Series Why piracy is restricting FMH

[Dec]

While this is a fairly ambiguous title to the article I want to talk about something very close to my heart. This subject is piracy. Now while I don't endorse piracy and encourage people to buy the game I realise there may be some exceptions but this is very few and that piracy shouldn't be tolerated no matter what the game is.

 

Now onto the article at hand, it would be so easy to talk about money and how much they are losing in potential sales but potential is a big word and the only way to describe how many people playing the game would actually buy the game if it wasn't available to pirate. This brings me onto the point of the availability, it is so easy to pirate the game on Android and even iOS now that people don't bother and when confronted they make excuses up about money, my point is that it is less than £1 a month and not many can afford this but with the fear of sounding xenophobic the most common places of piracy of the game appear to be ones where the countries are either lax or non existent on such on issue - Russa, Ukraine and Turkey. Money aside though how is the game being affected by these pirates, while yes more sales are bound to happen, not every pirate will get it as I have just shown though of course more money = more people = more features! That is the way the world and businesses work.

 

So Dec what are you talking about in this? Well it is quite simple, piracy means less downloads and less money from a certain nation. Now less downloads means less interest or so SI see, this may not be true though. Why would SI add in Russia if they get less downloads than Ireland? What financial benefit is this going to give them? Very little or so they think. While Russia may have a big fanbase for the game piracy stops the Russian League and the Russian language being put into the game as licenses have to be acquired and sales need to justify this where as they aren't getting a good starting interest in order to believe that they will thrive there and make a significant amount of sales to run the business. End of the day the company is a business and this business needs to maximise profits in order to run. Licenses aren't cheap and especially for the good leagues and if SI only sees 10% of downloads then they will think this is a waste of time as 90% of "fans" (term used loosely) are pirating the game and not paying for it therefore not showing SI of their interest to make them invest.

 

Now this is one way that these pirates are restricting growth of FMH for the majority (I for one would love to play in Russia) but there are others.. While I said new features would not be added due to less man power but what about current bugs? The staff are responsible for more than they would be if they had more sales, this would allow them to grow.and get people to do certain tasks, while one may work on new features one may work on bugs but this isn't possible with a small team such as the FMH team. Marc and Pablo are currently doing everything meaning bugs take priority and then additions come, imagine what it would be like and how much more polished the game was if they hired another person to work on that. Imagine the amount of new features the other two could code in. While I said I wouldn't make it about money but money talks and from a design perspective more people means more things can be done. If 10,000 people pirated the game a year that is £70,000, say they get 50% of that, £35,000 a year could be assigned to get another person to work on the game and given that FMH has an average user base of 5,000 a month on Facebook I would say this number is very, very low.

 

These are just two examples without touching on the fantasy of potential new features and addressing two of the most common things that are requested to be added every year - new leagues/languages and fixing of bugs. As you can see piracy has a huge part in this so what I am going to say to end this is simple. If you are a pirate, why? Can you not afford less than £1 a month to buy the game? I bet you can. Are you really that selfish? You are only hurting yourself in the long run, if you are from Turkey and want the Turkish language but don't pay for the game then you are to blame so don't request it. You are meant to be a fan of the game, pay for it and you will get more enjoyment out of it in future. However, if you have paid for the game then thank you, please tell your friends to do the same if they have pirated it. While piracy is an increasingly difficult problem to fix 12/1 rates that was revealed by Miles Jacobson in 2012  is just wrong and not helping the game at all. For every £7 SI get they are potentially losing £84! That is a huge amount considering the thousands of users they have. We all love the game so please buy it (and any other game for that matter) we don't want to lose the game on Android but that is becoming increasingly more likely and the game is ignoring our requests for new leagues because they lack the money they could and should have. 

 

I am sorry if this has turned into a bit of a rant but it needs laying out there. Thank you for sticking with me until the end and I hope it has encouraged you to do more about this issue, it affects everyone and not just SI. Piracy is bad and I would love to see everyone enjoying the game knowing they have paid for it and that it will help out the game in the long run meaning you can enjoy it more and for longer.

 

[ImagineDragons]

This is so true. What I could say a real ranting.

