Top 5 Games That PUNISHED Pirates

[@rabbidluigi]

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[@Irobert1115HD]

actually you can kill the killer scorpion from serious sam 3. it just has a titanic health pool and respawns not to long after death.

[@zeospark9715]

Just gonna give a mention to a particularity NASTY one that occurs in Earthbound. Not only the enemies are tough as nails and appear more frequently, but right as you are about to get into the final battle with Giygas, the game actually DELETES the save file! Just imagine you go through the entire game pretty much on Hard Mode only for the game to give you a giant middle finger right before the final boss. That is more evil than Giygas himself lol

[@thecunninlynguist]

my fave one

[@soooslaaal8204]

I would honestly fly to japan and commit grievous crimes against the dev's family to avenge such a wrong :)

[@circuits17nightmare28]

That’s what you deserve for essentially stealing

[@circuits17nightmare28]

@soooslaaal8204 NO!!! you have no right to do that because you essentially stole from the developers, so you had it coming. you reap what you sow

[@soooslaaal8204]

@@circuits17nightmare28 after I hurt the devs in Japan, you are next

[@Blueflag04]

In mirror edge, your character would run so slow that you cant even make the first jump

[@Tanis031]

What was worse is that was in the *legit* copies too. They had such poor copy protection that it'd just randomly kick on. So you could be playing on a completely legal console with a completely legal copy of the game and have this BS kick in. I played it and never understood why I was so bad at the game I couldn't beat the tutorial. Years later I found out about this.

[@tromedlovdrolmai]

I love the fact that Game Dev Tycoon not only added the pirated gameplay to official releases as a separate much harder game mode, but also added an achievement for beating the game while in pirate mode. it's so much fun to play on the official version, and I like going for the harder challenge of not just cycling through the same genres and staying afloat in that mode, but actually trying to make at least one game from every genre while in that mode

[@tromedlovdrolmai]

I'm also shocked you didn't even talk about that rabbidluigi

[@keybladeoverlord]

I am amazed you didn't mention Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon's whole Piracy Protection which makes the game just go all sorts of haywire by deleting items from the game, taking items you already collected, randomly changing the game's language in the PAL version, and even throwing you out of the final boss should you make it, sending you all the way back to the beginning of the game with your save file being deleted. Tech Rules made a great video delving into it if you wanna see the finer details.

[@GmNdWtchr96]

Probably too mainstream?

[@briancorvello3620]

Banjo-Kazooie had something like that. If you have an illegal copy, Grunty (who tends to troll the player a lot as it is) will eventually pop up and cackle, "Now I will erase your game pack, because you had the need to hack!" And she WILL, but she doesn't do it until you actually try to save the game. Cruel, maybe, but then hey, she IS evil, you know.

[@Wiimeiser]

That actually happens when you use ingame cheats to sequence break. The actual antipiracy just deletes the Spiral Mountain bridge if you've progressed past it and has you randomly unlearn moves..

[@Nightly-Flare]

In earthbound you could play the game fully normally, however porky Insta kills you and deletes your save once you reach the final boss.

[@MagusDouken]

Not insta-kill... he crashes the game. Also, enemy spawns are racked up to a RIDICULOUS degree.

[@CrystallineLore]

It should be noted that these 'punishments' mosrly worked because no one expected it. Once discovered, they were easily circumvented and posed zero barrier to the pirating they meant to waggle a finger at. It's mostly interesting at best.

[@awsomeguy37]

DRM protection is never meant as a permanent solution. The point is to protect early sales, especially within the first 2 months or so when the game is likely to sell the most potential copies

[@Gloochiiiiii]

For a more obscure pull, Rabi-Ribi has one of my favorite examples of this. The main game doesn't do much with it, but if you try to pirate all the DLC, you'll ALSO end up pirating a special secret DLC not visible in the Steam store. This special DLC makes it so that, whenever you run the game, it'll open a link to the game's store page in your default browser Every Frame, and since the game runs at 60 FPS (assuming nothing is going wrong), that's 60 NEW TABS PER SECOND. It will almost certainly crash your computer in the process, but on god, what a glorious fucking crash.

