Battlefield 3 Loses $2,000,000 in Launch Day Sales to Pirates

A working Battlefield 3 crack is being distributed less than 24-hours after the game's official launch, with huge sales loses for Electronic Arts.

[Titanz]

No matter what are gaming preferences may be - we must all unite as one cohesive unit, and abolish this know threat to one of our favorite past times.

[Ducky]

... and how would we accomplish that?

[gamingdroid]

By supporting EA in online passes, nasty DRM and underhanded schemes. That will teach those bastard pirates! /s

[saladthieves]

I'm proud to have purchased this amazing game rather than pirate it.

[BattleAxe]

I hate piracy, but lets face it, EA didn't lose $2 Million in sales because these losers never would have bought the game anyway.

[wsoutlaw87]

@BattleAxe even if only 50-25% of them would have bought it if they couldn't steal it for free thats still 1,000,000-500,000$.

[SH0CKW4VE]

To quote Gabe Newell of Valve

"The best way to combat piracy is actually to have no anti piracy measures"

Well I think that about sums it up, and how Can BF loose that much when its almost a strictly MP game?

I seriously doubt everyone was rushing out to buy it for the single player LOL which is I have to say very forgettable and generic.

Its just typical EA trying to justify online passes again with fake numbers, 2 million to piracy my arse, dont believe this garbage when everyone who buys it, buys it for the multiplayer.

Dont flatter yourselves EA, the SP is CRAP, you in no way deserve sales for that alone.

[Cosmo811]

@egidem the are not mutually exclusive. Just because someone pirated it, doesn't mean they won't buy it. Just as pirates buy more music than non-pirates, I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to gamers. A lot of people I know use piracy so they can see if it's actually worth buying. The economy makes money hard to come by and we have to be careful about where we spend it.

[PhantomT1412]

@egidem

You can do both.

[nveenio]

You are 100% correct. I think 0-5% of people that pirate would actually buy the games they pirate if they had no other choice. The only types of software this may not be true for is productivity software. But for games? Most people won't buy 50 games a year, so they pick the ones they want the most, buy them and pirate the rest.

[Coffin87]

The obvious problem of this article that most people fail to understand is that those "leechers" wouldn't necessarily have bought the game.

Fun Fact about pirates you might not know 1. A pretty high amount of people see it as a chance to try a game and then decide whether they buy it.
Fun Fact about pirates you might not know 2. For example if they like the art design, the overall graphics, if the game runs OK on their system etc.
Fun Fact about pirates you might not know 3. You can't play pirated BF3 online, so pretty much 80% of the experience isn't available to a pirate.
Fun Fact about pirates you might not know 4. He knows that and considers buying the game when he likes what he sees in single player.

This article just fails. It's obvious, basic psychology .. when something fails and you don't want to face the reality to come up with consequences, you have to blame someone.
You need a sworn enemy.

Capitalism makes the industry go to SHIT and pirates are the enemy to blame.
Happened before in history, you know. Many, many, many times.

[SilentNegotiator]

How did they lose $2M from people who never had the intention to buy it?

It's like the owner of an unsuccessful knick-knack shop claiming that he would have gotten THOUSANDS of dollars if not for the recent robbery. Sure, that might fly on the insurance claim forms, but disappoint dad is just going to shake his head when the son tries to make him believe that he would have made thousands on that junk.

Piracy is theft, I agree with that, but it's dishonest to claim that it would have been millions of dollars when the majority of these people wouldn't have bought it, should piracy not have been an option.

[sikbeta]

inb4 "X publisher doesn't lose money cuz teh piratez don't buy da gamez anyway yo! -___-

[SilentNegotiator]

@sikbeta
You're absolutely not "inb4" and it's true.

No one is saying that it isn't theft, but saying that $2 million was lost is inaccurate. Many never would have purchased the game anyway and plenty also pirate to test the game out.

[Megaton]

These kinds of claims are ridiculous. A certain percentage of those pirates will go on to buy the game. A certain percentage of those pirates never had any intention of buying the game. There's no cut-and-dry "we lost X money because the game was downloaded Y number of times".

[lastdual]

The figure is probably BS, but even if it was true, that would mean $120+ million in sales and only $2 million in losses due to piracy.

It's never good to see piracy, but after all the bad press the Origin scandal cost them, EA should feel lucky that they didn't lose more.

[evrfighter]

The people that want battlefield bought battlefield. I'm not sure if you console folk know this but if you pirate battlefield. All you get is the sp. Thats it. thats how it is with most online games. the pirates never planned on buying it to begin with.

What I'm saying is. It's pointless to pirate a battlefield game as it revolves around mp.

[The_Nameless_One]

@gamingdroid:
Now why do you think companies resort to online passes, nasty DRM and underhanded schemes. You know what? When you will be the CEO of a company who just lost $2,000,000 because people decided they don't want to pay for the product they want to own, we'll talk.

Again. Pirating hurts the developer more.

[davekaos]

@shockwave.

Did you even read the article? These figures ain't from EA, they're from some random blogger who noticed that pirate bay had x amount of leaches.
He then took the leechers and multiplied by the cost of the game.

He came up with the 2 mil or whatever it was. NOT EA

Get your facts straight sunshine

[Dee_91]

whats the purpose of pirating a multiplayer based game.
EA Doesnt profit from Online pass ...
nor does any other developer who uses online pass.
PSN and XBOXLive does
EA didnt make online pass they introduced it to the public.
It was made for pirates and people who bootleg games so that they wont be able to get online but it sucks for renters and people who buy used.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Lol @ This article.

How exactly do you lose 2 million dollars from something that you didn't actually lose any money from? Last I checked, No one broke into EA headquarters and physically stole any copies of BF3.

[Ramses3]

Agree. This makes me sad :(

[NuclearDuke]

Why does this make you sad? These people were not potential customers. They never wished to purchase the game. Now, after seing how the game works with their pirated version, they might get hooked and purchase the game for Multiplayer.

