MMO dev fools pirates with torrent data ‘leak’

UK development group Monumental is the newest company revealed to have imaginatively used torrent sites to bolster the popularity of its games.

Monumental COO Paul Mayze said the firm uploaded its MMO Football Superstars onto torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay – a measure which saw the game’s download numbers jump.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the State of Independence conference in York, Mayze explained that, despite Football Superstars being free to play, people were put off downloading it due to its large file size.

The company’s elegant solution was to upload athe data onto file-sharing sites – a strategy which, according to Mayze, saw a notable rise in the number of downloads for the free-to-play title.

The revelation comes just a few months after developer RedLynx admitted to leaking an abridged version of Trials onto file-sharing sites in order to tempt pirates into playing a full version of the game.

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With piracy still an inestimably vast problem for the industry, it appears that more game developers are speaking openly about ways of making lemonade from the situation.

For Monumental, the primary goal for Football Superstars has always been to get the game running on as many PCs as possible – only then will each game open up its own monetisation models.

Mayze’s was speaking during a panel discussion which explored the emerging and disruptive social game space.

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