[@jonathanrussell8998]

Not an actual anti piracy but in Tech Rules' video on anti piracy he made a joke about how Among Us should have anti piracy where the pirates are put in lobbies with each other where everyone is a crewmate and that's hilarious to me.

[@Biggerman159]

So just.. everyone wins at once?

[@jonathanrussell8998]

@@Biggerman159 Well, it would presumably override the usual “all crewmates win if only crewmates are alive” condition. The idea was that people start voting each other out just on paranoia, I guess until there’s only two left or until tasks are all done.

[@Biggerman159]

@jonathanrussell8998 oh yea I forgot about emergency meetings lol

[@jordanhunter3375]

Discord notifications: "Have you ever been called out by a fairy?" Me: ...No, but I have been chastised by a brownie.

[@TheFusionWarrior]

My fave is when if you pirated a certain version of Pokemon, you couldn't ever earn EXP. Especially from when the owner of the Serebii website initially reported it as a feature, that you couldn't earn EXP during "the tutorial". That mention was scrubbed clean from the website because he had a really for real copy of the game before most people in Japan had it you guys I promise!

[@Biggerman159]

What game was it

[@TheFusionWarrior]

@@Biggerman159 Pokemon Black and White.

[@newbiegamelover4767]

What about the one for Spyro? That type of anti-piracy was pure evil (if you happen to be the pirate who stole it, that is)! Also, one thing I'd like to see someone do is make an anti-piracy that almost encourages the piracy, as in there are secrets in the pirated copy that can't be found in the legal copy, but can only be accessed via the legal copy. You could even make a whole ARG with a setup like that!

[@silentgamer4556]

Just shapes and beats gives you a lecture that basically has the developer say "don't worry I'm not gonna stop you from playing the game, I used to pirate games too, please consider buying if you enjoy the game tho"

[@isenokami7810]

Love the Spyro 3 one. Mostly a case like GTA4, where the game is still playable but takes a hell of a lot of willpower…but then on top of its own zany effects, it also sends you back to the start in the final fight and wipes all your progress.

[@AidanWR]

You forgot to mention that with Game Dev Tycoon, the community actually asked the Devs to make the "pirated version" and actual difficulty in the game. The Devs thought it was funny and added it, except without the guaranteed failure

[@m2pt5]

SiN Episodes had some amusing accidental anti-piracy, as well as a similar piracy rate to Game Dev Tycoon. (Short version: If you ever died or restarted the last map for any reason, it became uncompletable. This was patched in the official version like a week after release, but it wasn't actually a major problem there in the first place.)

[@liamh1982]

One I NEVER see mentioned is the system implemented in LMA Manager 2001 & 2002 on the PS1. If you play a pirated version, you cannot win any matches, even if you enter the "always win" cheat. However, this works a little too well. The anti-piracy measures kick in even if you play a legit version in an emulator, so if you decide for some reason to play it on a PS3, you're out of luck... even though you're playing an official disc on an actual Sony console.

[@UltimatePerfection]

I've tried my hand at piracy in Starfield and No Man's Sky and got punished pretty hard, especially in NMS.

[@AznOmega]

There's also Red Alert 2. If you pirated the game, after a few seconds or minutes, every building and unit you have blows up, causing you to lose.

[@adamjsher04]

I remember seeing a Tech Rules video on the topic of anti-piracy, specifically in Spyro 3 and just how hard they went in for catching illegal copies.

[@CrystallineLore]

Earthbound did too. It never really did anything meaningful but upset a few pirates who probably weren't all that upset since they didn't pay squat for the game; probably just chalked it up as garbage lmao.

[@greyrifterrellik5837]

The best part about game dev tycoon? They also included it as an actual mode for legitimate copies too, they just get to CHOOSE whether or not pirate mode is enabled.

[@tromedlovdrolmai]

and they added an achievement for those who beat the game while in pirate mode to official releases

[@korhol2065]

My moral code is this: if it is a game that can’t be bought anywhere for any reason, it’s free hunting If it’s a game I can buy nowadays pretty easy, then sure I’ll pay

[@tyrant-den884]

Nintendo: "That's just not reasonable."

[@Sniperbear13]

im of the same mind set. new easy to access games are off limits, but when will we get a official port of so many SNES games that were more obscure?