[Ramses3]

Of course they were potential customers, they wanted battlefield and owned PC or console, therefore making them a potential customer.

[vickers500]

@Ramses

Potential customers are customers that had every intention of purchasing the game before they knew about piracy, and then later decided not to purchase it and just download it.

The majority of these pirates never intended to purchase Battlefield 3, as the people that buy a Battlefield game for the single player are probably less than 5% of the people that actually buy the game. I'm betting a lot of these people are simply downloading it to test it on their rigs and see if they can run it good enough.

[Ramses3]

*Kneels down in defeat*
I give up.
You guys win.

[kaveti6616]

This is such BS.

EA didn't lose 2 million dollars.

The fact of the matter is that most people who pirate games are NOT potential consumers.

They should not be included in the potential consumer category.

They didn't steal 2 million dollars because digital software doesn't cost money to produce.

Piracy doesn't result in the loss of revenue. People should accept by now that a certain percentage of the human population is not willing to pay for a product but can still obtain it.

The people who complain about it the most are ignorant of the facts and probably a little bitter that they pay for a product that other people have no moral qualms about pirating.

Edit: I meant it doesn't cost money to RE-produce.

I'm not denying that it's theft. I'm denying that EA can claim a specific monetary loss.

You're using ethics based around physical property to make a conclusion about a situation involving digital property.

Potential consumers are people who are both willing and able to purchase products.

If they're not able or willing, they shouldn't be counted as consumers.

Add to that the fact that pirating digital property is very different from stealing property developed using natural resources. When you steal a car from someone else, you're hurting a hierarchy of laborers, but when you pirate a digital property that you had no intention of purchasing, you're not hurting anybody.

And if you had no intention of purchasing, it means that the product either did not compel you to purchase it (it wasn't very good), or you didn't have the money to buy it (which means the developers wouldn't have gained anything anyway if you hadn't pirated it).

You believe in a third option. You believe that pirates are people who were initially willing and able to purchase a game but then decided to pirate it once they found out that they could pirate it.

I don't believe that many people fall within that category.

[lifesanrpg]

sorry, but when you illegally take something for free that someone else has spent money on making that's stealing.

How can you say bf3 didnt cost money to produce? I'm pretty sure the salaries and advertising spent on BF3 cost quite a bit.

"People should accept by now that a certain percentage of the human population is not willing to pay for a product but can still obtain it." UMMM WHY? you are stealing other people's hard work. Just because people do it doesn't make it right.

[Akiba96]

Piracy is killing games whether you want to admit to it or not. Just fucking buy games like the rest of us.

[ATi_Elite]

Well said: as many narrow minded people do not fully understand how the WHOLE thing works.

For every person here that disagrees with you I'm sure they have gone over someones house and watched a Movie. The home owner bought the movie and they came over and watched it for free and never bought a movie ticket or bought the DVD.

Now are they Pirates? are they the scum of the universe? Are they killing the movie industry?

same goes for borrowing a video game that your friend bought and now your playing it for free. Does that make you a Pirate?

Game Rentals and Used Game sales along with mediocre crappy games are the only things hurting the Game industry which by the way makes $40 Billion dollars annually! I wish i was hurting like this!

It's up to Publishers to provide the content to those countries that pirate the most at a fair price. Unfortunately $60 is a months salary in some of those countries therefore it's impossible to manage so the pirating takes place.

bubbles+ to u sir well said....and I Do Not support Piracy!

[LastDance]

"Add to that the fact that pirating digital property is very different from stealing "

So I guess Syphoning money from peoples bank accounts isnt REAAAAALLY stealing because its not physical?

"The fact of the matter is that most people who pirate games are NOT potential consumers."

Could you point me to where this has been proven as fact? Cheers bro.

I bet if a bunch of these non-buyers suddenly were unable to play their stolen game, legal purchases would be made

[kaveti6616]

Shut up, Akiba.

I don't pirate games. But I know that the publishers are full of crap.

As ATI_Elite pointed out, the difference between borrowing a game from a friend and piracy is so minute now that publishers are forcing DRM and passes down our throats and you guys are just bending over and taking it with a smile because you have an inflated sense of morality. You self-righteous people think that the publishers are being honest but they're not.

You want to know what the favorite movie line of a CEO is? "Give them nothing! But take from them... everything!"

That's what's happening here. EA is butthurt because they can't face the facts.

I've never heard Stephen King complain about people who rent his books out for free from the library.

[kaveti6616]

"I bet if a bunch of these non-buyers suddenly were unable to play their stolen game, legal purchases would be made."

Yes, but until the day comes when pirates are UNABLE to pirate games, they will continue to do so. Meanwhile, the publishers will come up with more infuriating ways to PUNISH the people who ACTUALLY PURCHASE their games. So, as I see it, the consumers are blaming the pirates for the current situation they're in (DRM, online passes), rather than blaming the publishers who are so greedy that they can't stand losing a couple million dollars (while making hundreds of millions) that they have to come up with new, ineffective ways to try and secure their games.

You know what this world lacks? Critical thinking.

[kreate]

stealing - removing a item from its original source without the owner's consent

pirating a software is making a copy of the original source, not removing it

stealing money from one's bank account is removing the source, not copying it

going into a retail store and taking bf3 off the shelf without paying for it would be considered stealing.

EDIT: in America at least, with all these great laws protecting corporations and big businesses. piracy is bootlegging/stealing if u were to stand in front of the judge.

u gotta keep in mind though, this law came in effect in the late 90's. before that, it wasnt consider stealing or at minimum, it was/is arguable.

[Biggest]

I wonder why no one has addressed LastDance's perfectly obvious and valid point? Some of you think that digital software costs zero to produce. How to you explain the extremely high costs associated with producing digital software? It's the copy process that costs zero? So maybe the producers should charge $300million for one copy of the game and allow everyone to copy it? Digital theft is theft, else it wouldn't be called theft. It doesn't matter who was or wasn't planning to buy the game. The game was stolen. Do you think that stealing random goods from WalMart are considered no issue because the thief wasn't going to buy it anyway? Stolen is stolen. Do not try to rationalize crime. If you agree with it, agree with it. If you support it, support it. Do not try to make it seem "okay" to make yourself feel better. It isn't okay.

