Melbourne developer Big Ant Studios has activated embedded anti-piracy tools within Cricket 22, creating headaches for those attempting to download the game illegally.
What caught Big Ant CEO Ross Symons by surprise was that, when the anti-piracy tools came into effect, the game’s Steam sales shot up by as much as 300%. The pirates are converting their stolen copies into legitimate ones. As an olive branch, Symons says anyone that converts their game into a legitimate purchase will be allowed to keep any progress they’ve made so far.
Turned piracy protection on for #Cricket22 – Steam sales are up 300%. Thanks to those that converted to a legitimate version, for those still thinking about it, if you purchase now then you will automatically get to keep your progress.
There will be more pirate pain next week.
— Ross Symons (@RossSymons) May 26, 2022
According to Symons, who replied to a Twitter question from your, my, our dear mate Alex Walker, the game’s anti-piracy system will detect a stolen or unauthorised copy and turn the screen white.
It turns the screen white. We also have other things in store, like the previous, where you 100% lose the toss, field then it rains forever at your first bat, kill the controller and report controller batteries to be flat, lot’s of little things we can turn on at off at a whim 🙂
— Ross Symons (@RossSymons) May 26, 2022
The Cricket franchise has always included anti-piracy systems to frustrate thieves. The ways it would accomplish this were sometimes obvious and sometimes less so, but the goal was never to force pirates to stop playing. Rather, the plan was to simply annoy them into a purchase. With a 300% jump in sales, it seems, on this occasion at least, that irritation has paid off in a big way.
Previous examples include forcing the player to always lose the toss. This means they never get to bat, only field. Then, at the moment of the first bat, the game would begin dumping rain on the grounds to interrupt play.
Other instances included turning the controller off at random, or displaying false messages about controller batteries running low. Sometimes the players’ bats would break. The game’s simulation of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, a way of divining the target score a team batting second in a limited-overs game interrupted by weather must reach to win, could also freak out and create appallingly high score chases. According to Symons, there are a lot of levers Big Ant can pull to create chaos on the pitch.
So, pirates beware: it seems Big Ant’s favourite tradition is alive and well in Cricket 22.
Symons has promised “more pirate pain” is on the way in the week ahead.