It's undoubtedly been a long, long week for the good folks at Stardock. I'm not even sure where to begin, actually. The company had originally intended (and planned for) a multiplayer infrastructure that could handle 50,000 users to be enough for Demigod, at least initially.
The plan was to add additional servers along the way, but seeing as how there ended up being around 140,000 connected users at one point during launch, everything sort of went to hell in a handbasket. To make matters worse, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell says that only 12% of those 140,000 players (these are peak hour figures, not total sales) were legitimate customers. Essentially, these warez users were using up resources by checking for game updates and other similar things that came together to put a ton of stress on the servers.
The good news comes in the form of patches for Demigod, which Stardock has been pushing out readily. The latest update is said to have made a tremendous impact on the multiplayer by isolating the paying customers from the people who pirated the game.
So, what's on the horizon? The team is going to take a much needed break this weekend, then get back to working on the next big update and beginning to look into the standard balancing issues that arise in these types of games, as well as the in-game bug reports. Keep on keeping on, guys.
Contest:
2:20 PM on 04.17.2009
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obviously stardock were unprepared, and had those people been paying customers, they would have no excuse at all.
Oh and pirating is never right pal.
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you. Of course your statement makes perfect sense. From now on I'll just pirate every game because there might be some problems with it in the future. Just imagine how pathetic it would be if I paid for the game.
You have opened my eyes.
PC gamers....WTF?
@psycho terror2: Your logic in uncannily terrible. These pirates are the same people who say, "I wouldn't play it at all if I didn't pirate it," so had they not pirated the game, they wouldn't be taxing the servers, and the people who legitimately support the industry would be fine. This is not Stardock's fault, don't try to blame it on them.
Still, it sucks that people are pirating Stardock's games. That's like the only company I have a real problem with people pirating...
Pirating from these guys is just a slap in the face.
I can understand people pirating shite like Fallout 3 since Bethesdab roke core parts of the game months ago and haven't shown any suggestion it'll be fixed, but ripping off a relatively small studio isn't cool.
The comment about not being able to distinguish pirates from purchasers because of the lack of DRM is odd though, people were managing to do that before intrusive protection systems were around.
The problem is probably the added condition of the broken streetdate. As Wardell said, this can be seen as a condition that "maximized" the piracy. I just hope he sticks to his word and they solve this without much trouble. Stardock is one of the few PC publishers I like as a company, they don't deserve this.
There will be one, I'm told, but it'll be far too late to avert those eager to play but might've been bitten by Space Siege Suckage. Yes, "Suckage" is capitalized because the phrase ought to be trademarked.
Not classy of PC Gamers, but damned stupid of GPG as well. It's a shame people suck, most especially those that broke the street date and opened the floodgates.
Smart not to bother with user-end DRM on a primarily online product though, since you can handle persistent piracy issues on the server end instead of hassling customers.
Ultimately it doesn't concern me much as it's not a type of game I would ever play pirated or not.
@ IroN1c - had the game been better coded, there would not have been an issue. if i had an interest in playing it, i would definitely want to try before i buy as there is no demo out.
@ Dexter345 - it was stardocks fault. piracy happens, and they know it, but they were not prepared for it. in a perfect world maybe i'd agree with you.
@ JACK of No Trades - that was hilarious! do you not speak english, or is that just a learning disability?
seriously folks, get a grip. i even doubt the accuracy of these stats because as frogboy himself says:
"As a side note, no we can’t just eliminate the infrastructure being used up by warez users because they’re running the unprotected retail version and we can’t make a distinction between retail and pirated since there’s no copy protection."
in the long run, this will not hurt stardock. if they think a games reputation is based on its day 1 performance they are extremely naive, but i suspect they are just looking for sympathy and excuses.
Yeah, but their games also have cheaper development cycles. Sins of the Solar Empire made them quite a bit of money with only 500,000 sales. EA is not fine if their marquee release only sells a few hundred thousand.
"A lot of people pirated the game already? How?"
Chronic Logic meet the internet. Internet, this is Chronic Logic. I hope you two enjoy each other.
I type fast when im pissed off. I cannot believe you think it is ok for people to pirate their software. Where is your logic? Are you fucking brain dead? This IS a bad thing for the PC industry.
Whats funny is your most likely some little skinny punch ass teenager that think he knows it all. A good ol fashion ass whoopin is need here*
*Calling Yojimbo*
this IS the PC game industry. it happens to ALL developers. it also happens on ALL platforms. where is my logic? i'm not going to go into massive detail about how piracy can be justified here, those with half a brain can see there are valid reasons for it, some of which have been posted here.
@ Great Heat Engine
lol you actually pirated the game, and yet i'm "nothing but shit" and "a blatent troll" because i empathise with you.
Also you most likely pirate because your parents can't afford your gaming habit.
All "justifications" for piracy are based on the false assumption that you are entitled to play the developer's game. If they release a demo, they run the risk of people not buying it, but this in no way creates some right to pirate it and try it out first.
I was interested in this game when I heard about it, but i don't think my laptop can handle it.