Meta Quest's piracy issue is back in the spotlight
Meta Quest has a problem with piracy, as evidenced by the numbers of individual development studios.
The topic was brought up by Youtuber Brad Lynch, who asked VR studios on X if they were having issues with users pirating their software.
The first developer to respond was Commuter Games, the studio behind this summer's VR racing game Downtown Club.
"Our previous published game has roughly 5x more players than actual copies sold. Saying Quest piracy is an issue would be an understatement, the worst thing is that we're completely on our own," the studio writes on X.
VR developers, do you have notable issues with end users pirating your software?
AdAdIt's always been a thing, for sure. But I'm starting to hear these complaints more vocalized recently
- Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) December 2, 2024
The game performs an entitlement check at launch and uses a few other techniques that have not proven effective, Commuter Games writes. "But it is a single player game so we couldn't force any online check."
Developer studio Realcast also presented figures. According to them, the basketball game Just Hoops has nearly six times as many users as copies sold, while the studio's latest game, Hide The Corpse (released seven months ago), has three times as many users as copies sold.
Tommy Maloteaux, CEO of Myron Games, also gave numbers. "We have 2x more installs than copies sold on Deisim and Underworld Overseer. For a small studio like us making niche games it is a big deal," says Maloteaux, without mentioning user numbers.
Piracy is widespread - and tolerated
Other commentators point out that Quest piracy is a widespread phenomenon that is collective, systematic, and organized.
This begs the question of why Meta is not taking stronger action against this. The VR market is a fragile one, and the company should have an interest in protecting its developer community, as they are the foundation and backbone of the Quest ecosystem.
Some developers have been forced to find their own solution, such as Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin, who introduced a DRM check in 2022 that requires an Internet connection once per update. The check is likely performed when connecting to the Virtual Desktop Streamer PC app and is therefore not an option available to other developers, at least in this form.
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