Piracy is one of the biggest threats a game studio has to deal with. While there is some debate to be had, pirates and the industry have had a long feud with new protections from game companies and new cracks from pirates, all to try to get enough people to buy legal copies to actually stay in business.
RELATEDGhosts of Tsushima May Have Been a Pirate Game
But while most companies stick to the modern luxuries ofextensive DRM and protection, some decide to take their war against piracy extra further with anti-piracy measures. If a game still manages to be pirated, the game will detect a sign that it is pirated and activate certain features to change the experience usually to either ruin a pirate’s fun, keep them out of the game, or for more unique reasons. These can be plenty of fun, so here are some of the unique ways developers have struck back against piracy.
10Mirror’s Edge
Many games take rather basic methods to lock pirates out by just freezing the game early on, butMirror’s Edgeuses a more clever method to make sure pirates never leave the starting area. Mirror’s Edge is a game all about fast parkour between the game’s signature red objects but all of that changes when anti-piracy kicks in.
The anti-piracy makes it so the player is incredibly slow, sprinting making them even slower. They’re so slow that they can’t get fast enough to even use the parkour system, much less jump from the first ramp in the game. This simple but effective system makes it so the only thing a pirate can do is jump off the starter building. Simple and to the point!
9Alan Wake
Some developers just accept piracy as a natural thing, given enough time, pirates crack any kind of puzzle or obstacle laid out eventually, so why not have fun with the anti-piracy? That’s exactly the approachAlan Waketakes. If the game detects a pirated version, the only change that is made is simply putting a pirate eyepatch on characters.
RELATEDScariest Microsoft Exclusive Games
There really is nothing else to it, no dirty tricks or extra scares in wait, just a silly wink and nod toward the pirate playing. The only extra thing is that the loading screen tips are changed to politely ask the player to buy the game if they like it.
8Michael Jackson the Experience
While locking the player out of the game is the most popular method of anti-piracy, sometimes games let the player play through and ruin the experience in other ways, such as with Michael Jackson the Experience. This otherwise unremarkable rhythm game for the DS holds an amusing bit of anti-piracy method that leverages its genre as a rhythm game.
Music is the most important part of any rhythm game and enjoying the songs is the main appeal, but you don’t get to do that here as the audio is both extra compressed and also drowned out by the sound of vuvuzelas. The game does lock up before notes appear, but honestly, it would work as anti-piracy even if it let you play.
7Serious Sam 3
Some games decide to throw in a bit of extra challenge for potential pirates with their measures by introducing new, almost impossible obstacles such as inSerious Sam 3. The anti-piracy in this game kicks in once the player picks up the pistol at this point, a brand-new enemy will spawn and relentlessly chase the player.
This massive, unkillable version of the Red Arachnoid, lovingly known as the “Digital Rights Scorpion” is extra fast and can kill Sam easily, making the game nearly unbeatable with it around. The Digital Rights Scorpion actually got rather popular, becoming beloved by the community and one of the most famous parts of Serious Sam 3.
6Earthbound
While anti-piracy should be there to stop pirates from playing most of the game, some games take the rather backward approach of only having an anti-piracy kick in at the very end, but that’s the approachEarthboundtakes. When reaching the final boss in a pirated copy, the game will lock up after the first bits of dialogue and when it’s reset, your save file will be wiped.
Giygas is already one of the scariest bosses in gaming so to have the game freeze up and wipe you away when Porky says he’ll devour you is quite chilling. Extra evil is the fact that pirated copies will give way more enemy encounters throughout, making getting there even harder and harsher.
5Skullgirls
Not every bit of anti-piracy is so bold, some games would rather play small tricks on pirates that they know they can’t stop,Skullgirlsis one game that takes this approach. Only one change is made to pirated copies, after clearing story mode the game will display the message “What is the square root of a fish? Now I’m sad.”
This message is made to be absolutely nonsensical and may seem like just a joke, but it’s actually a well-laid trap. It’s made to be confusing, so pirates go online and ask what the meaning of it is, unknowingly revealing themselves as pirates to everyone around them. Sometimes it’s better to let the criminals dig their own graves.
Some games pull out all the stops to ensure people can’t play pirated copies, with layers upon layers of tricks, such as withGTA IV. When the game detects piracy, a few changes will be made: The game will always have the spinning drunk effect on the camera, all cars will be on the verge of breaking down, and you can not stop accelerating once you enter a car.
RELATEDGTA 4 Looks Way Better Than GTA 5 Thanks to This Remake Mod
But, it goes further as if you manage to deal with all this, the game throws in plenty of details to stop you such as never being able to repair cars, missions locking up at various points, not being able to use the computer, and many more tricks. Needless to say, this makes beating the game in this state rather difficult, but it is certainly amusing.
3Spyro: Year of the Dragon
While most anti-piracy wish to keep players from playing altogether by being loud and obvious, some developers would rather keep pirates suffering for much longer with more insidious tricks, and no game has done that better thanSpyro: Year of the Dragon. If the game detects it’s pirated, it will play normally till the end of the first world where Zoe says the copy is hacked and may encounter issues.
From this point, the game slowly plays tricks on the player by removing eggs, making Sparx always be at 1 health, changing the language on PAL copies, teleporting the player around, and to add insult to injury, crashing the game and deleting the save file when reaching the final boss. Playing Spyro like this is only for masochists.
2Game Dev Tycoon
Perhaps the most famous case of anti-piracy,Game Dev Tycoondecides to go a little meta with its way of punishing pirates. Where as the game doesn’t have DRM, the devs decided to upload their own “cracked” version of the game to pirated sites with a little trick inside.
The game plays normally for a while but eventually, your company will encounter a new problem: Piracy. In an act of irony, you’ll be unable to stop pirates and your company will always go out of business. The trick quickly earned the game some fame for how clever it was and it was so beloved that it was expanded, made actually winnable, and turned into a new Pirate Mode for the game where you have to develop your own DRM and ways of handling pirates! Quite a fun addition in the end.
1Just Shapes and Beats
While most games try to fight hard against pirates, others are more accepting, piracy happens for reasons other than just theft after all whether it’s trying the game before buying or a bad financial spot,Just Shapes and Beatsis a game that understands this struggle. While the game has anti-piracy, none of it will impede gameplay, freeze up the game, or even make the pirate feel bad.
All that happens when the anti-piracy is triggered is that a video plays where the developer speaks to the player saying that they understand and pirated their fair share of games. They then invite the player to support the game through word of mouth or watching them stream before letting them go on and play.
NEXTJust Shapes and Beats Gets a Shovel Knight-Inspired Mixtape