[Strakken]

AMAZINGLY well said, i couldn't agree more kaveti.

[Motorola]

You're right, they lost more than 2 million. =x

[wsoutlaw87]

Ok lets stop this bs that NONE of them were potential buyers. The reason they download and play games is because they like games. They only reason why they aren't interested in purchasing them is because they are cheap losers who can steal other games free. You don't go out and download a game day one that you are not interested in. If they couldn't steal any games youre telling me they would just give up playing all together? Im sorry but only people who like games would take the time and space to pirate. If there was no piracy then you know they would be buying games, dont kid your self. Piracy is a real problem and costs the industry tons of money, lets not pretend it doesn't.

[lorianguy]

You sir, have Said what I was about to say in your first line.

Pirates are usually people who would never have bought it in the first place.

Therefore $2m was not lost as digital software can be copied as many times as possible without extra cost to the publisher and Because of this, these pirates havent cost EA anything.

[vickers500]

"If there was no piracy then you know they would be buying games, dont kid your self."

You actually don't know that they don't buy SOME games now. I guarantee that if piracy didn't exist, then these people would sure as hell not be buying every single game they would have pirated otherwise, or even mot games. There are quite a lot of pirates who buy what they can afford at retail and then pirate the rest, so it's not like they're completely leeching off the industry.

"Piracy is a real problem and costs the industry tons of money, lets not pretend it doesn't."

Tons of money? Don't delude yourself anymore than you already have. Piracy is a mosquito bite compared to used game sales and letting people borrow games.

[ATi_Elite]

Most of these people pirating this game and others live in countries where:

A. The game isn't out yet.
B. The game will never be out.
C. The game cost an arm and a leg to buy.
D. the only way to play the game is to buy a Pirated copy thus your money goes to some evil individuals.

also some are trying it out to see if it works on their PC then some may go buy it cause NO DEMO is offered as of right now!

all and all YES this looks bad but NOT everyone pirating the game was a GUARANTEED customer! Like I mentioned earlier most of these pirates live in countries where software cost a bunch of money or games are not sold there.

Pubs/Devs know and understand this which is one of the reasons Steam is rapidly trying to establish itself in so many countries like the recent article of Steam doing very well in Russia....one of the top pirating countries on the planet.

P.S. The U.S.A. is not in the top ten when it comes to pirating!!

http://www.nationmaster.com...

[lifesanrpg]

@ATi_Elite

The whole movie comparison doesn't make any sense. Sure, someone can come over my house and watch me play BF3. But these people are downloading it and playing it themselves.

"Same goes for borrowing a video game that your friend bought and now your playing it for free. Does that make you a Pirate? "
Technically, yes, it does. I didn't say I wasn't guilty of it though.

[icewater85]

It’s an easier way to see if it runs on your PC. Go here see if you can run it then BUY it. http://www.systemrequiremen...
Please stop using it as an excuse to steal. And everybody that is trying to justify pirating is an idiot.

[vickers500]

@icewater85

Reading a system requirements sheet is almost worthless. They don't tell you how the game will run on YOUR rig, because they can't. They just say how the game will run at those specs, with nothing but the operating system running.

There are way too many variables when it comes to system performance, so the only way to truly know how a game will run on your system is to actually play it. You're pretty stupid if you honestly hadn't figured that out by now.

[megacowdung]

Pirates really need to be brought down. Game developers don't spend $1,000 to make a game then sell it for $60. They spend almost $50,000,000 making a game and then they sell it for $60. GTA IV cost $100,000,000 to make. I agree with you Titanz, we really do need to abolish piracy.

[firefoxprime]

yeah. they may spend $50,000,000 and sell the game for $60. Do they sell to one customer??? No. 1,000,000 people could have bought said title. Easily recieving 60 million dollars. Your big money lil money arguement sucks. please try again.

[wsoutlaw87]

lol why does eveyone think that because a game makes millions that developers are just raking in money. You know they have a lot of people to pay and split their money up plus millions in cost which is all a risk because the majority of games dont even sell 1,000,000. Not to mention the money they do make off the game only comes after multiple years of full time work not even knowing if the game will sell. Not every game is cod when it comes to sales and game designers are not billionaires. Even if a game makes one million there's hundreds of employees and stock holders that money goes to and it took 2 or more years to make.

[slayorofgods]

wow, this is article that plays on gamers emotions. Of course $2,000,000 wasn't lost to pirates.

I blame the lack of innovation to keep with current times (i.e. the digital age) as the flame to piracy. How does piracy of movies get reduced? By innovations such as netflix that makes streaming movies just as convenient as downloading them off torrent or illegal streaming sites.

I think steam has really put a dent in piracy for gaming, however I think the pricing for new release digital content is off. Most steam players wait a while for the deals.

[wsoutlaw87]

I blame pirates for pirating. How would you like it if someone broke in to your house but the police said, "O well, its your fault, you should have innovated your door lock a little more. Its not their fault."

[KonGreat]

@wsoutlaw87
Mate, if you leave your door open then of course there are going to be people who rob you and then it is ALSO YOUR FAULT. And like any sensible person you'll try to defend yyourself from robbers, because one way or another, it might happen. But either way Piracy isn't stealing. Because you don't take a physical copy from a store that could have been a sale.
And either way, the game isn't released until friday in Europe. So there's probably people who have already pre ordered the game but just wants a taste of the action, or wants to see if they can actually play the game.

[Somebody]

I've left that shameful dark side of my life. Now, I'm an ordinary law abiding citizen who commits genocide on a planetary scale online every night.

