Study: Positive correlation between piracy and game review scores

[wraggster]

Pirates may be dirty, pillaging fiends, but they have high standards, according to a study from Copenhagen Business School and University of Waterloo. The study tracked 173 new games on BitTorrent over a three-month release period, finding 127 of these were downloaded by 12.7 million unique peers, and that a torrent's popularity was directly correlated to its review scores. The 10 most-downloaded games comprised over 5.3 million downloads, or 42 percent of the 127 pirated games.

Fallout: New Vegas (http://www.joystiq.com/game/fallout-new-vegas) had the most downloads (962,793) and an average review score of 83.7, followed by Darksiders (http://www.joystiq.com/game/darksiders) (656,296) with a review score of 82.7. Tron: Evolution (http://www.joystiq.com/game/tron-evolution)had the lowest score of the top 10 at 59.5, yet came in fifth place (496,349).StarCraft 2 (http://www.joystiq.com/game/Starcraft-ii-Wings-of-Liberty) had the highest review score at 89.5 and landed in seventh place (420,138). Review scores can't trump a title's notoriety, reputation or core fanbase, but researchers found "Metacritic Scores explain 10% of the variance in the unique peers per game on BitTorrent." In other words, the only vessel that these pirates are sailing on is a statistically positive relationship.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/06/study-positive-correlation-between-piracy-and-game-review-score/