Hackers steal 30,000 Steam keys from indie game dev.

[xserd]

This is why we can't have nice things.

Yesterday, Wadjet Eye Games, the New York-based game developer behind great adventure games like Gemini Rue and Resonance, said it would give away free Steam download keys of the studio's spooky game Blackwell Deception, in the spirit of Halloween.

What happened next can be described as blatant abuse of a nice offer from a small independent game developer.

Within a narrow window of time overnight, opportunistic downloaders who found a badly-placed public link to a key generator for the promotional campaign took over 30,000 Steam keys for Blackwell Deception. This led Wadjet Eye's president Dave Gilbert to end the promotion early (it was supposed to go through today).

Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/203879/When_a_free_game_promotion_went_all_wrong_Wadjet_had_to_pull_the_plug.php

[Torand]

Such a dick move...

 

"This is why we can't have nice things."

 

:unsure:

[Jeroen1322]

That is indeed a dick move why would you do such a thing?

[Samdb]

That's not cool at all.

[Daannnyy]

Wow, you'd have to be a special kind of asshole to do this. I feel so bad for the game Devs :\

[YouRezz]

And then the whole pc gaming scene is marked as pirates

"we make no money on pc, because they are pirates"

                                                  -plenty of game devs

[Hoppa]

Some people.... Are just beyond stupid.

[Thibaudv]

Seriously they'd better stolen from uplay/EA

[Torg73]

I hate it when people take more then they need, it spoil's it for everyone else, you just what to hunt them down and go "medieval on there ass"

[Purple]

I was hoping they stole from Phil fish.

 

That sucks that they "stole" so many.

[Torand]

And then the whole pc gaming scene is marked as pirates

"we make no money on pc, because they are pirates"

                                                  -plenty of game devs

 

I hate this argument, thoroughly.

 

It's been shown, that pirating has no effect on sales figures or profit margins in any industry for that matter, not just gaming.

 

I don't agree with piracy, but looking at the latest arguments for why, for example, Rockstar didn't want GTA V on PC, initially, was because they didn't want the game to be pirated. Then their sales figures came in from console alone, boosh, at those numbers, piracy really is a non-issue.

 

As has been said, time and time again, it's a distribution issue. You make the purchase process easier for the end user and get rid of all those stupid hoops the consumer has to jump through and you've solved it.

 

I know a big problem, take Minecraft for example; that games age range is infinite with no limit or social stigma is attached to that game. But I could safely say that that game is pirated a lot more by <18's just simply because their parents do not trust payment systems on the internet. Now, I personally find it quite funny that Dinnerbone's twitter has a lot of people complaining at him when a new updated breaks their cracked version of the game, in which he gives an appropriate response, not urging them to buy the game just be mindful that he isn't going to fix problems for an issue in which they are trying to inadvertent dispose of. I know you can get pre-paid cards, but that has its own barrel of issues, including the internet having a very bad stigma with my parents age range, 'the previous generation' (making a very generalized and sweeping comment here, i know), ie. 35-45, certainly my mum cannot see any of my time on the 'net as productive. Where as my grandad, 60~, is still very, very much in tune with technology and loves it. 

 

It's a very touchy subject both legally and morally. But the issue is on both sides, in which something needs to be sorted out before either take it too far.

[CwGoh]

Wow dick move. I'd thought they would at least steal from a dick developer like WildGamesStudio.

[LAwLz]

And then the whole pc gaming scene is marked as pirates

"we make no money on pc, because they are pirates"

                                                  -plenty of game devs

Who says that exactly? Consoles has a ton of piracy as well.

[YouRezz]

I hate this argument, thoroughly.

 

It's been shown, that pirating has no effect on sales figures or profit margins in any industry for that matter, not just gaming.

 

I don't agree with piracy, but looking at the latest arguments for why, for example, Rockstar didn't want GTA V on PC, initially, was because they didn't want the game to be pirated. Then their sales figures came in from console alone, boosh, at those numbers, piracy really is a non-issue.

 

As has been said, time and time again, it's a distribution issue. You make the purchase process easier for the end user and get rid of all those stupid hoops the consumer has to jump through and you've solved it.

 

I know a big problem, take Minecraft for example; that games age range is infinite with no limit or social stigma is attached to that game. But I could safely say that that game is pirated a lot more by <18's just simply because their parents do not trust payment systems on the internet. Now, I personally find it quite funny that Dinnerbone's twitter has a lot of people complaining at him when a new updated breaks their cracked version of the game, in which he gives an appropriate response, not urging them to buy the game just be mindful that he isn't going to fix problems for an issue in which they are trying to inadvertent dispose of. I know you can get pre-paid cards, but that has its own barrel of issues, including the internet having a very bad stigma with my parents age range, 'the previous generation' (making a very generalized and sweeping comment here, i know), ie. 35-45, certainly my mum cannot see any of my time on the 'net as productive. Where as my grandad, 60~, is still very, very much in tune with technology and loves it. 

 

It's a very touchy subject both legally and morally. But the issue is on both sides, in which something needs to be sorted out before either take it too far.

I didnt say i agree with it, i just said thats what media makes of it and tell to public 

[YouRezz]

Who says that exactly? Consoles has a ton of piracy as well.