[AntBoogy90]

Ehhhh... I pirated it for PC to play the Campaign while i waited for it to come in the mail the next day.

[TheWolfSage]

Except that most people who pirate never would've bought the game in the first place, OR do buy it later because they only pirate it to check out the game before purchasing without paying for a rental.

I would've gladly pirated L4D2 because I didn't want to reward Valve for a sequel that was almost identical, but because 90% of the content was online I couldn't get the full experience while locked out of MP.

So, I went to GameStop a few months after it came out and bought it for $30 used (which is closer to the ACTUAL value of that game), so that Valve wouldn't see a penny of my money.

As far as Valve is concerned I may as well have just downloaded the game illegally, because they get nothing. My point? People who don't want to pay aren't going to pay, period, so piracy isn't really taking anything away from the sales. They'd be VERY lucky if $100,000 worth of games would've been bought if this piracy hadn't been possibly.

[Anon1974]

I've ranted about this before, but I can't believe that people are still saying "They wouldn't have bought them anyway." That's utter horseshit. People pirate because they can. It's easy to do, and they don't give a vicar's fart that they're depriving hard working game developers, animators, programmers, etc and their families of compensation for their work.

If I worked for months or years developing a game for you to enjoy, I expect compensation for my efforts if you're going to enjoy the fruits of my labor. If I walk into your home and you're playing a pirated copy of that game, yeah...you might not have stolen a physical copy but you've certainly denied myself and my family the compensation owed for enjoying my work. You might as well have taken food out of my family's mouth yourself.

I'm a developer myself and I see how hard it is in the industry. I see how talented people struggle to find employment, or float from one contract job to another because studios can't afford to hire on full time. I've seen good studios close while people enjoy their hard work for free. If even a quarter of those pirates were forced to purchase legit copies it could make a difference.

Hell, I don't think copy protection goes far enough. I think we should build in destruct codes if games are pirated, nuke some entitled little bastard's computers. Maybe that'd cause them to rethink them blatantly ripping off hard working developers and those they care for. Or if you're busted trying to pirate a game, block them from ever playing that company's games again. They would never actually buy those games anyway, right? So the company won't be out if those individuals could never run another of their titles on their computers again.

[kcuthbertson]

Have fun destroying the gaming industry if you think copy protection needs to be greater.

What have you developed? If you actually develop a good game, people will buy it regardless. Look at minecraft and how easy it is to pirate. But how many people bought it again?

You're going to fail as a developer if you think that putting that harsh of DRM will help you. DRM just postpones the inevitable.

[Akth8r]

I'm pirating the game its downloading right now but heres why, i just want to see how well i can run the game on my PC, Also my BF3 pre-order on the PS3 has been shipped. What does that make me? A pirate, a Customer or a potential loss.

I also assume most of the people downloading the Game will buy it or have bought it on another system. I bought it on PS3 because thats where most of my friends are.

Im definately buying it on pc later on, i did the exact same thing with BFBC2 but didn't pirate it beforehand as i had no rig.

[eak3]

@Coffin87 Fun Fact about pirates you might not know #5. Many people pirate their games to enjoy instead of paying for them like Coffin87. His/her blatant support of the industry says much to what he/she does when not spewing garbage on here. Oh by they way, capitalism creates diversity which leads to competition which forces people to create a better product. Know what your talking about before you blather your socialistic ideals around.

[Hellsvacancy]

Abolish pirates, wtf, weve got one of the longest runnin job professions on the planet (next to hookers) good luck tryin to put an end to it

I dont pirate games admittedly but i "pirate" a lot of TV stuff, i HATE adverts, they spoil everythin about TV "no i dont want to buy hair shampoo thatll make by hair look browner" let me get back to watchin Breakin Bad already!

I woulda pirated Battle LA if i knew how awful the film was gonna be "hay lets make the trailer so awesome people would be brainwashed into watchin it"

Alot of those piraters would probably end up buyin BF3 at some point anyway "hmmm, will my PC run BF3 ok? ill pirate and see"

Im buyin it on Friday (PS3) wooty woooot

[Orionsangel]

@BattleAxe I agree most of the people that pirate games get them because they can or because they can't afford to buy the game, but if they couldn't get it for free. They wouldn't be able to buy it anyway. They'd wait for it to go cheap. So I think they'd still have a sales lose of around 2 million.

[kcuthbertson]

100% accurate.

I'm torrent BF3 as we speak so I can play the SP until I get my check on Friday. I'll buy the game and play the MP when I do.

If I didn't have the money I wouldn't buy it in the first place...

[Blackdeath_663]

Hacking is a bigger issue.

[showtimefolks]

i can't believe people have disagreed with you those are the pirates

to all pc gamers you all wonder why so many of the games never come out on pc that's your reason right there. Now you see when your fav devs do more business on consoles and support consoles better that's the reason

and i know not everyone does but but the number for AAA titles piracy on pc is so big its not even funny

RDR did not come out on pc and i don't blame rockstar for not wanting to risk time and money when most will play it for free

[kevnb]

there are very few games that dont come to pc. RDR is the only big one other than exclusives I can think of. Im happy with games that appeal even more to me like star wars the old republic, guild wars 2, diablo 3, starcraft 2, shogun 2, hard reset, dota 2, and other games you might think suck.

[kevnb]

meh they are only getting 10% of the game. The pc version is sold out around my town, but plenty of console versions left. Alot of people pirated it just to see the incredible graphics, or to see if they could even run it.

[kevnb]

how much will they lose from used sales and rentals?

[TrevorPhillips]

ouchh!!

[badjournalism]

Let's just ignore the fact that very few, if any, of those downloaders would have paid for it if there was no crack available. Instead, let's spew the same bullshit of 'zomg every download is a lost sale' that's been thoroughly debunked many times over.

[gamingdroid]

I very much agree with that. If EA/Dice made a decent single player, it would have been free advertisement for their multi-player....

Use the piracy medium to your benefit!

Also, stop punishing us legitimate game buyers!

