Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

Well from what I understand, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory has finally been cracked.

Why is this significant? Because for the last 15 years, ELSPA and it's American equivelant have been screaming how Piracy was hurting sales. Now finally, they have some tangible evidence to support their rabid claims.

If ELSPA is correct in their assumptions, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will have out-sold every other game released since, by several orders of mangitude.

Now I'm going to bet dollars to doughnuts that the real numbers say that Splinter Cell Chaos Theory did not sell statistically significanly more copies than any other game on the market, including previous Splinter Cell games.

Now ELSPA and ESA being trade organizations, would be obligated to commit to ful disclosure, in order to justify their continued existance, and the rediculous fees they extort from their members. So realisticly, if ELSPA or the ESA don't release a we-told-you-so press release in the next week or so, the fair assumption would be that piracy does not hurt sales, and our trade organizations are lying to us, in order to get more of our money, to spend on this rediculous witch hunt.

... are you working on a sequel to The DaVinci Code?

is that what this is?

:)

--Mike

Do you have any links?

Are you talking about the theory that for those people who only played copied games, if they couldn't play copied games, they wouldn't bother buying them either and thus no money has actually been lost or gained either way?

Links: Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Cracked - ELSPA.

I'm talking about ELSPA spending real money catching pirates. If piracy does not effect sales, they should spend that money on something that is gainful to the industry, and let the police worry about the lawbreakers. My point is that since Chaos Theory has been uncopyable for a year or so, it must have broken every sales record in the book, if piracy hurts sales.

i think that you're missing the point again 'duck... the copyright laws are generally to protect intellectual property from unlicensed and unauthorized exploitation... sales are but a single point of contention here, and would be difficult at best to gather fact based data to support your stance...

... as a matter of fact, it might be argued that piracy aids sales of some intellectual property in fact.

regardless, and quoting from the very links you yourself providied, it seems as if anti piracy efforts are just a single aspect of their 'activities'...



i don't understand your sudden call to arms against this rising 'evil' in our midst... could you explain a little...

--Mike

First of all you could only compare this game with its two prequels and you'd have to figure out when those prequels were cracked to determine the sales difference. Then you'd have to check for an incline in the sales curve between #1 all the way to #3 and see if the game is merely following the traditional sequel patter or if for some reason since #3 took longer to crack it had abnormally high sales. I do know people who will use a crack if that's the path of least resistance for them but I also know they'd pay for the game if they had the money.

The problem is that games are so low on the totem pole as far as things one needs to spend their money on. First of all they're of the most expensive you can indulge in for a single serving (one game vs. one movie or CD) and second of all which is a compounding factor is that they are time consuming so they eat up more energy than just about any other form of entertainment. You spend a huge amount of money and time when you invest in a game. I suppose this can be well worth it in some cases.

Anyway, I'm sure piracy does hurt sales to an extent. I know some casual people who would buy a game if that was the only option available. Just the same I'm sure the majority wouldn't even look twice at a game unless they could get it for free. Some hard sales statistics would be good.

I refuse to belive piracy of computer games is harming anyone any more than piracy of vhs tapes or dvds.

People just *don't bother* with piracy if they have an income, and those without an income wouldn't buy as they have a much higher priorities to spend their money on.

And those without an income aren't going to buy the game. Its always been this way.

Back in the Amiga scene, piracy I believe did hurt the industry. The industry wasn't this big, you couldn't get a game in the supermarket or anywhere and the whole world was different.

Now, I am utterely convinced that:

A) its hard to find a pirate game for the majority of normal computer users (read: you're the minority and programmers)

B) people with incomes don't CARE about buying games. Its small money! Its EASIER! its' FASTER! It's all-round preferable!

C) people without much money will never buy these games ANYWAY, far higher priorities to be spending your money on! Like the rent, perhaps. And those that do, would have saved up so long to make them an utterely tiny statistic.

yeah, also I like collecting games, not copies. Same with kung fu DVDs (cheap ones of ebay etc).

I know many people who say that if DVDs/CDs were cheaper they'd buy them instead of copy them as it wouldn't be worth the time to copy them anymore. Maybe it would be good if everyone in hollywood wasn't paid so much to make movies.

As far as I'm aware, no game in the history of computer games have being uncrackable. I don't know why people go to such great lengths to try and prevent it.

I had no idea that Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had managed not to be cracked all this time. It's an impressive achievement, but I doubt it's had a significant impact on sales. ELSPA and Co won't admit they're wrong regardless. Why would they? Turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

From what I know, Hired Guns for the Amiga was never properly cracked, as it didn't hit you with the copy protection scheme until a good way into the game, and no-one caught it. Ofcourse this probably won't work these days.

You're probably right. I'm probably being a bit too idealistic.

Also it would have to be proven that Chaos Theory is as commercially good as the previous titles.
If not Elspa could say, "
Well the reason it took so long for people to crack it, was it was rubish and no one could be bothered, but LOOK, even though it was rubbish, it still sold as many copies as X,(A good Game)"
(I think, looking back this is what Alessi said)