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Fallout 3 Xbox 360 Pirated
Often it's PC games that end up on torrent sites before they hit store shelves. But here's a situation where a highly-anticipated console game is pirated well before release.
The Xbox 360 version of Bethesda's Fallout 3 has already appeared on file-sharing sites, despite the fact it doesn't officially release until October 28 in North America.
Users on one pirating site claim that the file available is not a retail copy of the game, rather a copy of a review version of Fallout 3.
Playing pirated games on an Xbox 360 requires a modified console and a capable DVD burner, file-sharers stated.
Bethesda, which is aware of the situation, offered a "no comment" when contacted by Edge on the matter.
PWND!
Sounds like console manufacturers need to be more strict with their "Review" copies of games that are sent out early.
Personally, I think it would be a good idea to eliminate the "early" review copies of games altogether. If this was done, it would mean that companies like Konami no longer have the power to force reviewers to sign contracts so that they can't penalize games for ripping on problems such as the long "installs" in Metal Gear Solid 4. Policies like that lead to unfair review scores.
Point taken, but you couldn't leave out the obligatory PS bashing, which just took away your trustworthiness. Again. Nice try though. At least we're glad to have a comment without caps.
On topic: what do you think about P Molyneux's latest letter to reviewers? (Hint: he did the very same thing as Konami: asked politely to take the game 'unbiased'. A word you don't understand.)
Well, as X360s are really easy to modify and in fact can be bought modified (I saw this in a shop in Vienna - the price is just €50 over the standard issue), I'm not so sure this will not hurt the sales.
Nor am I sure that this is an accident. Microsoft needs to have a lot of Xboxen in the hands of users to bury PS3 before it can get a big enough user base. M$ is also, probably, starting to earn money on the boxes as the price of components has gone down in the last few years.
So, what does Xbox 360 really have that PS3 doesn't and that will sell more of it in the times of credit crunch? Well, free games - as PS3 games cannot be pirated.
If we go a step back and ask ourselves why did PSOne sell so much better than Nintendo consoles in those days, the ease of pirating is again one of the key factors people usually fail to mention.
The history is repeating and Blu-ray may be the death of Sony yet as the cartridge nearly spelled the death of Nintendo, They wisened up since, though. Wii is notoriously easy to mod.
I Completely agree With PS3 Being "unpiratable".
But even so, would it have been worth it to Rip open and Brick your $400 or more system?
Xbox does Have Free games, at the expense of the industry. If Pirating wasnt so "cool" We wouldnt have this issue.
Blue Ray is still Great, overall. But the profit margins on using Blue-ray Tech over using standard DVD is not as Great. But as a gaming Medium, If Sony came down in Prices they would make thier money Back.
Who is to say that Sony isnt responsible for Making the Xbox Look weak to Pirating Communities?
This would be great Propoganda to Game companies who dont want to Put their games on a system they cant make money from.
This is becoming Conspiracy theory.....lol
I remember when it was the Chinese (at one time if I am correct) that Pirated Games and stuff because they would not sell certain games and stuff in their country, so they made it available to the people in thier country.
anyway, There is no reason that they couldnt make games affordable enough for the Poorest of the poor to play and become community. Remember the first Nintendo? It was great. Not too much Piracy, but again, it was a cartrige... which takes us back to your Point.
One love
Sixty dollars is sixty dollars, and I know that can be alot of money for many folks, but every gamer and consumer should understand, that games have not gone up with inflation almost ever.
From when we were kids up until now most games have released at $50
Some N64 games were 60 to 75 dollars, but those were special cases.
Point being is that we should be grateful that games are only 60 dollars, they could be more now with inflation and higher costs on all parties' end; be it Publisher, Developer, and Console maker.
The 10 dollar difference we see now goes to Nintendo, MS, or Sony and the rest goes to the Dev & Publisher, everyone deserves their share too.
Also Consider that consoles actual hardware costs alot if purchased like a desktop PC.
Anyways you get the point, you are saving money on the hardware itself and games have never really gone up in price like other things in this world have.
:)
WOW
2 things.
Blessing: The Price of Piracy comes from People who simply cannot afford to play The games, Hence the Ultimate Payback for High Prices and the Crippling of Us Spontaneous Game Buyers Who Like to walk out of the store with More than one Game;
Curse: Total Justification In the Digital Distribution Model that they Continuously Work on day By day.
I Don't Agree With Pirating, But I also Dont Disagree With Buying Games Second Hand. $60 is too much (unless the game is UNBELEIVEABLY COOL), But all of these Games that Come out at $60 is ridiculous. Now if all of the cool games were $30-$40 Dollars, People would be happier to Buy the Game and Own the Case it came with. I watched Youtube, and You see all of the scrubs Grabbing the Pirated Discs Like they had Monkey Grips; Like those are the Guys that take thier Games to pawnshops(you know, the Games that Look Like someone is Snorting Coke off of them).
I am a Legit Game owner. I own over 250 Xbox Games (for both systems). I wouldnt mind for once walking out of the store with 2-3 games for $100.
Fallout 3 though, is worth more than $60, from my Gatherings. Lets right these wrongs and Buy the Game, People. Before Microsoft Uses This as Propoganda for Digital distribution.