[PhantomT1412]

Their signle player is actually decent. I'm pretty much enjoying it, very linear but never seen this level of immersion before.

[Pikajew]

If it was on Steam, this would have never happened

[Ducky]

... how so?

Steam games get pirated just as easily as non-steam games.

[benpicko]

I think he's saying that, maybe, these people pirated simply because it wasn't on steam.

[Pikajew]

Lots of people don't want to download Origin because they hate it. And they wanted BF3 on steam but since its not they pirate it. This will happen to all future EA games that will only be on Origin.

[AKS]

I paid for my copies, but I have to admit I'm also pissed it isn't available on Steam. I don't blame DICE for that, though.

[PickAShoe]

Steam all the way :D

[kevnb]

naw, but piracy numbers always look worse than they are. Tons of people will not even play the game. People pirate stuff they have the slightest interest in.

[Letros]

People pirating the game for single player? Sounds like they were not going to buy it in the first place. Author fails at logic.

[Theo1130]

and that doesn't mean that all those people who pirated are a loss of a sale, a vast majority of those people who pirated the game weren't even going to buy it in the first place.

[LastDance]

I love that line....Bubu bu b ububu buttt they werent going to buy it anyway lolzipooper!!

I didn't realise you knew all the pirates in the world.

[Letros]

lolzipooper? Chalk another one up for stupidity.

[Nitrox]

"I didn't realise you knew all the pirates in the world."

I'm reminded of an age old tale involving a pot and a kettle... LMAO!

[Dr Face Doctor]

Hasn't this theory been debunked to death? Pirates =/= potential customers, not necessarily. The majority of people who pirate weren't going to buy it anyway. I've seen game developers dispute this.

[AKS]

I bought the PC and PS3 versions, so I'm doing more than my part.

[AKS]

Interesting with the disagrees. Should I also buy the 360 version and send a extra donation to DICE? Set up a fund to pay additional bonuses to DICE employees?

[Pl4sm4]

trolls gotta troll and dont leave a reply

[AKS]

I suppose you're right. N4G is a curious place.

[kmanmx]

And gains $180m in legitimate sales.

(3M Preorders x ~$60 price)

Boohoo, poor EA getting $180m. You can guarantee that's pretty much covered the entire cost of the game and advertising already.

[princejb134]

yea but i dont think the whole 3m goes to them, they have to give a percent to retail for selling their product

[Dr Face Doctor]

Poor EA getting a mere $140m?

[Dropdeadll]

NOOO

[banner]

Yea... That's how the pc gamers get down! I guess since they spend so much to have super pc's they can't afford the games.

[Pl4sm4]

thats exactly the situation ... some people spend all $ on the pc and pirate games and are not even supporting games that use most ( if not all ) of their hardware

[0neShot]

DICE need not worry as the SP campaign is crap, these pirates will eventually buy the game for MP.

[jay2]

It's toilet roll compared from what they'll get. Same with boring COD 10000000000000000.Sorry, MW3. it'll be leaked, torrented,lose what would be about £1 to them in over all sales.

[wiis]

The title is misleading, as battlefield isn't a person or a group of people.

[AntBoogy90]

LOL.. bubs.

[RyuDrinksTheDew]

i agree that this is wrong, but where did they get that number from?

i dont see how they could calculate that.

[lifesanrpg]

You have to wonder how many of these "non-consumers" would purchase the game if they couldn't torrent it. I don't see how they write these people off non-potential buyers

[darksied]

Well, I'm just glad those people who pirated won't be able to play it online.

[led1090]

I know so many people who wouldn't buy a game and wouldn't want to play it if it cannot be pirated. They laugh on me for buying the games, so yeah they're not potential customers

[scepter]

playing my cracked version now must say this game suxmodern fps stinklast time i try one ill stick with my scifi fps like doom halo wolfenstein i deleting this piece of crap now i tried this based on people recommendations mad hype never will i try ww shooter again they r not for me no offsense people game is good game good graphics i dont dig modern fps

[Messatsu290]

Just gonna use as a benchmark. LoL!!!

[Motorola]

That's the only reason I would ever pirate a game.

[Hufandpuf]

"Luckily, the cracked version of the game only gives access to the single player campaign, and it seems unlikely a multiplayer crack will be found given that EA's new Origin system is required to play online"

Problem solved. DICE didn't lose a dime.

[pucpop]

I miss the old days when I would go doon the barras for a stack of pirated Amiga games and some *cough cough* gentleman's relaxation videos:))

[InTheLab]

You know who I'd like to punch in the face? Everyone one that says "weren't gonna buy it anyway" Well that's because THEY DON'T EVER PAY FOR GAMES....

As soon as BF3 was announced, two million thieves out there were licking their chops. Everyone that shows interest in something that's not free is a potential customer just like everyone that's not interested in something that's not free, is a potential customer.

I don't expect thieves to understand business.

Single player/multi player...whatever. The fact still remains that they downloaded it and that's all the evidence EA needs to claim pirated copies as lost sales.

[AntBoogy90]

Thieves? It's modern day file sharing..

I'm sure you "pirate" music.

I've pirated many games.. and i have a Steam account loaded with the games that i actually bought AFTER pirating them. Not all pirates are "thieves".. some of us have morals and support our favorite developers.

http://i42.tinypic.com/20pe...

Hi.

I see it as "try before you buy" in a sense.. because normally, when a game launches.. the demo isn't released until a while after.

[InTheLab]

A few things.

I don't steal music. Everything on my iPod has been payed for. I don't watch youtube music or movie clips. I can't think of a solid reason for IP theft.

You are not 2 million and not a true representation of the people that pirate.

I also have a Steam account loaded with games and I spent money on each and every one of them.

We're talking about the biggest PC release of the year (well, this or Skyrim...which I'm sure will get pirated to hell as well). Did you pirate BF3 just to demo it? Do we really need a Skyrim demo?