[Lewiitom]

I don't really understand why people want to pirate it, I'm very happy to pay £7 for a game that will last me for hours and hours and pirating the game can just ruin it for everyone else.

[MerlionMaple96]

Great article Dec. Piracy really does hinder development. I never knew about the whole 12/1 thing though, that's pretty shocking to me. I always thought the ratio would be lower. Anyways, this was a fantastic read!

[OHP]

Very well-written article Dec. I totally agree with you. The people who plays FMH without paying are potentially threats to the further development of FMH.

 

There are a lot of wishes for FMH 14 and sometimes also angry posts regarding bugs and things that could be better in FMH but with perhaps only 1 of 12 who pays for it it is impossible to improve the game that much.

 

So please (if anyone with an unlicensed FMH reads this): stop your piracy and pay for the game !

[PalaceAllTheWay]

This was a great read and I would agree. People need to stop piracy as it's completely unfair on the makers of the game as they put their hard work in to making the whole thing and people quite simply pirate it and don't think. I bought the game and it is completely worth the money. I spend hours and hours on it when I can and I find it extremely fun. The people who pirate the game don't really think what affect it has on the company and the people.

[Ashez]

Spot on Dec

[J-savage]

Just have to say, if there is people on this site who have used piracy to buy the game I'm pretty sure that Dec and other members don't really appreciate you.

[MoussaSowFB]

Good read i agree but i wanna say something.

Turkish League is not in game because sales are bad in Turkey.But people want Turkish league.They see turkish league is not in game they dont buy.So SI should do Turkish League in fmh 2014.If sales will be good continue with turkish league in other games.But if sales will be bad dont do it in next fmh games.Look at FM PC turkish league and language in the game.Sales are good.

Sorry about my english

[Dec]

The Turkish people shouldn't use that as an excuse to pirate. It is quite simple, if they do that and spend a lot of money to they want a return and they cannot guarantee sales there and rightly so. Why would people stop pirating the game just as their league gets added in? They wouldn't.

You are just making excuses up for pirates and I hope you aren't one yourself and if you are then please buy the game to show your support, it is the only way.

The only reason Turkish language is being added into 2014 is because the sales have improved but it has been requested since 2007 yet Miles has constantly said if people didn't pirate it then it would be added in. It took 7 years!

[anfieldsquirrel]

I think £7 is a bloody bargain. FMH has brought me hours upon hours of endless fun and entertainment. And if I hadn't bought FMH, I wouldn't have found this site. Considering you pay £40/£50 for FIFA on Xbox/ps3 I think £7 is amazing. If I'm honest, I'd choose FMH over FIFA anyday. So there really is no excuse to pirate, no matter what your current circumstances are.

[Ashez]

Is £7 a bargain? Yes! 

 

Would i pay more than £7 for FMH? Without a shadow of a doubt (although i wouldn't be happy with a massive price jump )

 

Would i buy FMH without England? Honestly i don't think i would until it's on sale and i've said a lot that adding the league would obviously boost that area's sales. Although England is my main league but it is also the most watched in the world more or less so if i was from a county not involved in FMH i'm sure the big leagues on the game would interest me enough to spend £7 in the hope my league is some day added.

 

Just because England's not included would i steal the game? Would i ****! Stealing's stealing and in the long run it would effect me like it has with the Turkish leagues not being added and even if my main league wasn't added there are loads of others to keep me entertained. One of my game buying theory's is will i enjoy it for the amount of hours i'd have to work to pay for it, so some games would near enough require a full days wages and lets face it most new games are so DLC driven they are short, where as FMH would take just over an hour to earn and i'll be enjoying it for over a year!

 

All in all this game is one of the most time occupying games in history and it's available for just over five quid, bargain! If yourselves or anyone you know has stolen this game i am disappointed in you, not only because your harming the game i love but selfishly because i'm dying to play the Turkish and Russian leagues and you guys are hindering me!! 

[dirtboy]

Is it that hard to pay $8?

Or steal it. Just shows how lazy some people are.

[Cartello]

One of the problems is that many games on handheld/mobiles are really sub-par and you don't know what the game is like or if you'll enjoy it until you try it.
Popular reviews are often wrong or based though one persons opinion.

