5.2 million copies Call of Duty: Black Ops were illegally downloaded that's 100,000 a day!

Over 19 million users illegally downloaded five of the top-selling games of 2010, including Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam, Mass Effect 2, Mafia II and Starcraft II.

Australian - New Super Mario Bros. Wii pirate fined 1.3 million dollars

That's a big cheque he'll have to write if he's going to pay back Nintendo...

'Pirate Galaxy' video game - Seek out gamigo's new special space ships

The universe is still threatened by the evil Mantis. It is time for the fearless space pirates in the 3D sci-fi MMOG Pirate Galaxy to get some reinforcement in their battle against the alien enemies. It is time for a new patch, chock full of new content!

No1 Pirated PC game of 2009 - Modern Warfare 2 - 4.1 million copies in 6 weeks...

TorrentFreak have posted a list of the games that were pirated in 2009 and not surprising - Modern Warfare 2 topped that list.

The sheer numbers did surprise me with over 4 millions copies downloaded in just six weeks! In number two slot Sims 3 with 3.2 million downloads in seven months.

'Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy' video game to arrive in Europe on October 23rd!

Nobilis and Blitz Arcade are proud to announce the European release date and a new feature for Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy, the PC game developed by Stickman Studios.

Buccaneer sails to European Stores on October 23rd

Buccaneer is a single and multiplayer game where players strive to become the most infamous pirate captain of all time and etch their name in The Hall of Infamy.

Buccaneer The Pursuit of Infamy multi player PC video game Trailer Released - play here

Nobilis and Blitz Arcade are proud to release a trailer for Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy, the PC game developed by Stickman Studios.

Buccaneer is a single and multi player game where players strive to become the most infamous pirate captain of all time and etch their name in The Hall of Infamy.

Trailer Buccaneer
by Nobilis

Watch this first trailer of Buccaneer and dive into the action of Pirates battling at sea!

Witness a few of the things you’ll be able to do as a Captain of a Pirate ship: destroy some buildings, sink the Crown’s ships and buy new ships with the gold you’ve earned.

The trailer also gives you a first glimpse of the multi player mode which will allow up to 8 players to battle simultaneously online!

Visit the official website here: http://www.buccaneer-thegame.com/

The Sims 3 Racks Up Over 180,000 pirate downloads Prior To Release

Bloomberg reports that pirated versions of EA's The Sims 3 were downloaded over 180,000 times between May 18 and May 21.

The game will not be officially released until June 2nd, and it does not make use of SecuROM for DRM. Quoting: "That outpaces the 400,000 downloads over three weeks for Electronic Arts' Spore, the most-pirated game of 2008.

... Copies of the game available on file-sharing Web sites aren't the full version, Electronic Arts said. 'The pirated version is a buggy, pre-final build of the game,' Holly Rockwood, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

'It's not the full game. Half the world — an entire city — is missing from the pirated copy.'"

Buccaneer has a 50% discount on Direct2Drive

Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy is available for a lot fewer pieces of eight on Direct2Drive

22 May 2009 Another chance to scoop up the Pirating bestseller for half price. Direct2Drive is selling Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy for a bargain $9.99 (that’s 50% off) until 5 June.

Partnered with Blitz 1>UP, Stickman Studios created the critically acclaimed Indie arcade game that lets you sink ships, plunder gold and strike fear into the hearts of your opponents as you blast enemy ships out of the water. Will you become the world’s greatest pirate captain, or will you watch your infamy ebb away and risk mutiny at the hands of your crew?

“We were thrilled to be able to release Buccaneer via Direct2Drive and are now delighted to be offering the game at a discounted rate - enabling more of our freebooting brethren to jump aboard and join us for a spot of piracy! Yaaarrrr!” says Stickman’s Simon Nevill.

Buccaneer is arcade-style fun on the high seas with easy to use controls, great looking visuals and more fun than you can shake a parrot at. In single-player you have to transform your down-on-its-luck crew and basic ship into the wealthiest pirate galleon on the high seas. There are 56 missions to pit your wits against.

If you fancy taking your swashbuckling skills online, check out the epic multiplayer game and show off your teamplay prowess. With 10 maps there are countless emergent strategies to discover.

“We’re very happy to be partnering with Direct2Drive on this offer,” adds Chris Swan, Blitz Arcade’s Business Development Director. “At the discounted price point we’re hoping that loads more people will give the game a go and have a fun pirate-blast!”

Download now for your chance to get this gem of a game for half price.

Good hunting for Sea Dogs, on Bounty Bay Online video game for PC!