[AntBoogy90]

Fair enough! Lol.

[SSultan]

No money was loss.

[danielle007]

Such flawed logic. Every pirated copy does not equal a sale lost. You can not know for sure if they were actually going to purchase it at all, and you can't know if those people who pirated a copy did not also purchase a copy, or aren't going to in the future.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

Those dang pirates destroying the gaming industry.

[majiebeast]

I just got really pissed about piracy yesterday. Me and a friend were playing Payday:the heist on pc and my other friend wanted to join so i was like did you just buy it? and he said no and told me he pirated it... I got pretty pissed and ranted about it especially for screwing over a indie developer. Needless to say today he bought the game legit so the whole they would never buy it is just total bullshit. Same goes for the douches who buy humblebundle codes for 1 cent and then try to trade em for other games.

Every copy pirated was a potential sale maybe when the game went half price or otherwise. There is no justifying piracy if you dont got the money maybe you should look for something free. Cause i find it funny russians dont buy games but do pay for hacks so they have money for that but not for the people that made the game.

Everyone going "weren't gonna buy it anyway" is such a easy excuse for pirates. People like you destroy this industry and force the hands of these developers and publishers to come up with retarted DRM. Cause you think your entitled to the game even though you cant buy it because your a broke ass freeloading piece of s***.

[Hicken]

One person? Congrats to your friend for buying a real copy, and congrats to you for encouraging him to pick it up, but you and everyone else who says EA necessarily lost money on potential sales must have lost touch with reality somewhere.

Yes, there are people who pirate games who would have or will buy it. But the very word "pirate" indicates an individual who would rather not go about acquiring things the legal way. Those that would buy a legal copy, then, are not pirates.

You, honestly, sound like a pirate stole your girlfriend.

[rattletop]

i think the pirates r getting only half the xperience if not less. MP is what Bf3 is all about..

[ufo8mycat]

Just becuase say for exmaple 1 copy gets pirated, it doesn't automatically mean 1 lost sale. That person may not ahve bought it in the first place if he couldn't download it, therefore it is not a lost sale.

I am not saying piracy is a good thing, but unless they can prove that each person who pirated it, would of bought it anyway, even if they couldn't get it for free, then we can't really tell how much of an impact piracy has on game sales.

[Apollyn]

I pirated it... im from the uk it doesnt get released till friday.

I just wanted to complete SP befor release.

I have 4 copies on order and will still buy those 4.

[FlashBack]

YOU PIRA-

wait, 4? why 4?......why???!!!

[Denethor_II]

Why 4? I assume family, maybe friends, are relying on you to provide their shooter goodness.

[Apollyn]

1 for me 1 for my OH,
and a couple of copies for friends as i can pick it up a little cheaper than most.

[Animal Mutha 76]

I wish it was on steam. I don't want my money going to EA and I don't want origin on my machine. I also take issue with the price of bf3 as a digital vs retail copy. It should be much cheaper online as there are no disc or retailer overheads. Instead it's 40 quid online which will be more than some shops. I'd read that steam/origin games can be as much as 70% margin. That's too much and I bet the dev doesn't see all of that. Publishers are getting greedy.

I don't condone piracy but I do understand it.

I wish I could buy a copy direct from DICE and cut out EA. DICE have my respect as talented devs who work hard. EA are like football agents. Greedy and underhand and pushing prices up.

[kaozgamer]

This is how pc gaming will die out eventually. Too many cheap f*cks pirating all the games

[zero_gamer]

Consoles, handhelds, smartphones and tablets have piracy too, and it'll only get worse for all platforms in the future. PC gamers are not the only guilty party, and there are plenty of legit consumers on PC gaming as well.

Then we have cloud gaming which the clouds may get attacked and trigger a large series of extended downtime. This is just a shallow, shortsighted straw man argument why PC gaming is "dying," why PC gaming has been "dying" since the 80s, and why PC gaming will still be "dying" in the next few decades, right?

[Shadowaste]

@Kaozgamer

PC gaming makes way more money than ps3 and 360 combined, so no, you are wrong!

Console gaming will be dead soon, are you not wondering why there are no new consoles yet when there should have been a new xbox360 in 2010?? You should be more concerned about why there are not new consoles. Even if the new consoles do come out, they will certainly be the last generations and will be nowhere near the power of a modern day gaming rig.

BF3 DX11 Ultra 1080p makes uncharted 3 look like a wii game, your next gen consoles won't look that good. And they sure as hell will not support 1200p, 1440p, 1600p or eyefinity resolutions, and the sure as hell won't have 8x anti, 16x anti, 32x anti, heck in sli I can even force 64x anti aliasing if I feel like being crazy!

The consoles are not making a lot of money!! Sure a few titles do very well, other than that, the software sales on consoles suck.

PC made 43% of all gaming revienue in 2009, the next closest was the wii at 24% marketshare. PS3 and360 fight over the remaining 33%.

Proof;

http://software.intel.com/e...

[WolfLeBlack]

While I don't hold with pirating, one thing does always annoy me; they claim that they lost money to the pirates.

The majority of people that I've talked to that pirate a game, wouldn't have bought it anyway, so therefore you didn't actually lose any money by them pirating it. Of course if they were going to buy it and then pirated it anyway then fair enough, but so far, as I said, most people I've met that have downloaded a game were not going to buy it anyway.

I suppose the only good point about someone downloading your game is that they might tell other people how good it is and they'll go out an buy a copy.

[thespaz]

No wonder so many people wanted the PC version... because they didn't wanna pay for it.

[KonGreat]

You can still pirate a game on the consoles. Even play them online if you want! It seems its even easier to do it on the consoles.

[thespaz]

Weird. I guess I've been out of the loop then because I thought in order to pirate on the PS3, you had to use an older firmware and couldn't get online.

[KonGreat]

Yeah I thought so too! A friend of mine told me that you can do some stuff to your DvD player on the xbox and you can play pirated games, although there's a chance you can get your xbox blocked

[tiffac008]

Working within the gaming industry I have mix feelings when it comes to piracy.