I for one pirated FMH 2012 for a month before stumping up the cash to buy the real version, and paid for FMH 2013 outright.
I also believe in paying for quality games to keep them alive and put some money into the pockets of people that have made the game, as is only fair.

Yet, with a game such as FMH which has long-lasting appeal rather than short term, they might possible consider adding a demo version that allows people to play through 1-3 seasons free before deciding to pay for a full version.

I say this having also brought a friend into FMH who has played the many hundereds of hours I now have and he also first pirated the game but has chosen not to actually buy the game. (WHY?!)

[Keraviln]

Right on Dec, I agree totally but...

 

*coughs* I had to pay like $20

 

(Australians get ripped off)

 

I looked at Steam and they were charging like $80 for PC version of Football Manager, why do that when I can buy it for $30 off any other site? (I'm not sure how much they charge you guys for PC Football Manager, but I'm just saying, $50 extra on a normally $30 game is a bit extreme, especially seeing as I get a hard copy for $30 and a virtual copy for $80...)

[Devil]

I received FMH 2013 for my birthday for like £30 from amazon and its lasted me HOURS! I wouldn't hesitate to pay £50 (ma seem a bit far-fetched to you....) for something that would occupy me for so long!

[Ashez]

I paid 19.99 for PSP and 7 for IOS twice and it's been my best investment of the year by far

[Keraviln]

iOS twice???

I've got no issue with how high the price is, as long as it's for everyone- that's all .

I checked and I paid about 70% more than US, afte factoring in the Aussie dollar at the time

[Ashez]

Got it for Alfie aswell

[Keraviln]

Ahhk, ofc

Lucky Alfie...

[18sparky75]

Alot of people who pirate only do because of google plays shot policy of needing a credit card.

[Dec]

Poor excuse, they have parents who 90% have debit or credit cards.

[aykyle]

I'm pretty sure(not 100%) you can get a Google Play card and use it to buy FMH.

Not 100% though.

[rafa]

It's not that simple Dec. Some people argue that piracy may be good for business:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2011/07/27/is-piracy-good

[Dec]

I don't really agree with that, it is basing it on the premise that everyone has morals and isn't self centred plus you cannot view piracy as a lost potential sale or a sale in future. While they have a point about being a measure of success but the more people who pirate it and recommend it the more they will recommend pirating it to their friends.

[Lee-Roy]

My opinion on piracy (for anyone who might find it interesting):

I don't pirate music, the only reason being that I like my music to be from ITunes. Crystal clear and in perfect sync with my phone.

I don't pirate films, the only reason being that I like to have a collection (blu-ray or DVD), again it's crystal clear, easy to get hold of with Internet shopping and it's anyways nice to have a hard collection.

I don't pirate but only because it hasn't suited my needs. And then I found a gameboy emulator for an unjailbroken iphone. I'd been looking for one for a couple of years and I was so happy. I shared it with a few friends and posted the link here in case anyone was interested. Dec gave me a bit of a telling off and wrote this article not long after. It hadn't occurred to me that it was pirating. I didn't consider that I was playing paid games for free. Then I read the article again today and it occurred to me that I'm stealing. So now I won't be using the emulator anymore - I've already deleted it off my phone, and I'm going to carry on making sure I pay for everything.

[rafa]

I have pirated *a lot* on my teen years. Basically, I was getting stuff that was not available in my country on those times, or stuff that was so overtaxed that it ended costing four times more than the original price - bearing in mind that the average wage was probably 4 times smaller than those in Europe.

However, now that I live in Sweden and I have a decent income, I just don't see the point in pirating anymore.

However, I will never blindly judge a Russian or a Turk for piracy. They have other levels of incomes and sometimes to fork out £7 can be a lot.

[18sparky75]

So if I have an emulator and I manage to mount my own game I into and iso thats pirating? Bullsh*t

[Dec]

No it is piracy.

 

You are still stealing from people for a product that is meant to cost.

[aykyle]

I think he's saying he bought the hardcopy of a game and made it into an iso. And then used it on an emulator.