UE4 - Anti-piracy BP time bomb with real date for Steam?

[ClockworkOcean]

Depends on popularity and need.
Hacking a game is as much a job as making one mind you. Completely different set of skills, but skills people don't really get paid for nonetheless (much like making games now! XP)

When a popular game comes out, there is a definite rush to crack it and put it up. However even with those folks that do it -lets say- professionally (if playing fortnite on YouTube can be a profession don't anyone dare argue hacking games isn't a profession) there is a diminishing return on investment over keeping up with updates.

Getting the crack out 1st to 5th makes sense. Releasing every update when you have a list of another 20 games that were just released to still crack does not.

Are these people detrimental to us developers?
Personally I don't think so. I encourage them to keep tearing DMRs that are always online on single player (Rockstar too! Forgot about thay) apart...
Do they cost us sales? I doubt it. In fact, I think skyrim is skyrim ONLY because of the hackers that made it free.
(let's not blame them for the bugs, thats totally Bethesda ;P)

Ps: what's your game? Why doesn't the community spotlight feature it more often given you are always the in the top 10 answer hub / you do Epic's job ?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1414480/Zof/

Actually, I have no idea how to tell Epic about it...

PS: I it's your sort of thing, PM me, I'll do you a key...

[unit23]

Are these people detrimental to us developers?

Some of these people later worked for the largest game companies, hence, in a twist were in part responsible for game (and financial) success stories.

[MostHost LA]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1414480/Zof/
Actually, I have no idea how to tell Epic about it...

Awesome stuff. Sent (or rather fumbled.. what's with visitor messages? XD) you a pm re the spotlight.

unit23 true, so not only are they not detrimental, they end up enriching the community...

Anyway let's keep in mind that neither I nor anyone here is advocating for piracy (because you could totally take statements out of context and construe that).

We are basically in totum just saying that it doesn't really matter to sales.

[UnrealEnterprise]

We are basically in totum just saying that it doesn't really matter to sales.

Well, all of us except the OP maybe.

But I can tell you this, piracy for PC games again... "in my experience" is overwhelming, massive and "ultra" fast.... not any million dollar marketing budget is going to be as effective, as long as piracy is, as easy as it is now...

[DraxFX]

Well, all of us except the OP maybe.

I like it, and It has gained several nice reviews and comments in a very short period of time, wich is cool, I'm not a bad person for fighting piracy... don't hate me, they messed with me first.

true, so not only are they not detrimental, they end up enriching the community....

So you endorse it for the sake of crowded communities? Not a big percentage of piracy customers are going to convert enough, to enrich your community, and if it does... I already commented about my friend not participating nor promoting at his Discord and other places, just because there is no legitimate questions to answer, and lot of cons, when this community constantly asks: how to update my fake game V1 to Version 5, ohhh... yes... go to this link to this piracy site or watch this video. so he has to constantly bann everybody and growing numbers are not converting to sales that much either, there is no justification, but I get your point of using it as a bluff... LOL, still not convinced, in my mind piracy is ilegal and that's it, also it corrupts the system, and I do understand that it is not going to go away, but still, you could try to do something to lower this nasty curve, at least, to make them harder to find.

Just a brief example: Once upon a time, one of the biggest gamming companies, was promoting massive discounts like 90% to 70% for all their games, because they were celebrating X years of being in the bussines; that day I was making a copyright claim to one piracy site and voila, that site was releasing, the lattest update of those games, and they had them in their frontpage with a subtitle (new updates, and the update dates or version), and, this site was also promoting those cracked games with banners, and I thought: "this is why"

I really feel sad when i watch Indie developers with nice games, lowering their price from $19 to $1.99... in 2 or 3 months, after years of work.

[Analog Joker]

Got my first game out on Steam and within the first hour pirated versions were everywhere. Been browsing through the forums to see what other devs perspectives were on piracy and now I feel depressed... Worked on my title for 4+ years while working a full-time day job to support the project financially.