Activision is not messing around when it comes to Modern Warfare 2, and has demonstrated that it will literally hunt down anybody engaging in shenanigans involving its massive FPS title. When one cheeky thief was discovered offering a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundle on Craigslist, the evil publisher hired a private investigator to track down and apprehend the suspect.
IPCyberCrime was brought in and managed to track down the seller, discovering that he worked at a retailer and had conspired with friends to steal bundles from the store and sell them on. The employee was given over to the retailer's loss prevention department. As if that wasn't enough, a prospective buyer for the bundle was also followed up on, since he was claiming he would take the game, rip it, and then leak it online for pirating purposes.
Christian Del Amo, the would-be pirate, got off less likely than the seller, since he's now dealing with the Miami-Dade Police Department. So yeah, ripping Modern Warfare 2 off might sound great if you're a PC gamer who feels that Infinity Ward deserves it, but remember -- Activision is a jealous God, and it will smite you.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 11.07.2009
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Problem with pirating the PC version is that you'd be proving them right in that PC piracy is a huge problem. Anyone downloading a pirated version should download atleast two console copies to even the numbers a bit. XD
Or just do like me: If you don't like it don't play it.
Don't pirate just to prove a point. That is silly, it will do more harm then good. And if you really want to try the game? Wait for the used copies. ;p
None of the money goes to activision, so you're not supporting them in doing so. :)
And selling stolen goods is bad, shame on the guys that are involved with that. =/
You are some kind of ridiculous asshole if you think this child is deserving of punishment for this, especially since its assuring he can never get a job because he'll have a criminal record. All you're doing is that he for sure condemning him to a life of crime by punishing him, so he has to repeat his wrong doings to survive.
Steal everything, buy nothing.
But going after people that are selling legit copies seems kinda retarded. I mean yea, they should get yelled at, but really though? wtf. Its not like anyones losing money, or stealing anything for that matter. If they wanna stop the sellers from getting games in advance, fine do that. But anything more then that, its kinda like rattling a saber.
I was able to get hold of an early copy. Its the full game, and the retail game. I just know a guy that knows a guy type of thing hah and I had to pay full price for it. I didnt get a discount or get the incomplete game.
The games kick ass so far, well worth the money. I just dont see how realisticly, they could do anything besides give u a stern talking to if they found out you had the game early.
You could just play ignorent, say you didnt know they game came out on tuesday, and say u went into gamestop and just ask for it. Theres to many if ands or buts it seems to really DO anything about it.
Incidently, anyone know where I can find a review for this game?
no where thati know of. Ill tell u so far, im a few levels into it. The story picks up 5 years after the first one. Its ALL over the place, but i think its basically leading up to letting everyone know whats going on
::spoilers::
the gist, the russians blame the us for the airport massicare, because a cia agent was in with the bad russians. But he ends up getting killed by the main bad guy and found out. So thats the main reason the russians invade the united states. Its like red dawn people! haha
I know it's early, so there's no online players yet, but the multiplayer is the aspect I'm most curious about.
But.. just saying. Good luck with your crusade Activision. You don't really have much of a choice.. your game is being pirated right now by thousands upon thousands of people. And I honestly don't feel sorry for you.
from what i know their reseting the boards on tuesday anyways, but i know theres a bunch of people playin the game online. Nothing like what its going to be when it comes out, but you can find games to play in
Buying stolen goods and telling people what you plan to do with them - Son you just went full retard
the only thing about the street date, it comes in a box that says do not sell before A or B. If the game store doesnt wanna abide by that, thats their ass on the line
If a publisher finds a store that blatantly breaks street date, they can withhold any and all future products far beyond street date from them or ban them altogether. Say for example using Modern Warfare 2: street date's Tuesday--but Activision can withhold the game from them for eight weeks, killing all but any chance of making a decent profit and letting competitors mop up. They don't f*ck around with this kind of thing--they lay the smack down on those that don't comply.
yea exactly, stuff like that i cant totally see. My old game place got burned like that from rockstar for selling gta early, now their lucky to get the games the day of lol
They might have powerfull gods... but they cannot win us on latin america, hahaha!
