A schoolgirl recently bragged on the internet about pirating the shooter Ultrakill. Even the indie developer became aware of this and reacted surprisingly
Update from June 6, 2024:In the meantime, the student (nickname kali) claims that the action was a fake. According to her, the screenshot was a Google Drive folder from which she copied the game files from her regularly purchased copy of Ultrakill:
☻not a torrent
You are 100% getting spyware hidden inside that game
– Damnits (@damnitsdone2) June 1, 2024
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If you want a certain video game very badly but don’t have the necessary change in your pocket, you will always find a way to get it according to this rule of thumb.
This detour is often a pirated copy. From big AAA role-playing epics to small indie shooters, no game is safe from the paws of software pirates.We probably don’t need to tell anyone that it’s illegal to use these copies.
Smart people keep a low profile online when they talk about pirated copies. After all, nobody wants to get mail from the publisher’s lawyer.One particularly brazen pirate recently took things to the extreme.
OnTwitterthe user with the nameKaliposted a picture at the end of May showing her installing the indie shooter Ultrakill on her laptop. We have embedded the trailer for the title above. She cheekily wrote:I love pirating indie games
Who has no money…
Of course, the post made the rounds on the net and also reached the developer of the Boomer shooter. And he reacted quite differently than expected. Solo developer
also responded to the pirate’s post on Twitter.
As the developer of said game: you should support indie games if you can, but culture shouldn’t only exist for those who can afford it. Ultrakill wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t had easy access to movies, music and games myself growing up.
You could almost be forgiven for thinking that Hakita himself had not always been completely legal on the Internet in the past. In his view, it is legitimate for players with little money to be able to enjoy games. However, he does have one suggestion to support developers:
If you don’t have money, you can also support [games] via word of mouth.
Even the business people here should realize that if you pirate a game, then enjoy it, report on it, and get someone else to buy it, this is at worst an equivalent trade, at best an additional sale that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t pirated it.
The developer makes it clear that he is not really angry with the cheeky pirate. Although software piracy is inevitably against the law, from his point of view it also contributes to the popularity of a title and thus to its sales figures. You can find the whole thread here:
As creator of said game: You should support indies if you can, but culture shouldn’t exist only for those who can afford it. ULTRAKILL wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t had easy access to movies, music and games growing up.
If you don’t have money, you can support via word of mouth. https://t.co/iLTqy6s9vK
– Public Hakita Is a Good Idea (@HakitaDev) June 2, 2024
Hakita’s open-minded attitude earned him a lot of approval on social media.Some users even said they wanted to buy the game even more now.Incidentally, pirate Kali also owns the game on Steam.
Ultrakill is currently in Early Access and can be purchased for just under 25 euros on Steam. It is not yet clear when the final version will be released, but development is already well advanced.
The game is already extremely well rated on Steam:98 percent of reviews are positive.
What do you think of the developer’s response? How would you have reacted in his place? Feel free to let us know in the comments below
