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Digital Rights Issues in Casual Games

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    Notes on slide 1

    500 games – games can take as short as 2-3 months to reach market, out to 18 months. Average around 6 months.

    Cate West – The Vanishing FilesReleased on Real’s w/w service in Feb 2008

    Code Theft – reuse of assets by audio contractors – “that’s the music we licensed from this guy, which he re-sold you”

    Would be easy to talk about the similarities in these case studies for an hour, but here’s a quick rundown: - Seating customers at a restaurant, serving them food - Notice queues, hearts, order placards on tables

    Even closer – - Match-3 mechanic coupled with delivering orders to customers - Note screen layout – queue, board, orders, counter, setting (tiles, door), clock - Name! - Even other websites promoting them together

    DRM – TryMedia and DragonStone tech – if build altered, game creates a 1000-HP monster on level 2 (can’t get past), but this penalizes customer.Torrent seeding – viable for $10MM core game in a market that releases fewer games, but cost to seed multiple weekly releases = prohibitive

    Rights – who do you sue? RN agreements – dev owns rights (and RN is indemnified), while other pubs own IPFull versions – Since we rely on “try before you buy” w/ DRM, hacking the protection yields full game, as opposed to a stripped-down demo version like core or console market. Necessity of market, though – cust doesn’t want to wait to download the full version after they buy.

    Piracy – go after egregious offenders, or those brought to our attention

    Favorites, Groups & Events

    Digital Rights Issues in Casual Games - Presentation Transcript

    1. Digital Right Issues in Casual Games
      COM 558 – WIN ‘08 – Jeremy Snook
    2. Casual Games Overview
      Emerged in 2000 – 2001
      Early games include Bejeweled, Scrabble, Super Collapse!
      500 games released in 20071
      $2.25 billionin revenue in 20072
      Traditional games / media companies now entering space (EA, MTV, Google)
      1 – source: Casual Games Association
      2 – source: Pearl Research, Screen Digest, CGA
      *
    3. Issue 1 – Piracy
      Theft – Taking released version & replacing distributor’s “splash” screen, then redistributing; eBay CD-Rs
      Cracks – Redistribution of DRM-bypassed builds
      Hacks – Descriptions of how to bypass protections
      Keygens – Programs that generate illegitimate-yet-functional registration codes
    4. Piracy Case Study
    5. Issue 2 – Infringement
      Code Theft – Using underlying code w/ new assets, intentional or not (usually black & white)
      Cloning– Mimicking gameplay with zero innovation (usually black & white)
      Not-Quite-Clones – Substantially similar games (gray & subjective)
      *
    6. Infringement Case Studies
      Snowy Lunch Rush (2006)
      Diner Dash – Flo on the Go (original game 2005)
      *
    7. Infringement Case Studies
      Coffee Rush (2008)
      Burger Rush (2007)
      *
    8. Possible Solutions
      DRM wrappers
      Usually hacked within day of updating
      Some allow developer to sink in additional triggers
      Bad build seeding of torrents
      Cease & desists
      International complexities (.ru websites)
      Infringement claims against developers
      *
    9. Complications
      Who owns rights (who do you sue)? Depends on agreement…
      Full versions given away as demos
      Sheer volume of casual games websites
      Too many to regularly proactively monitor
      Tough to tell if a legit partner w/ syndication, affiliate, wholesale partners added daily
      Bandwidth of legal team
      *
    10. Most Common Resolutions
      Tacit acceptance that piracy happens – “these customers wouldn’t buy it anyway”
      For infringement – usually amicable adjustments (name, key features), but with short time-to-market, best to focus on next game
      *
    SlideShare Zeitgeist 2009

    + Jeremy SnookJeremy Snook Nominate

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