Bioware announced that they would lock eye-fix patch for "Mass Effect: Andromeda" to online pirates. This came after the game was cracked and pirated by hackers two days after its initial release. Online piracy is the most severe problem game developers face when producing titles for the PC. The immense number tech tools one can use to hack games are a big problem and developers are not entirely capable of completely able to pirate-proof their work.
Why is piracy so rampant especially with games?
According to previous research and surveys made by independent organizations and other game critic website such as Kotaku, most people pirate games because game prices are prohibitive.
Countries in Asia and Europe where game cost an exorbitant amount of money and because of this, people resort to piracy. Countries like the Philippines and massive practitioners of piracy, especially software and games. It is an industry that spurred out of necessity, and it has now spread like wildfire over the internet. Aside from the prohibitive cost, their countries were some games are completely banned or unavailable. Countries like China, where games like "Battlefield 4" and "Hearts or Iron" are prohibited. People in these countries will naturally turn to piracy to acquire these games.
How did Bioware manage to locked its 'Mass Effect Andromeda' eye fix?
According to conservative estimates, around 35 percent of all gamers worldwide have pirated games.
This is a massive number of people chipping out a huge chunk of revenue from this multi-billion dollar industry. This is a huge incentive for developers such as Bioware to push the limits of software security to completely nullify any pirate's ability to crack their subsequent patches for "Mass Effect: Andromeda." Bioware has used anti-tamper tech that effectively locks strings of data needed to fix the eye glitches in Andromeda from piracy.
However, given the immense talents of software hackers, it would be just a matter of time when a crack would be found and again exposing the files for illegal downloads.
The battle against piracy is not an easy battle to win. Both developer and pirates play a billion-dollar chess game, which can mean the massive loss of profit or successful delaying tactic that may last for days.
Last 2010, "Mass Effect 2" was illegally downloaded 3.24 million times. There is no exact figure as to how much Bioware lost due to piracy unless nations would put stringent punishment to software theft, then piracy will continue and get better by the day.