[@thirdplanet4471]

They really need to find a way to bring back games from older consoles

[@deltawolf]

A friend used to play a pirated lotr return of the king and they could only play as Sam throughout the entire game. I wonder now if that was one of these systems. My game worked normally when they borrowed it from me so it wasn't a local problem with the pc either.

[@brrrtz]

JSAB has the best anti piracy imo, because its not "fuck you, you suck" and more so "Ok, i understand" like a very dissapointed father

[@mangomage33]

Piracy isn't stealing if buying isn't owning

[@lightdarksoul2097]

Uhh I'm sure I own persona 5 royal

[@circuits17nightmare28]

Creating situations that force piraters to inadvertently call themselves out is the most genius way of preventing piracy I have ever seen.

[@yourlocalraccoondealer8611]

I like the theoretical one for PMD Sky where you get thrown in real ass jail for eternity and your companion berates you and says that everything in the world that is wrong is your fault.

[@WillieManga]

Guess Crytek really knew how to counter... fowl play.

[@jordanhunter3375]

9:56 Link: *Cuccobo PTSD*

[@jameslawrenson1208]

Mario Party DS piracy wishes it could be real.

[@lectordreadwood3273]

One of the Megaman Battle Network games will have it that if you have a pirated version, Megaman gets into a random battle EVERY STEP

[@gamerofgamers1417]

I still think Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon had the best anti-piracy measures. They basically tricked the pirates into thinking they cracked the game, only for Zoe to appear later on, telling Spyro that the game is hacked. You can keep playing, but the game slowly does things to ruin the normal experience piece by piece. Also, if you make it to the final boss, the game resets all your progress to 0. Maybe not the most clever thing ever, but it made it to where pirates needed a lot more time to properly cracked the game than usual which is very impressive for a PS1 game.

[@ZeddtheVHSotaku]

The chicken gun sounds like it belongs in Borderlands.

[@Izanagi-Arsene]

for the whole counterargument, the games that are not readily available or supported beyond their initial release on a cartridge or disc are often difficult to find at a price point that does not break the bank. Game developers and publishers are doing a horrid job at game preservation with some notable games in gen 7 being lost in the void known as the eshop.

[@angel-of-light-kelly1355]

I definitely agree, given that study about how the number of games made before 2010 that are available in some way is just a small 13%. Not even a fifth of them. Never mind the fact that how this is carried out may not be perfect, as it probably includes expensive subscription services, bad remasters, and bad remakes.

[@CyberAngel573]

Earthbound's constant piracy checks is definitely up there. But one that I encountered when I pirated a game to try before you buy was Michael Jackson's The Experience. Pirated copies plays obnoxious instruments over the tracks, like a bad middle school band.

[@KIRBY2.0353]

Those are actually vuvuzelas. This was really funny, because in that World Cup that year, vuvuzelas infamously drowned out the noise of the game

[@MattyTheFox89]

That promo code haha

[@bluestreaker9242]

Tbh, I kinda miss stuff like this; we need more unhinged chaos stemming from pirating the game. Look, profit loss from people cracking the game is bad, yes, I get that, but...hear me out here...chicken guns... 'Nuff said... XD

[@simonmullett6884]

While I'm with you here, for chicken guns in particular I feel we need more cheat codes in games. Why let the pirates have all the fun when we can just take their toggle away?

[@bluestreaker9242]

@@simonmullett6884 Too right. I remember that Banjo-Kazooie did something kinda similar by threatening to delete your save data if you tried to cheat in a way the game didn't want you to...and it wasn't a feint. O.o

[@CommissarMitch]

In the game Game Dev. Tychoon, if you pirate the game your games will be pirated, causing fans to complain. This eventually became a feature in the game.

[@CommissarMitch]

Ayyy!

[@brianmccarthy7307]

Next: Knuckles Approves Kirby Games

[@rmzing]

Holy shit. You are the first person to ever make me laugh with an advertisement. Well done.

[@Dragonpikachu1994]

kinda surprised spyro 3 didn't make the list, but I guess it hits the same kinda beats as gta 4, it's playable but my god why would you try

[@HUNbullseye]

In Settlers 2 or 3 if you pirated the game, the blacksmith made pigs instead of weapon. So no defense, no taking territories, also no really widespread internet to find out what is going on...

