Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent

Anders Drachen; Rob Veitch; Kevin Bauer

doi:10.1145/2181037.2181077

Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent

Anders Drachen, Rob Veitch, Kevin Bauer

University of Waterloo

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

The practice of illegally copying and distributing digital games is at the heart of one of the most heated and divisive debates in the international games environment. Despite the substantial interest in game piracy, there is very little objective information available about its magnitude or its distribution across game titles and game genres. This paper presents the first large-scale, open-method analysis of the distribution of digital game titles, which was conducted by monitoring the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing protocol. The sample includes 173 games and a collection period of three months from late 2010 to early 2011. With a total of 12.6 million unique peers identified, it is the largest examination of game piracy via P2P networks to date. The study provides findings that reveal the magnitude of game piracy, the timefrequency of game torrents, which genres that get pirated the most, and the relationship between aggregated review scores and ESRB-ratings.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference : Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011
Editors	Artur Lugmayr, Heljä Franssila, Christian Safran, Imed Hammouda
Number of pages	8
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	2011
Pages	233-240
ISBN (Print)	9781450308168
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181077
Publication status	Published - 2011
Event	15th Academic MindTrek Conference 2011 - Tampere, Finland Duration: 29 Sept 2011 → 30 Sept 2011 Conference number: 15 http://www.mindtrek.org/2011/conference

Conference

Conference	15th Academic MindTrek Conference 2011
Number	15
Country/Territory	Finland
City	Tampere
Period	29/09/2011 → 30/09/2011
Internet address	http://www.mindtrek.org/2011/conference

Keywords

Digital games
Game piracy
BitTorrent
Economics of piracy

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10.1145/2181037.2181077Licence: Unspecified

drachen_bauer_veitch_2011Final published version, 1.94 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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Drachen, A., Veitch, R., & Bauer, K. (2011). Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent. In A. Lugmayr, H. Franssila, C. Safran, & I. Hammouda (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011 (pp. 233-240). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181077

Drachen, Anders ; Veitch, Rob ; Bauer, Kevin. / Digital Game Piracy : Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent. Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011. editor / Artur Lugmayr ; Heljä Franssila ; Christian Safran ; Imed Hammouda . New York : Association for Computing Machinery, 2011. pp. 233-240

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title = "Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent",

abstract = "The practice of illegally copying and distributing digital games is at the heart of one of the most heated and divisive debates in the international games environment. Despite the substantial interest in game piracy, there is very little objective information available about its magnitude or its distribution across game titles and game genres. This paper presents the first large-scale, open-method analysis of the distribution of digital game titles, which was conducted by monitoring the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing protocol. The sample includes 173 games and a collection period of three months from late 2010 to early 2011. With a total of 12.6 million unique peers identified, it is the largest examination of game piracy via P2P networks to date. The study provides findings that reveal the magnitude of game piracy, the timefrequency of game torrents, which genres that get pirated the most, and the relationship between aggregated review scores and ESRB-ratings.",

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Drachen, A, Veitch, R & Bauer, K 2011, Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent. in A Lugmayr, H Franssila, C Safran & I Hammouda (eds), Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, pp. 233-240, 15th Academic MindTrek Conference 2011, Tampere, Finland, 29/09/2011. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181077

Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent. / Drachen, Anders; Veitch, Rob; Bauer, Kevin.
Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011. ed. / Artur Lugmayr; Heljä Franssila; Christian Safran; Imed Hammouda . New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2011. p. 233-240.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Drachen A, Veitch R, Bauer K. Digital Game Piracy: Analyzing the Illegal Distribution of Digital Games via BitTorrent. In Lugmayr A, Franssila H, Safran C, Hammouda I, editors, Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. 2011. p. 233-240 doi: 10.1145/2181037.2181077