|
|
Fallout 3 already pirated for the Xbox 360
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 10th October 2008
Fallout 3 is still 20 days ahead of release, but has already been made available as an Xbox 360 torrent.
More than 20 days before release and on the same day that the game goes gold, the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 has been leaked as a torrent.
The torrent has only been available for a few hours and we've checked on a number of torrent sites to see how available the pirated version is - and it's very available, unfortunately. Worse, the code has only been available for a few hours at most and has already clocked up between 15,000 and 20,000 downloads at a conservative estimate.
Because the game has been made available so early, the current speculation is that the code is a copy of an early review edition or a leak of the master code from one of the factories where the discs are currently being made. Either way, the torrent weighs in at a convincing 6.52 GB.
The official version of the game is shipping on the Xbox 360 as a lead platform but will also be available for PC and PlayStation 3. Fallout 3 goes on sale at the end of October - there are more details in our Fallout 3 hands-on preview.
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Related articles on bit-tech.net
Comments (85)
QFT - that's why there's the war between consumers and the industry wrt DRM... Invasive DRM gives the perception of 'protection' for the industry, invasive DRM upsets customers and consequently leads to more piracy, developers flock away from the platform - it's a vicious circle. And I don't think either side wants to give a little slack. :(
Of course, some are just theiving b*stards but they would never have bought it anyway...
Piracy is killing
PCConsole Gaming!20 days early is rather horrifying. By the time the actual release rolls around, that will have been about for ages. Not a good thing. Maybe they'll push the release date forward. If they do, hope they push the PC release forward too.
Seems the only system that is more or less immune to piracy at the minute is the PS3... from the industry perspective, Sony seem to have got that right, at least.
That's not funny!... *snigger*
It's easily enough removable at pre-gold release so that it doesn't ruin the build release code's "QC".
That way, when one of these dodgy versions show up like this, the publisher can torrent it, test the button-combo and get the unique id, see who this was originally sent to, and f**k them up legally!
As a dev myself, I can think of a dozen ways for me to "test" which pre-release of code someone has. It isn't that hard to do...
True, it doesn't "stop" piracy, but it sure helps identify who released it! At least in these situations.. not on a mass market release, mind you...
I agree, it'll be hard for them to blame piracy solely on the PC crowd now but then again they may say they PC piracy has lead us to this point.
So I guess "Oh noes" quite fits the situation
I hope Microsoft has some kind of system that can detect anyone playing this version and banning his account. >:(
Isn't that the truth.
Unfortunate.
However, it opens an opportunity to check the "PC is pirate heaven" claim.
Just have to keep track of the downloads of this X360 version and compare them to the coming downloads of the PC version in three weeks.
Ratio would be, what? 1:10? 1:20? (X360:PC)
But we shall not disappoint them, if it's worth we shall buy it! They have always been honest with PC gamers(so far). No DRM, activations, just a simple copy-protection. I'm looking forward to play & buy it.
But it would be fitting if this leaked version was some kind of low level HDD formating virus or whatever to screw up pirates...
Yes, I did. I know a little about xbox. Perhaps red-ring virus would be much more effective:)
Dont really think that whoever pirates the X360 version uses different methods than the ones who will pirate the PC version.
Piracy is limited on consoles because AFAIK it requires the use of a mod-chip for pirated games to work - this puts the piracy out of the reach of the more casual pirate into the hardcore pirates. PC piracy is more rampant because anyone can pirate games - you don't need any special hardware mods to allow you to play pirated games on your PC.
Also, where in the **** do you "Piracy is immoral" people get off your horse on this one? The game isn't available. ANYWHERE. It won't be available for the rest of the month. At this point, there is a 0.0000000000000000000000000000000% chance of this affecting sales, provided the game isn't pants. If this thing IS real, the people playing it now will probably end up buying it later provided they like it, if for nothing other than to get back through around the bugs, as well as get the achievements (You'd be retarded to play this while connected to XBL).
So yeah, it's a DISC IMAGE. It's not like you went and punched a baby and stole his copy of fallout 3. Take the cock of the ethics crowd out of your mouths, and maybe discuss a relevant issue for once, please?
Edit: Fibble - modding a 360 is actually far simpler than a chip; at the current time provided you have a compatible DVD drive, it just requires a special SATA card, a torx t10 screwdriver, and a usb key to boot from.
BTW the red ring is a overheating issue :P
I say let the consoles get some flak
/*sticks head in sand*/
Nope, nothing to see here, move along...........
The 360 really doesn't need a modchip. You can flash the cdrom firmware just like a mobo and there you have it a modded 360.
I know it's overheating issue.
*ducks*
So, they can now have an excuse for an eventual poor sale?
But anyway, I thought a lot of zero-day releases (or even -20 day releases like this one) either came from the disc pressing factories or from stores who get stock in early for release day.
If games companies want to stamp out piracy, focus on the source of the problem (pre-release leakage), not on those people who bought the game and are therefore actually supporting the games companies.
QFT - Quoted For Truth
Personally i've got the Pc version of the collectors ed. on pre-order, wanted a little pip-boy figure since i first played the originals :)
Nail on the head. To all these people who are saying developers have egg on their faces, they don't. I don't think one ever said there was no piracy on consoles, because they're not stupid (for the most part). What they said is they don't develop for PCs because there is a high amount of piracy. Yes there is piracy on consoles, but it's nowhere near as high as on PCs.
BUT, the fact is guys, the rate of piracy on PC dwarfs consoles, so devs do still have a point.
This is straight BS. There are going to be a very significant number of people who will pirate this now and then never buy it legitimately, assuming the cracked version is basically stable.. I can't see how you can possibly argue that this doesn't translate to lost sales. You're seriously contending that people are going to cough up the $60 so they can get their XBL Achievements? You've got to be kidding me.
