Call of Duty Sets Another Record

Dec. 30) -- When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released in November, it not only shattered game launch records, but it also smashed marks for any entertainment media release. The video game earned $550 million in its first five days, crushing the previous record of $394 million set the movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" this summer.

Now, two months after its release, Call of Duty has set another record: the most pirated game. According to torrent downloads tracked on TorrentFreak, 4.1 million copies of Call of Duty have been illegally downloaded for PCs alone.

Publisher Activision would have made another $245 million had all those illegal copies been purchased.

The report notes that total numbers for illegal downloads double those from last year. That means the black market for games is growing much faster than the legitimate game market. Piracy makes it especially daunting for developers to release games for the PC, by far the biggest illegal market for games.

To some, however, piracy is an unavoidable part of the game market. Many game pirates are adamant that what they do does no harm to the industry, and that only people who wouldn't have bought the games in the first place are stealing them.

"The majority of the people who pirate games are also paying customers," says Ernesto Van Der Sar, editor in chief of TorrentFreak. "They simply pirate the games their budget doesn't allow them to buy, which means that no revenue is lost. In fact, they might end up buying a legit copy of a game the next month if they enjoy playing it."

While there are obviously no numbers on how many pirates go on to buy legitimate copies of the game, giving away millions of $60 products remains dubious as a marketing strategy.

There might, however, be ways to profit from piracy. Earlier this month, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told the gamer blog Kotaku that he felt there was a large market available in selling pirates downloadable content once they already have the game.

"There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second-sale market, and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace," he said.

Recently, social games like FarmVille have been providing developers with new ways to think about gaming revenue. Rampant piracy may put pressure on video game developers to consider options like microtransactions more seriously.

In the meantime, they'll have to deal with those who seem to have no compunction about robbing rich companies like Activision.

"Stealing from the biggest ... game company out there," one pirate wrote on ign.com, "makes me feel GOOD!"