From now on Bounty Bay Online players can take part in regular hunting events. Every Wednesday from 19:00 – 22:00 and from 15:00 – 18:00 on every Sunday, automatic hunting tasks will be launched in the sea-faring world. By taking part, players can bag themselves various buffs to enhance certain abilities temporarily and valuable items such as jewellery, armour and weapons.

The hunting tasks begin with special NPCs such as the ‘Combat Event Teleporter’ who can be found on the docks at Athens. From there players can select three different hunting tasks within the regular event times. In addition, they can define a key ability before they begin, dependent on their character’s profile. Falchion warriors, for example, can choose falchion combat training. Depending on their choice of task and their ability focus, hunting-hungry adventurers are teleported off to the corresponding hunting instance. Once they arrive, for just a few pieces of silver they can get themselves a rather effective buff which will raise certain abilities for a short time period, thus equipping them particularly well for the hunting tasks which now await them in the instance. From time to time, apprentice hunters will come across useful objects such as coffers containing silver and drinks to help them in their hunt. As they then engage various opposing hordes in combat, they can also grab some temporary items for themselves, such as weapons or armour to help them progress in their tasks in the instance.

Upon completing the hunting tasks, successful players will receive the so-called ‘Evidence of Hunt´. This can be either immediately exchanged inside the hunting instance for three hour effectiveness long-duration buffs, or after returning back to the normal game world, converted into valuable jewellery. There is additional information about the hunting events available on the official website:
http://www.bountybayonline.de/en/articles,id40,0,how_instanced_events.html

About Bounty Bay Online
With Bounty Bay Online players enter the Age of Discoveries from the 15th to the 17th century. MMO fans are able to choose an online career as a merchant, sailor, fisherman, pirate or adventurer and make their fortune at land and on the seven seas. Alone or with a guild of players, many adventures and gripping quests lie on their way. Thousands of ancient discoveries on all continents like the pyramids of Gizah or the Chinese Wall are waiting to be explored. After exciting PvP combat at land and on the seas, strong guilds can take control of colonies and cities and decide upon their destiny. Bounty Bay Online features a unique trade system based on supply and demand. In April 2008 Frogster has started a free-to-play server with an integrated item shop as an alternative to the subscription model, so that new sailors can now roam the Seven Seas without any fixed costs. More information is available on www.bountybayonline.com.


Features

• Hundreds of authentic ship models
• Land and sea combat
• More than 60 realistic towns and harbours.
• Guilds can conquer towns and decide upon their taxes and tariffs
• Free add-on "Storm Island" with new items, new features and new regions included
• Free Colony Add-on released in January 2009

Over 100,000 pirate users cripple Demigod video game service

Real-time strategy title Demigod has been crippled by over 100,000 pirates flooding the online game and overwhelming the support network, according to Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, who complained of "near MMO user connections".

According to Wardell, 120,000 connections have taken place for Demigod, with only 18,000 coming from legitimate users who actually purchased the game. This "sheer number of people" has caused "horrific results" that the company was unprepared for.

"Sadly, most of the 120,000 connections are not customers but via warez," he wrote in his blog. "About 18,000 are legitimate… We spent a lot of time today trying to isolate out the warez users from the legitimate users."

Users found themselves unable to logon to the online service or the Demigod forums, and even running the game became a challenge as online checks for updated versions would result in a blank screen - Wardell described this as the "stuff of nightmares".

Wardell concluded: "As annoying as this issue is, it's not something that's going to be an ongoing issue, it's something that is likely to be taken care of in the next day or two. So this time next week, players will be happily playing."

Source: GamesIndustry

Microsoft and Blizzard ban and suspend thousands of gamers

Video game cheats and pirates got a surprise this week, as Microsoft and Blizzard banned and suspended hundreds of thousands of gamers for infractions.

Microsoft got things started by banning from Xbox Live an unspecified number of gamers who had modified their consoles to play pirated – backup – copies of their games.

There were no official numbers, but the forums where such gamers cruise were full of bizarre outrage. "How dare they ban me for playing pirated games!" some said.

Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft, was more forthright, stating that it had banned 350,000 online players from its older StarCraft and Diablo II titles for using software cheats and hacks during online games against other players.

What's annoying is that these video game companies are having to divert what seems a growing pool of resources to chasing and defeating these players.

That's time and money and manpower that doesn't go into making new games or improving existing titles.