ITS THE SAME EXACT THING. I won't judge you or look down on you for doing it, but don't act like it's different!
No it's not. Taking a retail copy is literally stealing a physical product made up of materials (disc, packaging) that the publisher has spent money producing (and marking up at retail to represent the money spent on developing the game). Downloading a pirated game is simply not paying for that development time, but the publisher doesn't lose the product that they put on the shelves, so they can still make money on it if someone else buys it.
There is certainly a distinction between pirating and outright theft. Of course, both are wrong in my eyes, but I can't criticize too harshly when I pirate the majority of my music.
That's most of a valid argument except for the fact that once the game's sitting on a store shelf, the publisher has already got the money in their hand, because the retailer has purchased it from them. The thief stole the game from the retailer, there is no loss to the publisher.
Perhaps mistakenly presuming that pirates would go out and purchase a game if pirating it were not such an attractive prospect, the pirate effectively steals from both the publisher, and also the less significant mark-up that the retailer would have made from selling the game.
The traditional thief steals only from a retailer, the pirate steals mostly from the publisher, but also indirectly from a retailer.
The only difference you really showed is that pirating is easier to do. If you want to get down to brass tacks, you're stealing $55 worth of property as opposed to $60 worth including the instruction manual and packaging. Both hurt the industry, and both are considered petty larceny under the eyes of the law.
To clarify, if someone steals a copy off the shelves, all retailers have a shrinkage department that will identify the theft rather quickly, and order another copy from the publisher to make up for it.
Just a quick note.. pirating is not larceny. Larceny is taking and carrying away personal property. At least, in the United States that's what it is.. can't speak for other countries. But I can say with absolute certainty that logging into a torrent site and downloading a video game is not considered larceny.
There really is a big distinction between pirating a digital copy of something and stealing something physical off of the shelf of a retailer. That's just the way it is. In your mind that might fall under the umbrella term "stealing", but in reality those two things are not the same.
i mean, enough is enough. discrimination, unnecessary controversy, not listening to your customers and then purposefully telling them that you dont give a crap about them -- all rolled into ONE GAME's release. no thank you, activision. youre flattering yourself with the notion that your game is worth the bandwidth that it takes to download illegally, let alone the 60 dollars you charge.
go to hell.
A group of developers (read: real people) spent a year of their life, 40+ hours a week, making a game, and a publisher spent hundreds of thousand dollars to bring it to market. You're getting it for free. It's stealing.
Also excusing it by saying "it was just to 'demo' it" is irrelevant. It's the publisher's decision to come out with a demo, not yours, and they chose not to.
Stop acting like just because the street date got broke means anything that your just upset THAT YOu didnt get the game first.I wouldnt ever download a game and say its not stealing. But paying for a legally sold game, thats not stealing
"Steal everything, buy nothing."
"your game is being pirated right now by thousands upon thousands of people. And I honestly don't feel sorry for you."
I wasn't referring to Necros.
@Spencer
This story is talking about someone who conspired to literally steal units from the store, and a buyer who was planning on leaking the game. The story is not about an innocent young boy who mistakenly purchased a game from an unknowing Gamestop.
This is what you said earlier:
"Its not like anyones losing money, or stealing anything for that matter."
This is the line from the story above:
"discovering that he worked at a retailer and had conspired with friends to steal bundles from the store and sell them on"
From the story above
"As if that wasn't enough, a prospective buyer for the bundle was also followed up on, since he was claiming he would take the game, rip it, and then leak it online for pirating purposes."
You're only reading half the story.
The hit squad is already en-route. Better post a goodbye really quick or el--- nope he's dead already. Sorry mate.
@Everyone else
(I still don't entirely approve of piracy however)