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StarCraft II Pirated 2.3 Million Times

News

by Phil Kollar on November 15, 2010 at 08:00 PM

8,331 Views

With at least three million copies sold as of last count, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is doing just fine for itself, but that doesn't mean pirates aren't getting the game the old-fashioned, illegal way.

According to TorrentFreak, a BitTorrent enthusiast site, StarCraft II has been illicitly downloaded via BitTorrent 2.3 million times. The download file's huge 7.19 GB size makes it the most data sent via BitTorrent for a single file -- 15.77 petabytes.

It's unclear how those who downloaded the game were able to play it afterward, as Wings of Liberty normally requires users log in to Battle.net with a legit account, but pirates do tend to find a way. Curiously, TorrentFreak notes that the official Blizzard downloader -- which also uses torrents -- may have moved even more data than the pirated version.

I don't think we're in any risk of Blizzard going out of business because of piracy, but if anyone's reading this who downloaded an illegal copy: Quit being an idiot and go buy the game already.

[via 1UP]

Filed under: News, PC, Blizzard, Activision, Piracy, starcraft ii, starcraft, StarCraft 2, Wings of Liberty

Comments

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by The One and Only Happyginger Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:34 PM

Wow what Cheats!
by metsfan417 Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:35 PM

thats a ***load of copies!
by Mitch Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:38 PM

so it goes from Gigabytes to Megabytes to Gigabytes to Terrabytes to Petabytes?
by Boudro13b Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:38 PM

Argh! Man the canons! They be on to us, matey!

Joking aside, that's an unfortunate statistic. It really is a shame to hear about great developers getting robbed.
by BG1337 Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:43 PM

Pirates should be dragged out into the street and be decapitated *** dickheads
by ViRuS Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:52 PM

an absolute shame! just because it is out there, doesnt mean you have to do it. Reason number 56849302 on why the internet ruins everything: people think that others work should be free, no matter what. ugh...irritates me.
by Martin Monday, November 15, 2010 at 07:59 PM

Think of it like this atleast 90% of the people wouldn't buy it anyway who pirated it.
by RockyRacoon Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:01 PM

Jeez, is that legal? I would think not, but if people keep doing it, why aren't the authorities doing anything about it?
by The One Who Knocks Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:05 PM

*** ridiculous. Not that Blizzard needs the money but this is shameful nonetheless.
by Mourt Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:06 PM

Pirates suck and their excuses fail as bad as they do.
by Earthbound_X Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:07 PM

***, is that more then what Spore was pirated? I'm still waiting til all three parts of the game are out, and buy them in the three game pack that we all know is coming.
by Dan Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:11 PM

Oh no 2.3 million copies stolen, that's $138 million. Considering Blizzard makes over $180 million from wow subscriptions in one month I do not feel bad for them whatsoever.
by Impulse84 Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:11 PM

Sad, considering the franchise's popularity, you think more people would be willing to pay for it.
by KayoDot Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:12 PM

It literally is like they just went to the store, picked up a copy and put it under their shirt, and walked out of the store with it. People are absolutely pathetic.
by Esairbear Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:15 PM

I wouldn't even bother wasting time playing starcraft but *** that's awesome. There's like nobody I know who can pirate games (yes my friends are lame) but 2.3 million?! Kudos for cheating the system.
by PassionateNiteman Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:15 PM

The picture above confounds me. How can he smoke a cigar with a helmet on? Wouldn't the ash just accumulate around his neck? Wouldn't the smoke ruin his visibility? Am I supposed to believe that there is some sort of ventilation system in his suit that filters out the smoke? Those wipers on the outside of his helmet won't do crap to help him out when the problem is inside the helmet. Also, piracy is wrong and drives the price up for consumers, since developers have to factor in the lost sales from piracy in the cost of the game. Of course they also have to factor in the lost sales from certain unnamed companies selling used copies of games, but that's a discussion for a different day.
by Krakn3dfx Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:16 PM

I bought 2 copies of the game, a CE for myself and a standard copy for my son.

Having said that, I know quite a few people that bought the game, but also dl'd the warez version in hopes that someone would eventually hack in a lan server app they could use so they didn't have to deal with the latency that playing through bnet brings.

Not saying that's a huge number of these, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people that downloaded the pirated version also bought the game so if a lan server app was hacked in later, they would have access to a non-bnet required version to use for it.
by Stereochrome Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:19 PM

I'm... ashamed. Is this what we've come to?
by Williamon Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:22 PM

Psssh! Geeks. I would not risk my near-perfect* arrest record just to pick up StarCraft II fast. *I once got busted for shooting airsoft guns on a middle school campus - and for accidentally firing at an officer.
by megashadowzx Monday, November 15, 2010 at 08:24 PM

Pirating is wrong. Let's prove it right now using simple Kantian logic: take something and apply it universally to discover whether it is right or wrong. If everybody pirated games, then game developers would make no profits. If game developers make no profits, then game developers don't make games. If game developers don't make games... then there are no video games, and thus no games to pirate. Simple, isn't it? There is no excuse.

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StarCraft II Pirated 2.3 Million Times

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