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Exclusive Lego Universe Video Offers First Game Glimpse

Lego Universe developer NetDevil has given us an exclusive peek into Lego Universe, the massive multiplayer online game where you can use bricks to collaboratively "build in real time", having adventures through maps that span across all Lego themes: from Space to City to Pirates to Ninjas to Underwater, everything will be in there.

read more | digg story

EA Account deletes user accounts for Battlefield Bad Company

Hearing recent news from friends and forums it seems people using pirated versions of the game are not only getting banned from playing this game but EA are resetting peoples accounts. It seems people are downloading the gold edition for the free weapons then playing there original online in order to not get banned from MS service.

read more | digg story

Encryption Chip Will End Piracy, Says Atari Founder

At yesterday's Wedbush Morgan Securities conference, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell claimed that a stealth encryption chip will "absolutely stop piracy of [PC] gameplay."There is a stealth encryption chip called a TPM that is going on the motherboards of most of the computers that are coming out now,"

read more | digg story

Massive pirate operation smashed in UK Sunday market raid

Raid Reveals Illegally Pirated Nintendo DS Discs Containing £6,000-Worth Of Games

Illegally copied Nintendo DS games stored on discs marked ‘Volume 9 DS Games’ (the disc) were recovered as part of an 85,000 disc haul at an East Yorkshire Sunday market raid turned out to be the first of their kind seized in the UK for the Nintendo DS, ELSPA forensic experts today revealed.

Recovered at the Walton Street market, based in Hull, it transpires that the discs contained approximately 200 current games for the Nintendo DS.



According to ELSPA’s forensic experts, the disc is the first of its kind discovered in the UK. It has been appearing for approximately four-to-six weeks, but no Nintendo DS discs such as those seized at Hull’s Walton market have previously been found.

The raid, part of a collaborative effort to clampdown on the increased presence of counterfeited goods at the market, was carried out by officers from Hull CID, Hull Trading Standards, the Riverside NPT (Neighbourhood Patrol Team), ELSPA (the Entertainment Leisure And Software Publishers’ Association) IP Crime Unit, MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society), and representatives from Adidas and Nike worked together to identify illegally copied games, music and counterfeit clothes.

The approximate value of the software on the disc, should a member of the public purchase it in a High Street shop, is £6,000.

A number of people were interviewed by local Trading Standards officers after being found selling counterfeit clothing and footwear and will be prosecuted. Part of the operation involved the confiscation of counterfeited goods from traders who fled from the market, leaving their stalls and stock behind as officers entered the market.

John Hillier, who heads up ELSPA’s crime unit, said: “Piracy costs the games industry dear – just like that of any other entertainment industry. Making good and inventive games is an expensive and creative process, with some titles today costing £20m or more to develop. To make a quality title involves teams of highly skilled professionals, from programmers and graphic artists to voice actors and musicians. When a pirate sells illegally copied games they undermine the viability of our industry. The worst-case scenario is that pirate activity could cost the jobs of some of the creative talent and that would be a catastrophe.

“There are other things which the public should be made aware of about counterfeit games. Some of them will damage hardware, such as PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles. Others will not play in PCs and consoles at all or, if they do, the quality of the graphics or gameplay mechanics may be impaired. Finally, pirated software comes with no quality assurance – so if the games do not play properly then retailers and publishers will not replace them.”

Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA, said: “Walton Street has recently been plagued by criminals selling illegally copied games, music and clothing. ELSPA would like to thank local Trading Standards and all other attending authorities for their efforts in stamping out illegal products from the marketplace and helping protect legitimate traders.”

Det. Sgt Reed of Hull CID, said: “We have made big inroads into the market now and it is our intention to keep raiding it. We’re going to meet with Trading Standards and see whether we can make this a regular thing.”

Mike Pindar, Trading Standards officer for Hull City County Council, said: “Local traders have gone out of business as a result of these counterfeiters and people who buy from them. The people who lose out are the retailers and the public. We’re going to be very active on counterfeiting and it is only a matter of time before these people receive a visit from the police and ourselves.”

A spokesman for entertainment chain HMV said piracy was costing the industry “hundreds of millions of pounds”. He added: “If people visit record stores they will find the price of DVDs and CDs has come down so significantly there is no reason for people to pay a couple of pounds less for pirate copies, which are low quality and support criminals.”

Pirated Pirates Vs Ninjas Dodgeball Delays Release

Pirated Pirates v Ninjas Dodgeball Delays Release

Gamecock Media Group announced today that due to pirated copies of Blazing Lizard’s upcoming Pirates v Ninjas Dodgeball being on the loose the game will be revamped and held until later this Spring.

