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The Legacy of Anti Piracy Screens

John X Woodcat

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Game development can be a very grueling process, whether you’re stringing if statements together or working on games that are actual masterpieces. Pro or indie, these game studios all fear one thing: piracy. Plainly put, if a game they put so much work into gets pirated then that’s lost money for them. To try and prevent this, game studios have implemented their own versions of anti pirate security, coming in the form of warnings, error screens and even sabotaging the pirate’s experience. The added consequence of these measures though were that people started to take a greater interest in them than intended, leading people to create their own urban legends and creepypastas around these screens. Further than that, an actual meme format was formed, but it wasn’t always like that, and I’m here to retrospectively look at the legacy of anti-piracy screens.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:48 - Anti-Piracy is Born
04:19 - The Most Famous (Real) Anti-Piracy Measures
10:09 - The Trend of Fakes
15:54 - A Meme is Born

Sub Count: 27027

13 Comments

@SteamSuperHEater 11 months ago

My personal favorite anti piracy screen is this one for a Peppa Pig Nintendo Switch game where it's just a text to speech lambasting you in poor English until it devolves into loud noises and bright flashes. Clearly it was made by a little kid, and part of me thinks it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, but that's just what makes it hilarious

@doremi4531 11 months ago

I downloaded this video. I sure hope there's not a spoopy screen!

@Solinaru 11 months ago

I think one of my favorite fake anti-priacy was an animal crossing wild world one where you finish your character creation, but the taxi ride gets interrupted by a PSA over the radio about a criminal on the loose that has the same features as your character.

@fattomandeibu 11 months ago

Manual lookup survived until the late '90s. Of course, by the late '80s, they'd switched from using the manual itself to a separate booklet that was glossy dark brown paper with black letters. These books could only be read by holding them up to the light at a certain angle and would appear completely white in a photocopier or scanner.

@Mooms 11 months ago (edited)

I can see how anti-piracy screens can be scary to some people but I feel like the trend essentially turned them into creepypastas

@StarlyteVGM 11 months ago

I've always been interested in this sort of thing, especially the ones that change the game experience like Spyro's and Arkham's- especially when they can be turned into a challenge for skilled players to attempt to beat themselves as well

@sword6449 11 months ago

This trend was super strange but also kinda fascinating to me. Shame it became so overly saturated and garbage but I guess that happens to all trends. Good video man!

@SoupSonic705 8 months ago

13:24 (OG Video Creator here lol)
ahhhh i hate how basic and bland i made this look back then,
i actually did a remake of this on my second channel (SoupToo) that's more or less has basic as your typical chill "Anti Piracy Screen" vids, i actually tried to make it look like it was official when i remade it lol