There was a lot of awesome gaming news in 2013, but what was the greatest little piece of gaming history made in the past year? No competition. Not a game, not a piece of technology, not me getting good feedback on Twitter from my favourite composers, but a cheeky piece of cleverness by a little indie studio and the ensuing gormless response from their “victims”.
Greenheart games made game called Game Dev Tycoon, and when they released it they simultaneously seeded a special version on The Pirate Bay. Not long after that, thousands of copies had been downloaded illegally, and not long after that complaints started flooding in. Gamers were finding that their in-game studios were becoming victims of piracy, making the game unwinnable. Where some players managed to see the irony, or at least get the message, others complained. A marvellous reflection of the gaming community there…
Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers.
Truly beautiful.