS riddled with consolitis.
Step 2: Blame piracy for bad PC sales.
Step 3: Profit!

So you guys wouldn't wager that 10% of pirates would purchase if piracy wasn't an option?

You think 10% is too high?



As for where millions come from, go to a major torrent site and look and see how many downloaded the game.

Bullestorm was a cliché over-the-top macho console shooter. I would assume the market for that was saturated. And on the PC, there never was a market for it.

Also didn't help Bulletstorm that it came near the release of Shogun 2 , Dead Space 2 and Crysis 2. On the PC that could have taken them any and all wind out of the sails.

And Beamer once again being the fucking industry apologetic. No surprises there either.

Epic massive marketing campaign for its PC-exclusive title has begun! First step, use the PC piracy card relentlessly to increase sales.

Didn't play this one because of the mediocre reviews, the horror stories of the PC port (which they openly admit was crap), and, it didn't help that Cliffy B couldn't keep his trap shut and mouthed off specifically at PC gamers.

But hey, piracy. Yeah.

As mentioned before, what's the explanation for the game selling like crap on consoles? Everyone with a PS3 and 360 just build a PC so they could pirate it?

Loved this game. Shame about the sales. Piracy is of course a massive problem but I don't think the game was marketed well on any platform. If Xbox sales were high it would have got a sequel, the PC thing likely has very little to do with it.

As for the port, it looks gorgeous and controlled well. Not sure what the big problem is supposed to be.

ItBurn wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:09:

Beamer wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:04:

ItBurn wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 09:57:
They just don't get it. The problem was that it wasn't a game that PC gamers wanted to play. Those people think that the content of a game has no link with sales.

If people didn't want to play it then it wouldn't have been pirated like crazy.

You can say people didn't want to pay for it, but undoubtedly if piracy was not an option then sales would have been better. While we can debate all day what portion of pirates would otherwise buy a game (low), I don't think anyone would argue none would.
If a game is pirated a million times I think it's safe to say that's 100,000 lost sales. Bulletstorm was pirated more than a million times.

The issue is a lot more complex than that. Personally, I didn't pirate it, but if the game was 15$, I probably would have bought it.

I had no interest or desire to purchase or play Bulletstorm prior to and/or after launch, but I was on Amazon a few weeks ago and saw the PC 'Limited Edition' for $7.99. So, I said what the heck, as I was already purchasing a few other low priced games. I haven't played it yet, so I don't know if it is any good, but with a fire sale for the 'Limited Edition' at $7.99 'should' be 'some' indication........

When I finally get around to playing it, then I’ll see if I wasted $7.99 even…….

If people didn't want to play it then it wouldn't have been pirated like crazy.

Not necessarily. There are quite a few people who simply download anything that comes out. And there are more people who download any "big name" game that comes out. Neither category actually plays all the games.

You can say people didn't want to pay for it, but undoubtedly if piracy was not an option then sales would have been better. While we can debate all day what portion of pirates would otherwise buy a game (low), I don't think anyone would argue none would.

No, but we can argue that some of the people who pirated it then went on to buy it, and some of the people that bought it only bought it based on a recommendation from someone who pirated it. The idea that piracy only has a negative impact has been discredited so many times it's surprising people still try and make that claim.

If a game is pirated a million times I think it's safe to say that's 100,000 lost sales. Bulletstorm was pirated more than a million times.

Is it pull-numbers-out-of-your-ass day? You are well aware that you don't actually have any evidence to support either of those numbers, so why throw them out there? They don't make you sound any more convincing - indeed, they make your argument a lot weaker by the fact that people realize you have no evidence for your numbers.

I picked up Bulletstorm when it went on sale recently and I found it to be a much better game than I expected. I played the demo but it didn't really grab me. The main reason I took so long to grab it was because of the price - it was just too expensive. Most games on Steam offer decent sales but it took too long with Bulletstorm. It's a shallow arcade-like shooter. They can't seriously expect to price it up with the Skyrim's of the gaming world and expect people to just accept it.

In terms of the port - the performance is excellent and the gameplay, while shallow, is not hugely console-like. The problems were the interface and the stripping away features taken for granted... like jumping. I cannot figure out why they thought it was a good idea to remove the ability to jump. It just doesn't make any sense.

If they'd taken a bit more time with the port, made a demo that was actually representative of the game (the game is much better than the demo suggests) and dropped the price much more rapidly then it could have done really well. Heck, even an unbelievably awesome game like Skyrim saw substantial price drops within months and that game offers 100x the value.

PS - They really don't understand the PC community if they're blaming piracy for poor sales. And it is ridiculous to announce on one day that Epic Games is making a PC exclusive title only for the next to slam the entire platform and suggest that piracy is making it unsustainable. Not only that but they also came out to defend on-disc DLC. WTF are they thinking? It's almost as if they're deliberately trying to sink the company.

Beamer wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:04:

ItBurn wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 09:57:
They just don't get it. The problem was that it wasn't a game that PC gamers wanted to play. Those people think that the content of a game has no link with sales.

If people didn't want to play it then it wouldn't have been pirated like crazy.

You can say people didn't want to pay for it, but undoubtedly if piracy was not an option then sales would have been better. While we can debate all day what portion of pirates would otherwise buy a game (low), I don't think anyone would argue none would.
If a game is pirated a million times I think it's safe to say that's 100,000 lost sales. Bulletstorm was pirated more than a million times.

Numbers pulled out of your ass are meaningless and unsanitary. If given a choice between pirating a game that has rather meh reviews, or buying it, many will pirate it. I don't see any evidence that those people would be willing to pay $60 for the game if they couldn't pirate it.

Beamer wrote on Apr 10, 2012, 10:04:
While we can debate all day what portion of pirates would otherwise buy a game (low), I don't think anyone would argue none would.
If a game is pirated a million times I think it's safe to say that's 100,000 lost sales. Bulletstorm was pirated more than a million times.

Here's the thing though... Legitimate purchasers of games care about as much about that, as they care about supporting the legitimate PC Game purchasers.

Basically, they need to quit whining about it. It is not OUR fault, we're sick of hearing about it, and we're sick of paying the price of being treated automatically as thieves.

They really need to just STFU about it. Especially when there's clear evidence that the product did poorly because the market didn't desire it.