facebook rss twitter

The most pirated video games of 2009

by Steven Williamson on 29 December 2009, 09:37

Tags: TIGA, PC, Xbox 360, Wii

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavin

Add to My Vault: x

Despite selling millions of copies of Modern Warfare 2, the figures probably would have been even better if it wasn't for the pirates. Torrentfreak reports that Infinity Ward's shooter, despite only being two months old, is the most pirated video game of 2009.

"With 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version alone, the game more than doubles the achievement of last year’s ‘winner‘ Spore. Modern Warfare 2 leads both the PC and Xbox 360 lists, by a landslide, " claims the web site.

TorrentFreak gathers data from all public BitTorrent trackers and has revealed the top five most pirated games on each PC, Xbox 360 and Wii.

PC Game Downloads
1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000)
2 The Sims 3 (3,200,000)
3 Prototype (2,350,000)
4 Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000)
5 Street Fighter IV (1,850,000)

Xbox 360 Game Downloads
1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000)
2 Street Fighter IV (840,000)
3 Prototype (810,000)
4 Dirt 2 (790,000)
5 UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000)

Wii Game Downloads
1 New Super Mario Bros. (1,150,000)
2 Punch-Out!! (950,000)
3 Wii Sports Resort (920,000)
4 The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000)
5 Mario Power Tennis (830,000)

UK trade industry group, TIGA, recently conducted a survey among U.K. developers on the subject onf piracy and concluded that UK developers are taking the initiative when dealing with the issue of piracy and looking for new ways of delivering content and communicating directly with their consumers. Developers are not complacent in dealing with this problem and are mostly seeking to find solutions for themselves rather than simply relying on the Government to solve the problem of piracy.

Despite the argument that still arises now again that PC gaming may die if piracy continues at such a high rate, most developers view the actual threat of piracy to their business survival as low. According to the survey, only 20% ranking the threat as medium and only 10% considering the threat to be high.


HEXUS Forums :: 20 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Heh:

“Despite selling millions of copies of Modern Warfare 2, the figures would have been even better if it wasn't for the pirates.”


I hate to be critical but some supporting figures would be nice on that; nice, but not exactly possible.

If someone has pirated a game, does it necessarily mean they'd have bought it if they had no other choice? In a few cases yes.

A large majority of these pirates are going to be the sort of people who'd only legally own a game if their parents buy it for them for christmas.

I would almost guarantee that any number of actual sales lost through piracy would be counteracted by the sales *gained* by piracy. The amount of people I see buying games they'd pirated is quite high. Some because of the poor quality of demos, some because they'd rather get a bigger and better picture before committing 30 odd quid to a purchase.

So perhaps it's time to make demos better. For instance, I really, really wished I'd pirated a few games like Force Unleashed and Far Cry 2 before I bought them because holy hell : neither demo was representative of the game itself and both were terrible games - the latter of course is just IMO, the former just being a rubbish port.

Of course the point boils down to the original question.
Would the figures would have been even better if it wasn't for the pirates?

No.
Or what would the figure have been if infinity ward had not messed up the multiplayer?

How many people have I read about all over the internet that said they would pirate it if multiplayer wasn't fixed?

Its infinity wards own fault. They got what they deserved on this one. It is a good game don't get me wrong. But its too short and the MP is pants.

Mark
i cancelled my preorder because of the multiplayer issue save my money for BF bad company 2 next year
Meh, it's public tracker, no real use when half the data is missing.

I'll predict the most pirated game(s) in 2010 right now. Assassin's Creed II, Bioshock II and possibly Mafia II.
I am not going to buy a crappy port from IW. SC2 on the other hand, I am planning to buy.