However, living in a 3rd world country I can understand first hand why people pirate stuff but on another hand I've seen what rampant piracy can do to harm an industry.

So to some piracy maybe just an annoyance, a blip in the system but to others it can be a big issue altogether.

[pijinio212]

I have an idea kill the internet and goodbye piracy.... there i just saved the financial world....lol...

[Saryk]

Horse F'in BS! Look at their profits last quarter. Lost 2 million my ass in one day. When they don't post a profit, then they can cry.

Talk about crying wolf!

[OpiZA]

Holy shit!

[bilbobob]

Those people who are using the excuse about online passes have got it wrong.

Whilst piracy is obviously bad what about the massive loss to the industry from second hand sales. Devs dont see a any of that money. Just shops that charge a fortune for second hand copies. Why any idiot pays a few pounds less than the full price for a second hand game is beyond me. But people do and that means a full sale is lost there. I dont see anyone complaining about that.

Thats why they invented online pass systems.

[SAE]

i for one don't care about the sales , games are too expensive , they must low the price and then i'll blaim the piractes ...

[whydoyouask]

They technically lost $0, but it's not like anyone likes to list facts.

[Bimkoblerutso]

First of all, EA did not make the monetary loss claim. It was the the author of the article.

Second of all, you would have to be a COMPLETE moron to convince yourself that the used game market is as harmful to the industry as pirating. Used games HAVE BEEN BOUGHT. There was an initial sale of the product, unlike with pirating. Then think about the fact that when used games are traded in, 9 out of 10 times that money is going....drum roll...toward more games. So cut all that bullshit out, please.

Thirdly, just let me say that I DON'T think pirating is nearly as damaging to the industry as some publishers and developers claim it is, at least not in the way they're claiming.

Whether their assessment of their sales is correct or not, these companies are easily and legally getting away with instating seedy business practices that affect only one group of people...us. The people being hurt the most by pirating are us, the the honest consumers. DRM hurts US. It does not hurt pirates.

I'm not trying to claim that what companies are doing is right, only that pirating is exacerbating the situation exponentially. If you really want to "fight the power," DON'T PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME. Don't download that ridiculous DLC that should have been in the game already. Games are not food. You can go without them. Then companies would not see a loss in sales to pirating, they would see consumers dissatisfied with their games and/or business practices. It pains me to see so many honest gamers resorting to petty theft simply because they think they're "sticking it to the man."

[bilbobob]

Eh! when a game is sold by a shop like Gamestation second hand no money goes to the devs publisher or anyone else other than the shop. So that makes you a moron. And noone said it was as bad as piracy.

you need to learn to read.

And your telling me that if 4 copies of a game are sold, 1 an origonal and the other 3 second hand copies no money is lost than your real stupid.

Oh and I put that disagree on your comment. Unlike others here I got the balls to own up.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Those three second-hand copies WERE ALREADY BOUGHT. They are secondhand because they have been PURCHASED. Where the hell do you think "used" games come from?

And no one said it was as bad as piracy. Fine, you didn't say that. But obviously you (and others) believe it presents a degree of justification for piracy, otherwise it would not be brought up every single time the topic arises.

[Heishiro__Mitsurugi]

pirates=scum

[BrianC6234]

They should have left out the part about maybe these people wouldn't have bought the game anyway. Who cares about that. They're pirating a game and playing it for free. They're thieves. If I go into a store and steal some food but wasn't going to buy it wouldn't that still be stealing?

[GAMExxOVER]

Yes, taking food they payed for and now have to replace because you took it is not the same as sneaking a peak over the fence at the concert you were never going to pay to get into anyway. This news article is about EA's loss of revenue, of which it is greatly exaggerated.

[Deadman_Senji]

Now if only the same thing would happen to MW3, we could kill off the modern military shooter for good.

I would love to live in a world where those no longer exist. Bring me more RPGs, third person action titles and adventure games. You frat boys will just have to quit gaming. You were never really serious about the hobby anyway and you've given console owners a bad name over the years.

Now all we need to do is kill off annual sports titles and we'd really be in business.

Edit: Disagreeing with this is synonymous with being the "cancer that is killing gaming"

Don't be malignant, people.

[fghsjdfghjdfhgkjdf]

I have my copy of BF3 pre-ordered. I'm in the UK though so I still don't have it, therefore, I downloaded it so I could at least get through the single player in the meantime. Having a great time.

A pirated copy doesn't equal a lost sale, piracy doesn't necessary equal lost revenue. Also, although I agree with the general stigma of piracy, I must say it's incredibly hypocritical to whine about pirates if you purchase second hand games.

[GAMExxOVER]

BS! EA has lost nothing.

1. Like most Pirated games. BF3 can not be played online, only in single player mode. Who the hell is going to say, Oh I was going to buy Battlefield 3 but no I will just pirate it and forget about the Online play.? BF3 is all about the online play.

2. Those that pirated it are in one of the following catagories.

A. Pirated it because they can not buy the real game due to lack of money. Thus were not going to buy it anyway = No money lost by EA.

B. Pirated it because they never planned on getting it even though they could afford it, but saw it on their torrent site and figured, cool, there is something to download and play to pass a little time. But again was never going to buy it anyway. = No money lost by EA

C. Pirated it because it was on torrent sites before it actually came out and could not wait to play, even though they have already preordered or are indeed buying it on release day or soon after. = EA lost no money

D. was going to buy this game, but figured, hey, I will just download off of the net for free and only play the single player. = EA lost very little money, few of these idiots exist.

So 1000 torrent downloads of BF3 does in NO WAY mean, Now EA lost 1000 sales. More like 3 or 4

NOW, on the other hand, If this was a game that was all about the single player such as Dead Island, Skyrim, Fallout etc, then they have something to bitch about. Because with something like skyrim, you will have people downloading that rather than buying it when they would have baught it if it was not available for download. so 1000 Skyrim downloads may not = 1000 lost sales, it could = a couple hundred.

