HAY GUYS

Aardark · Local time: Jan 7, 2009, 05:01 PM

Pretty sure they won't "see" it at all.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Aardark · Local time: Jan 7, 2009, 05:15 PM

But if its for Halo - then you're talking about Mountain Dew tie-in ads and novelizations and action figures and everything else. Stepping on their toes by stealing their IP makes things difficult in the shorter/broader perspective, if not so much the long run.

Like what things? You think people who download games are less likely to buy Mountain Dew?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Aardark · Local time: Jan 7, 2009, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by LeHah

(Come on Aard. I know you're just playing dumb here.)

Its called infringement. There are many ways to do it. Mountain Dew and EA had an exchange of legal status things to have that promotion happen - its vaugely similar to walking into a Bestbuy and buying a copy of Halo.

Downloading it illegally isn't covered in that.

Well, first of all, you can still easily buy Halo, so no one would call it abandonware in the first place. And I agree that, strictly legally speaking, most things that people call abandonware actually aren't. But morally, if the only way of getting a game is buying it used from a private seller, I don't have a problem with downloading instead. And I still don't understand what Mountain Dew or other merchandise has to do with it. If anything, the more people play a game -- legally or otherwise -- the better the tie-in merchandise will sell (since you can't download Mountain Dew).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Aardark · Local time: Jan 7, 2009, 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

Let's say I download an ISO of FIFA 99. EA is no longer producing material copies of this game; they are no longer estimating and calculating revenues from purchases of this game. EA is no longer paying royalties to Sega for sales of FIFA 99. All transactions involving this game are on the secondhand market and use a system of exchange so arbitrary that there's no way Sega or EA could even begin to calculate perceived losses. It is, for all intents and purposes, a game obsoleted by subsequent versions and technology itself. There's no real stake in the FIFA 99 market.

As far as games with ''yearly updates'' go, I can kind of see downloaders hurting sales (in theory). The FIFA '99 market as such is dead, but not the FIFA franchise. If there was no way to download the game, at least some of those people would have to go out and buy FIFA 2009 instead.

How ya doing, buddy?