Also, when the value is 0, you really only need one digit to convey that.
Second, the government can't do anything about it. If it shuts down one server a dozen others will spring up. Also it can't shut down servers that are located in other countries where it is legal to host torrents. Piracy has always existed and will always exist, there's not way to stop it. You either ignore it or you stop making games/music/movies/whatever and do something else.
Even without facts or figures, it's pretty stupid to argue against this point.
There is also nothing illegal about running a torrent web site, the government can shut it down while it investigates, but it will find no illegal files on the server, so they have to drop it.
I also don't think they should be shut down, torrents are a fantastic way of distributing data, and there's a definite legal use for them.
Actually it kind of is. The government has a duty to protect it's citizens. If someone is stealing a citizens IP, they're harming their income and the government need to stop it. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot they can do as most piracy methods lie where the law can't do anything about it.
Here in the china you can buy "any" xbox 360 because they are on those wonderful dvd's... So even though blu-ray has been taking a spill lately (like everything else economic wise) expect for it to pull ahead further on down the road because of it's foundation. I rember a bit-tech article from years past saying that the blu-ray disc is that last portable data medium and I'd guess that to.... with the exception of 1tb usb 4.0 flash drives. Downloadable or "steamable" content is the future it is...
How is it stupid? You can't expect people to believe something without proof just because some developers say it.
A couple of minutes and I have a ratio of 1:53 (X360:PC) in ".torrent" downloads. :(
True but what are the ownership figures... 1:53000(X360:PC) once you include all the pc's in operation remember statistics can say any thing ;)
Named/shamed yet?
Now think on the game company point of view.
53 PC gamers playing without paying versus 1 console gamer playing without paying.
To what market would you develop your next game?
PS:
Do note that the 53 number came from a fast head count. Real ratio can be different.
You can do your own head count. ;)
The market that has the most paying customers, regardless of how many pirate it. Because it doesn't matter if a million people piate it on PC if more people buy it than those who buy the 360 version. You shouldn't look at how many pirate your game but how many buy it.
Console gamers bought more CoD4 copies than PC gamers.
It's opinions like that that make people worry about Big Brother in the first place.
Mate, you seriously have your facts wrong. I challenge you to find any torrent site that hosts a pirated piece of software. The torrent sites aren't doing anything wrong, they are just providing an index to its users who most definetly ARE doing something wrong. That's why governments only go for the really big torrent sites to try and slow everyone down. But no government will ever be able to stop torrenting, because of it's massively distributed upload nature, it's virtually impossible to wipe it out completely and it'll never happen.
If enforcement agencies really wanted to do something about piracy then they should be aiming for the scene.
Or don't have the money to spend on several $70+ games woth only a ~$350 salary.Think about that before you start bashing...
Also how am I suppose to know if the game is worth my money when there's no demo for Fallout 3?How can I be sure that the game is of the quality one would expect when paying $70+ - just look at Stalker: Clear Sky...
Bit-tech reviews, youtube reviews, friends, forums, in store demos, Zero Punctuation...
Oh well....everyone has their genre just like they have their own ways in testing, reviewing etc a game.
Spot on, all these downloads are worthless without the effort put in by crackers to create keygens/nocd cracks or bypass drm.
Yeah, and I totally saw this movie at my friend's house, and now I'm never gonna' buy it.
You seem to think that EVERY SINGLE Xbox 360 in existance is modded. You seem to think that every single person with a console has the know how on how to do this. If someone was going to pirate the game, they'll do it now, or in the 20 days when it came out. The fact that it's leaked early is meaningless.
To make it simpler for your linear brain [Black, White; discard thought path], when something gets leaked to a crowd that's going to pirate it is irrelevant.
As to console safety... it's just as hard to pirate for them as the PC, sadly. But hey, when it comes to piracy protection, shed the restrictions management, and go with a good CD check. That way buyers can play without issues, and piracy remains unchanged.
Also, as to the idea of a government going after other countries to protect the IP of it's citizens, that's not care, that's facism. Let's enforce our rules on the rest of the world, right?
No. I don't care whether Fallout 3, or any other game, was pirated. I do care about the organizations behind curtains that have the game industry on strings and what their next move in reaction to this will be.
Seriously, you can use xbox live silver, without paying a cent for live service. So you can get the updates even if you don't want to pay for the whole gold membership. But for those without an inet connection, you would be out of luck, so just put a nice little sticker on the outside, stating xbox live enabled account is a requirement to playing the game. It's not like there aren't already games released that are required to have live service. And if you don't have live, don't buy the game.
So now, in the future, if you want to play a game, you have to dowload a "key" that is in reality the last 2% of the game in order to play it.
Anyway, just food for thought.
For those who are strapped for cash, get steam.
Every once in a while they do special offers.
I got the whole Rockstar collection a couple of weekends back for $34.99. All the GTA's, Wild metal, etc etc...
Oblivion wasn't very well protected, and was actually passed to me on DVD. I was very surprised it had little to no copy protection.
I now own Oblivion and all the add-ons, which I bought, even going the extra mile to buy horse armour when it was free on the expansion pack that came out a little later...
If its a good game, it will sell....
Joe isn't that every PC gamer, and seems to be most console gamers, every PC game that I own requires a patch and 4 out of 5 PS3 games that I own require patching, and the 360 is just as bad.
The 360 has had it's games pirated since release, it's easier to get the console to play pirate games than any of the previous generations (you don't even need to chip it). Of course the developers will continue to blame the PC for piracy and will ignore the 360 piracy the same way they have been for the past few years.
it my only theory of so much damaged disk :D
anyway i can't wait fallout 3 + Fable 2 : TWO RPG. 5 DAY OF Launch difference