I am like the rest of you guys. I want to Own My Plastic. I Dont want to Leave my Xbox on for 8 hours to download a game, then have to choose what to keep on my Harddrive because they wont let you Upgrade the Drive Affordably. I am 33 Damnit! STOP TELLING ME WHAT I FREAKING WANT!!!! IF YOU WANNA MAKE ME HAPPY, GIVE ME SPLITSCREEN SHOOTERS!!!!!
IM PC!
Pretty good post, except for the leaving your xbox on for 8 hours (your 360 can download while off) and you WANT splitscreen? Not only is splitscreen so N64, but it forces to developers to either make the single screen multi/single player look a little worse so there's not a difference when going from single screen to multi-screen, or make the single screen look great, but degrade the quality when going to multiscreen. Who wants to play a gorgeous single screen game, then have details/effects turned off so it'll run in splitscreen? I would have preferred Halo 3 to look better instead of offering 4 player newb screen. My wife and I own two 360s and two copies of Halo 3 so we don't have to do split screen. And most games don't offer split screen online multplayer so you really have to have two copies of everything if you're serious (competitive) about gaming. And not to mention splitscreen screws up surround sound which I rely on to know where I'm being shot from when its off-screen.
Anyway, other than that, I thought what you had to say was pretty spot on. ^^
The only thing I dislike about the pricing of games is that in Europe, we still get the "same" price... so a game that's 60 dollar is 60-70 euro in Europe. 60 euro is currently 81 dollar (and the dollar has gone up a lot lately, actually).
Am I getting Fallout 3 at the day of its release though? Definitely - cause, as stated, I think it's worth it.
However, a game like "Hellboy: The Science of Evil", at 74 euro, is not a game I even consider for this price... but then again, I wouldn't even buy that one second-hand, I guess. ;)
Now see?
Classic Case of "taking advantage of the consumer.
Should we pay the same price for an AUDI as we would pay for a Ferrari?
Even though The Programmers Got paid already for Programming the Game, Would it hurt the Publisher to sell HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of copies at 30 Dollars? (ok $80 dollars a game? wow. i would definitely hang up my controllers and stay a generation behind)
all of the developers making games that last Less than 10 hours should be ashamed of themselves.
60 - 80 bucks? NO WAY.
But Pirating Games? thats worse.
Remember, Pirating comes from People who look for cheaper ways to entertain themselves.
If Companies stop putting the squeeze on Used game sales, then maybe the poor of us can afford to game legally.
Much love and Respect for your craft.
lol @ the choice of pic for this story!
This actually really upsets me. I have a friend at Bethesda Softworks and well... i just feel bad. I'm not going to get all preachy, but this just sucks because I know people involved. This really won't affect the game sales though I don't think. This is such a huge game.
This is hardly a big deal. X-Box 360 is only pirated by a handful of individuals. So the threat to Bethesda's earnings is nearly nothing. Now, if it had been the PC version that got pre-released then i think Bethesda would have a bigger problem and something more to comment on. But console's aren't nearly as easy to mod and getting the content to work isn't as easy. So this probably doesn't mean as much.
The 360 is the first console that I've ever seen the modded version of. I know someone with one. All the others were always just myth as far as I knew. That in and of itself should indicate how big a deal this is.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Life,
Why aren't you at 60fps ala CoD series?
Every single console ever released has been modded. Some are just a bit harder to do than others. And it's not always to play pirated games either - but often enough to bypass the region locks and things like that as it gets so crowded having two or more different versions of machines standing around in your home. For example, of all the older consoles I used to have two or more versions but after the Playstation, that became too much and I used that spring-trick to get it to play Chronocross (bought - not pirated). Luckily, with a lot of games, they get released world-wide now so you don't have to go through all this nonsense with the new machines... except for the more obscure Japanese titles. In general though, like with music, I prefer owning the actual original - out of respect to its creators and also, from a collector's perspective, just because it feels more complete... but I might be a dying breed with this.
No, i'm the same too. I also find that CD's can be cheaper. Boston for £5? thankyouu!!!
It is sickeningly easy to modify a Xbox 360 to play burnt games, all you need is 10 minutes and the correct tools. The tools vary from drive to drive, since there are different makes and models in different 360s, but in the best case you just need a PC with SATA connectors.
More and more people pirate Xbox 360 games and it is ridiculously easy to do so. It's not even a mod per say, you just boot the dvd-drive into "B" mode and flash it with a different firmware.
yep. I don't think people realize how easy it is.
To the story, The big difference is that most 360 owners aren't tech savy (taking a guess worth betting on), so this is one reason we don't see the same numbers as we do on PC. They're probably intimidated in doing so, when everyone could do it. Secondly, there's a lot more people that play games on PC vs. the 360, so the PC's filesharing numbers will always be higher. In the end, people are either going to buy the game like usual, or pirate it as usual.
Nothing new, this happens with xbox all the time for some reason. Halo 2 and 3 were pirate early, GTAIV, and a few other big name games. 3 weeks is a little earlier than usual though. I wonder if the French had anything to do with it this time, considering the french disc copying plant was the source of the Halo 2 leak.