"We updated Magicka 14 times in 13 days. Even the pirates stopped posting new pirated versions after a while. Steam's autoupdate was easier."
In a world where not-finished games are launched to the market every month and constant updates from "Day 1" can be a hassle, there is a positive to take away. Developers can keep polishing their products based on community feedback, and their continuous work via official channels make a legal copy of the game more desirable than pirated copies.
Paradox Interactive's Shams Jorjani took to Twitter to comment on their piracy policy, and the vice-president of acquisition at the publisher reckons same strategy works for the recently launched city-builder Cities: Skylines:
"As usual our plan for pirates is to make a great game even better through free updates - making it more convenient to use Steam instead."
"It's all about offering the superior service. That's how we bring down piracy. By making the paid experience a superior one."
Thus, in the end providing best possible service (instant fixes, quick and easy-to-use system) has a significant weight vs. the 'cheaper' but complicated ways of piracy. And it shows in numbers as well:
"Here are a few small tidbits of info about Cities: Skylines - day 1 we had 0% piracy. pretty cool. Day 2 16%."
What do you think? Isn't this, in the end, another step to the "always connected" philosophy? Is it enough to sway you from considering a pirate copy?