[@shawnheatherly]

Game Dev Tycoon's is actually perfect. It fully deserves the top spot.

[@philliprosewood7049]

In the words of Luffy "I'm gonna be king of the pirates"

[@lightdarksoul2097]

Coming from the guy who has yet to actually get to that goal sadly

[@jimation66]

Can I say I've waited almost a DECADE for this topic? I just KNEW rl would get a kick out of the Chicken Gun lol

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

10:10 So the pirated version is Better. That oughta be a top 10 list.

[@kitestar]

First! Also some games such as monkey island 2 get their DRM disabled cuz not everyone has the manual to read line where on page whatever for digital re-releases

[@MrSentinel07]

People really pirated an 8 dollar game? That's....wow. That's a new level of sad.

[@Biggerman159]

Not everyone is in a good financial position, some can't afford food

[@AidanWR]

Pretty sure there was a short lived meme speedrun that used the pirated camera from GTA IV.

[@tsyumamatsuthehavenofguard32]

Chrono trigger, the original inventor of the seizure procedure

[@GmNdWtchr96]

*Darude - Sandstorm intensifies*

[@crashlight54]

I don't care what your stance on piracy is, a game punishing it is automatically funny

[@GameGod77]

I never knew Game dev tycoon had around 93% of players using the pirated copy!

[@tanandalynch9441]

How can they ensure only pirated versions get these issues?

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Checks on the code that are cleared by legitimate releases and copies.

[@Kahadi]

Details vary by game and platform, but for the most part they have little checks for things that aren't recreated by a cracked copy. A bit of code that a game console needs to read, for example, or for online DRM, a sort of identifier that's generated upon purchase that they check for, and if that identifier isn't registered as in use or if the data doesn't match something else about the identifier, then it knows it's faked. Of course, accidents do happen, there have been cases of bugs or glitches, or for physical media damaged discs, that trigger anti-piracy measures, but they're less common and usually can be fixed by just resetting the game so it makes that check again.

[@christheleavittman7080]

Piracy is no party!

[@sassytabasco]

Pass the kraken? That's my dude right there.

[@ShotoNemar]

:sob: I always tell the people I know who do pirate games to not but they never listen.

[@ultimate_pleb]

0:08 well im Bristolian so im a pirate by default

[@ThomastheRiolpixQueen]

im guessing the lawmower is like modem shavers and it wont cut you, if i have the money that and the briefs sound good right about now, also does the lawnmower also do ass hair or just ball hair?

[@ActuallyZee]

Remember morals don't apply to triple A games.

[@GBA-049]

Hi I'm Derek Baum! Say goodbye to deadly warzones and boring game design with new *CHICKEN GUN!*

[@StarScream_47]

I own Crisis Warhead but never played it, chicken guns look fun, might pirate.

[@ilajoie3]

I birth bought and pirated game dev tycoon for both experiences

[@sonicsega1699]

that just shows how serious developers take pirating. putting chickens in the game? i sure hope we all learna lesson.........(plugs in a flash drive with every game i would legitimately wanna play)

[@Waffletigercat]

You talk like the guns shooting chickens in Crysis could never happen accidentally. But have you seen some of the legit bugs in games? That is absolutely something that could occur as an unintended bug, too.

[@ftrwrwbg]

I don’t really understand this stuff so maybe a stupid question but why doesn’t basically every game ever do something like this in order to protect their game from piracy?

[@KennyFrierson]

Almost want to pirate a game to see the foolishness

[@raiknightshade3442]

Yeah ngl I've never played a crisis game before and I don't particularly care for first person shooters ... but now I wanna play the first person chicken shooter game 😂

[@manuelalbertoromero9528]

Odd timing given live action One Piece just came out not that long ago...

[@manuelalbertoromero9528]

And a new peak episode of the anime as well.

[@claytonrios1]

Luffy and the Straw Hats had better stay away from these games!

[@Johncruel]

Corny asf joke 😭💀💀

[@s.p.d.magentaranger1822]

Relevant reference!