[Steadyhndz]

Omg pirated games omg omg omg...BF3 got pirated...guess what, COD is among the most pirated modern games.

This isn't news...and EA doesn't lose money to pirated games, it's just potential money that could have been made.

[hesido]

Bullshit numbers, bullshit calculations.

[Vip3r]

Release it on Steam, make more profits.

But yeah, BF3 does look crap.

[GAMExxOVER]

I guarantee you there are many EA employees, including makers of BF3 that have and Do pirate stuff off of the net. Watching videos on non commercial sites, downloading music from youtube or what ever. I do not condone it, but let ye cast the first stone....

But again this thread is not about what is right or wrong, but about the ammount of lost sales EA had due to the pirated copy on the net. Of which is a fraction of a fraction of a tiny fraction of what is being implied, again when it comes to Online Multiplayer Games, Pirating is not really an issue as those versions can not be played online except on special shit servers or on modified consoles which always end up getting banned from online anyway. Big title games that are not focused on online like Fallout and Skyrim are totally different, Because then you are getting the full game, full experience and have no need to buy the retail version. That is where the problem lies with Pirated games. If you are able, just buy the dang game, not worth any trouble that may come your way. But then again, im not your mama and do not care what happens to you, so do what ever.

[GAMExxOVER]

If I was EA, I would not be worried about Pirates costing me money on my game, as discussed above, it really does not apply to BF3, But I would be seriously looking at hackers in the servers. It only takes a few hackers to put off hundreds or thousands of players, Piss people off and get the word spread to not buy the game due to hackers screwing up the game. So ya, I predict Hackers will cost EA sales for sure, there are already news articles up about how hackers are ruining the game already.

[FlashBack]

Many of those people are testing their pc's to see if it runs it. After all, the main catch is the multiplayer

[yog-sothot]

I never pirate games but saying that a pirated game equals a loss of money is plain stupid

[VampHuntD]

If people did the research, they'd find that piracy doesn't really hurt sales or at least there is no way to prove it. You can't say that "50% of these people would buy the game" since that's a prediction.

I use to pirate stuff myself, and I'd go buy the stuff I really loved to support further development, I'm not the majority in that. All the same, the majority of the stuff I got I never even played. No sales lost there.

[Bubblemachine]

Out of order.

I would never d/l battlefield 3.

I'll just d/l batman instead.lol.

[Zephol]

this sucks for EA

[V0LT]

and another $5,000,000 because it isn't on steam.

[Suicide_King]

Stupid article. 1 pirated download does NOT equal 1 lost sale. It's common sense. People will take anything for free, but charge them a dollar...and they won't touch it.

[tmoss726]

Why would you pirate a mainly multiplayer game. I don't understand.

[Gaetano]

Piracy actually gets a product into the hands of people who wouldn't otherwise buy it, therefore expanding the brand and install base, which in the long run works out for the creator.

It makes the world go round. We can live in a fairy land and try to stop stuff like this from happen, but that will never happen. Better to try and stem it, rather than bitch and stop it all together, because that won't happen.

[tubers]

THE parallel question IS:

How many of those made a purchase based on them being able to test out the PIRATED version. Like a pseudo demo.

(opinion may be likely negated by the fact that there was a BETA.. still..)

[AMD_CROSSFIRE_FTW]

OMG I hate it when they use the therm loss when it actual a didn't made.

[Big_Dom]

Are people fucking thick? You still need a legit Origin account to play the game online, so most that did download the game early did so to play the single-player. The majority will go out and buy the game to play it online. Typical N4G with it's fucking retarded articles.

[e-p-ayeaH]

Battlefield 3 doesnt have LAN support for now, but if it will its possible to play it online with an pirated version.

[frostypants]

So it's OK to steal if you're only stealing part of something? I hope to god that's not your stance...

[Big_Dom]

Hold on a second. Are your eyes painted on? Did you not read what I wrote? Those who downloaded it will more than likely buy it. Now explain to me how in the fuck that can be considered stealing if you're buying the game anyway? You still need to go through Origin, and that requires a legit key and account to play it online. People who play this game play it for the MP first and foremost. This game will not suffer from piracy, so this article is total bollocks. Dice themselves even said that piracy does not effect the BF series. Disagree vote for being a spastic.

[_Q_]

Sucks.. What is that like 30,000 and the majority is prolly PC players the largest group crying about the game's flaws.

[GrumpyVeteran]

Pirates gonna pirate. They lost nothing, only potential revenue that they probably would've never seen anyway

[frostypants]

This is a big reason why so many devs don't bother with the PC these days. Way to kill the goose, scumbags.

People who complain about the relative lack of support of the PC as a platform, then turn around and steal games, need to setup a one-on-one appointment with a fast-moving bus.

[Mutley416]

i think they will catchem...and heads will roll...if Sony can catch a few hackers....anybody can do it :_)

[Zanarkand]

Seriously? This game is made for the joy of the multiplayer experience at its finest, were talking BF3 here, are these idiots poor or something? Come on show a little respect.

[tunaks1]

they are stuck with sp, so....

[bilbobob]

If these devs really cared about piracy that much they would only release games on the PS3 as its still pretty much 100% pirate proof. I see that BF 3 is up to download for PC and 360 already.

I'm sure many of you will argue my point but please explain it to me?

[Overtow]

I don't know if anyone realizes this, someone could have posted on it but i haven't read every comment, but $2,000,000 is 1/50 of BF3 marketing and development costs (assuming a 100 million dollar total, which isn't out of the norm for titles like this). A higher contributor to EA's losses concerning BF3 is the many people just uninterested in the game.

There are gamers that wont be buying this game, as there are non-gamers who definitely wont be buying it. It seems a little silly to nit-pick and say piracy is the reason they are losing money when there can be any number of other factors that are making them "lose" even more money.