Rockstar for example has said it.. yes consoles have piracy too but its much harder to be a pirate on consoles than on pc, and in general media the pc is marked as the market with the most pirates

[LAwLz]

Rockstar for example has said it.. yes consoles have piracy too but its much harder to be a pirate on consoles than on pc, and in general media the pc is marked as the market with the most pirates

Haha no, it's not harder to pirate on a console. Good example with RockStar, remember all the people who played GTA 5 before it was released? Guess how they played it? Pirating on a console is super easy. All you need is a chipped or flashed console (easier to find than legit ones on sites like eBay) and then burn downloaded games to a DVD. Don't even think the games has any kinf of DRM on them so you can just make an ISO of the DVD on your computer, and then burn it to a blank DVD. No cracking needed. I couldn't find any quote from RockStar where they talk about piracy on the PC either.

 

If anything, it's easier to pirate on consoles if you got it chipped or flashed (again, you can just buy a preflashed one on eBay for basically the same price as the normal console costs). Oh and don't get me started on how hilariously easy it is to pirate on mobile platforms like Android.

[TheMissxu]

Indie game dev and steam cancel 30,000 steam keys. Game over.

[EricX2]

Haha no, it's not harder to pirate on a console. Good example with RockStar, remember all the people who played GTA 5 before it was released? Guess how they played it? Pirating on a console is super easy. All you need is a chipped or flashed console (easier to find than legit ones on sites like eBay) and then burn downloaded games to a DVD. Don't even think the games has any kinf of DRM on them so you can just make an ISO of the DVD on your computer, and then burn it to a blank DVD. No cracking needed. I couldn't find any quote from RockStar where they talk about piracy on the PC either.

 

If anything, it's easier to pirate on consoles if you got it chipped or flashed (again, you can just buy a preflashed one on eBay for basically the same price as the normal console costs). Oh and don't get me started on how hilariously easy it is to pirate on mobile platforms like Android.

 

Is that still true with current gen consoles? I thought the xbox 360 would kick you off live if you were using a hacked console and I think PS3 would do that same thing. Not to say that wouldn't stop people, but I wouldn't take the risk seeing how expensive Live is. You wouldn't get a refund.

[EricX2]

Seems like the keys would be stored in a DB, just delete all those keys then they wouldn't be able to activate... Next step for indie... create 30,000 more keys. Encrypt keys in DB.

[ericlee30]

Who says that exactly? Consoles has a ton of piracy as well.

It's called, blind stupidity and ignorance is bless. I hate the fact that we PC gamers get called "pirates" and always gets the figure pointed at us. Honestly it makes me sick , that the world is one sided on a ton of stuff that goes on.

[Torand]

I didnt say i agree with it, i just said thats what media makes of it and tell to public 

 

No, sorry, i wasn't directing that at you. I was using your quote to backup my statement!

 

I was agree'ing with you.

[LAwLz]

Is that still true with current gen consoles? I thought the xbox 360 would kick you off live if you were using a hacked console and I think PS3 would do that same thing. Not to say that wouldn't stop people, but I wouldn't take the risk seeing how expensive Live is. You wouldn't get a refund.

Yes you can get kicked off live, just like you can't play pirated PC games in multiplayer. It's not really any different.

[Ineko]

Haha no, it's not harder to pirate on a console. Good example with RockStar, remember all the people who played GTA 5 before it was released? Guess how they played it? Pirating on a console is super easy. All you need is a chipped or flashed console (easier to find than legit ones on sites like eBay) and then burn downloaded games to a DVD. Don't even think the games has any kinf of DRM on them so you can just make an ISO of the DVD on your computer, and then burn it to a blank DVD. No cracking needed. I couldn't find any quote from RockStar where they talk about piracy on the PC either.

 

If anything, it's easier to pirate on consoles if you got it chipped or flashed (again, you can just buy a preflashed one on eBay for basically the same price as the normal console costs). Oh and don't get me started on how hilariously easy it is to pirate on mobile platforms like Android.

 

That requires you buy a new console, that's harder than finding a torrent and clicking download.

[Ineko]

Yes you can get kicked off live, just like you can't play pirated PC games in multiplayer. It's not really any different.

 

Tunggle says hello. There are many online communities for pirated games. IW net for example, pretty much every CoD game has been playable online with working matchmaking and a player base big enough to actually find games. If you're ever going to pirate anything, PC would be the best platform to do it on.

[Imaginaerum]

Haha no, it's not harder to pirate on a console. Good example with RockStar, remember all the people who played GTA 5 before it was released? Guess how they played it? Pirating on a console is super easy. All you need is a chipped or flashed console (easier to find than legit ones on sites like eBay) and then burn downloaded games to a DVD. Don't even think the games has any kinf of DRM on them so you can just make an ISO of the DVD on your computer, and then burn it to a blank DVD. No cracking needed. I couldn't find any quote from RockStar where they talk about piracy on the PC either.

 

If anything, it's easier to pirate on consoles if you got it chipped or flashed (again, you can just buy a preflashed one on eBay for basically the same price as the normal console costs). Oh and don't get me started on how hilariously easy it is to pirate on mobile platforms like Android.

Downloading the game with a crack is way easier than flashing or finding a flashed console...