[@MagusDouken]

Huh... an anti-piracy video that does NOT talk about Earthbound..

[@BloodyN1nja]

IDK, I mean EA and Blizzard kinda deserve to be stolen from tbh. Shitty companies, doing shitty things to their workers and the fans alike

[@YukoValis]

There has got to be better examples than this. I knew that serious sam 3 thing was going to be on here, and it really isn't that impressive at all. Big woop it is an unkillable enemy in a garbage game. That one isn't worth the time to download let alone pirate. You know when it is ok to pirate? When the original dev isn't making money off the game anymore. Another good time is when you already bought yourself a copy of the game and want a non-drm version. Here let me share a story. I at one point obtained a copy of one piece pirate warriors 3. I was having a blast so I decided to make my copy official. Only for DRM on the official version slow my game down to a crawl and cause all the cutscenes to freeze. So despite buying it I went back to the unofficial version.

[@angel-of-light-kelly1355]

Reminds me of the whole Resident Evil 8 debacle, where they eventually had to patch the DRM out because the official version on PCs ran so slowly.

[@a-bomb777]

Yo ho ho!

[@manuelalbertoromero9528]

Yohohohoho!!

[@gowary]

POGGERS

[@i8dacookies890]

I respect that you made a video on a topic this overdone, but you should have made a joke about how overdone it is.

[@modernmobster]

Now I know you've never played Serious Sam 3, because it very much IS the most "serious" Serious Sam game. Did you just copy a WatchMojo list for this or something? This is the most obvious list ever. Everyone who does top whatever lists of anti-pirating measures ALWAYS covers these.

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

If AAA studios weren’t crunching more than a black hole and asking ever increasing prices for less game because they carved it up for DLC and replaced parts with grind so they can sell “skip the grind” and “surprise mechanics”, then I feel like less people would be inclined to say “I’m not shelling out AU$159.99 for the base game without any DLC!”

[@wanderlustwarrior]

The lengths some people will go to try to rationalize piracy as "sticking it to the man/big business"... If you're just broke or cheap, just say so.

[@manuelalbertoromero9528]

Yeah...So who wants to go to the Grand Line? 👒

[@barrenwanderers5655]

Love it when pirates get what they deserve... Then again, solely depends on if the game's good or very shit.

[@caellanmurphy4751]

funny thing is GAME DEV TYCOONS piracy version was RELEASED by game dev tycoon devs sooo thats screwery on another level

[@bluestreaker9242]

@@caellanmurphy4751 It's not a terribly uncommon practice in the industry to release an intentionally borked, cracked version to piracy websites. Ironically, I remember Guru Larry did a list where Ubisoft sorta had the inverse happen to them: they basically released a DRM patch for a Rainbow Six game that actually made legitimate copies unplayable, including their own, so they had to pirate their own game and disguised it as a patch that bypasses the DRM check. Shit like that is too stupid to make up...because it's Ubisoft. XD

[@manuelalbertoromero9528]

Luffy: What did I do!? I just wanted meat!

[@foristrothbert568]

My thoughts on game piracy are a bit nuanced. While I believe all piracy is theft, much like taxes, there are times when a necessary evil is acceptable. However, whether the game is old as hell, or just came out, I like to look at the messages of the game itself and what the developers say on social media. If they happen to be leftists or outright Marxists, then I believe it's perfectly justified to pirate their games, regardless if they're a huge publisher or an indie studio. After all, it's not theft - it's "reclamation." I'm merely seizing the means of their production, and since they probably make more money than I do, and have higher social standing, I'm "punching up," so they can't really get mad at me for doing it. I refuse to give money to people who hate me.

[@lightdarksoul2097]

You could just not play their games obviously they don't want people like you. Also leftists and Marxists right.

[@sethescope]

I don't think you understand what "the means of production" means.

[@foristrothbert568]

@@sethescope Trust me, I understand. I simply enjoy playful turns of phrase...and pissing off communists, hence the piracy.

[@sethescope]

@@foristrothbert568 if cutesy turns of phrase are how libertarians have fun, then go for it I guess lmao

[@foristrothbert568]

@@sethescope That's quite the insult. Libertarians are just leftists with extra steps.