“We see the irony in all this,” noted Christopher Stockman, Studio Director at Blazing Lizard. “Rest assured, we have a crack team of Ninjas on the case and hunting down all pirates. On the positive side it gives us a chance to go back and add in additional content to the game.”



What this means for fans of Pirates (the sea-faring kind) and Ninjas is more bang for their buck when the game releases (this also includes fans of the other teams in the game, Robots and Zombies). In addition to the free-flinging arcade dodgeball events already in place (look out for Peg-Leg Stomps and Shuriken Attacks.), Blazing Lizard is adding more traditional rules dodgeball modes where teams stay only on their side and multiple dodgeballs are in play. Now we can settle the score once and for all.

For more info visit www.piratesvsninjas.com. If you are one of the pirates, watch your back!

[disclaimer: the game has not been pirated but we wanted an excuse to announce the wait for the game and the new game mode.]

Another Shot Across Bows For Piracy As Market Trader Jailed

Eight months imprisonment given to rogue trader

A market trader who made a living selling illegally copied games worth thousands of pounds at a Wolverhampton market has been jailed for eight months.

Christopher Charles Jones, 40, of Century Court, Edlington, Doncaster was sentenced on Friday 30th November at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court to eight months imprisonment for having sold illegally copied games – most notably single discs containing 400 games for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) console, among others. The combined value of each individual PSP game on the disc has been estimated to be “in the thousands”, but Jones was selling each one for just £5.

Mr Jones was initially arrested following a raid executed by West Midlands Police and Wolverhapton City Council Trading Standards on 11th April 2006. He had been under surveillance for some time by ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) investigators, who had been secretly filming his criminal activity and making test purchases.

During his first court appearance on Tuesday 27th November, Jones admitted 21 charges relating to copyright breaches after the raid at the North Computer market at Wolverhampton’s Dunstall Racecourse, before being charged and jailed for eight months on 30th November before a bench of three magistrates.

Peter Calvert, Wolverhampton City Council Trading Standards Manager, said: “This prosecution underlines the City Council’s commitment to fighting the scourge of counterfeiting. Selling fake items is designed to dupe innocent consumers, harm the livelihoods of honest businesses and line the pockets of the greedy. The City Council will continue to deal robustly with those involved in this trade in Wolverhampton.”

Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA commented: “It’s clear from the recent successes in bringing to justice those who think they can get away with illegally copying games and profiting from their sale that piracy and counterfeiting doesn’t pay. This case only goes to prove that through patience and diligence Trading Standards, local police and the anti-piracy investigators are making it harder than ever for criminals to operate.”

Chinese Piracy (The Next Generation), A Roundup

I like to keep an eye on what's going on in China with regards to piracy issues - especially now that Nintendo has been aggressively going after people who pirate and China's homegrown CDC Games is taking a stand, as well. Steven Davis, the security guru over at PlayNoEvil, spoke with Frank Yu, who formerly worked for Microsoft in China, about the current state of piracy in regard to the current generation of consoles. I'm never exactly surprised by the extent to which stuff is pirated in China (I'm still a little boggled that it's easy to purchase films that have been outright banned by the government - bootlegged, of course), but it does make me wonder exactly how much companies can do when the motto seems to be 'If you make it, they will come and pirate it (sometimes with the help of government entities!)':

I know the pirates and the modders in China. They are able to chip the Japanese Wii but the US Wii has more protection (Editor's Note and, presumably not hacked because of the availability of the Japanese Wii). For games like Paper Mario, that needed a firmware update on the Internet which even modded Wii's could get. On the new Metroid, the Internet update does not seem to work for modded Wiis this time...(no doubt) a solution is being created.
Yes, the Xbox 360 hardware is totally broken for pirated games...however, if you leave your mod chip active MS will detect it and shut you out of Xbox Live. I have heard rumours of mod chips that can be switched off so that it toggle between a modded Xbox and an unmodded one to go on Live. I have brought many MS Xbox people to the shops here in China that do the modding (its not illegal to install the chip as far as I know but it is illegal to technically sell the console) (Editor's Note: Frank used to work for Microsoft in China). Folks at MS are always impressed by the speed and workaround that hackers and modders do to the motherboard. Of course we don' t tell them we're MS...there are a lot of foreigners who go to these shops too.

Not too much demand for PS3 here...ergo no modding or pirated games that I know of. The whole DS library is available on DVDs here for perhaps USD 12 for the whole set. You still need a Supercard or R4 mod/car for the DS but there is no need to install anything, its just a cartridge like any other game with a slot for a Micro SD memory card.