Melbourne developer Big Ant Studios has activated anti-piracy tools embedded within Cricket 22, creating headaches for those trying to download the game illegally.
What surprised Big Ant CEO Ross Symons was that when anti-piracy tools went into effect, Steam sales of the game skyrocketed by up to 300%. Hackers are turning their stolen copies into legitimate ones. As an olive branch, Symons says anyone who turns their game into a legitimate purchase will be able to keep up with the progress they have made so far.
Piracy protection has been activated for # Cricket22: Steam sales have increased by 300%. Thanks to those who have become a legitimate version, for those who are still thinking about it, if you buy now, you will automatically maintain your progress.
There will be more pirate pain next week.
– Ross Symons (@RossSymons) May 26, 2022
According to Symons, who responded to a Twitter question from you, my dear colleague Alex Walker, the game’s anti-piracy system will detect a stolen or unauthorized copy and make the screen white.
The screen turns white. We also have other things in store, like the previous one, where you lose 100% of the launch, field then it rains forever on the first bat, kills the controller and reports that the controller batteries are exhausted, there are many small things we can activate. turned off by whims 🙂
– Ross Symons (@RossSymons) May 26, 2022
The Cricket franchise has always included anti-piracy systems to thwart thieves. The ways to achieve this were sometimes obvious and sometimes less so, but the goal was never to force the pirates to stop playing. Rather, the plan was to simply annoy them in a purchase. With a 300% jump in sales, it seems that, at least on this occasion, the irritation has paid off.
The above examples include forcing the player to always lose the draw. That means they never get to beat, just on the field. Then, at the moment of the first bat, the game would start pouring rain on the field to interrupt the game.
Other cases include shutting down the driver at random or displaying false messages about running out of driver batteries. Sometimes players’ bats would break. The simulation of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method game, a way of guessing the goal score that a team baptizes second in a game of limited envelopes interrupted by the time it takes to win, could also be frightening and create terribly high score chases. According to Symons, there are many levers that Big Ant can pull to create chaos on the field of play.
So watch out for the pirates: it seems that Big Ant’s favorite tradition is alive and well in Cricket 22.
Symons has promised that “more pirate pain” is on its way next week.