10 Video Games That Knew What You Were Doing
1. Pirates Can't Make Any Money In The Game (Due To Their Game Being Pirated) - Game Dev Tycoon
Mirror's Edge ingeniously nerfed the game's central mechanic to stop pirates from playing it properly, but Greenheart Games, the developers of 2012's Game Dev Tycoon, deserve some sort of award for the gleefully meta anti-piracy measures included in their game.
The game, in which players manage and expand their own game development studio, includes an hilariously fitting surprise for anyone who plays a snide copy.
Greenheart themselves released a cracked version of the game to torrent sites, which at a certain point would warn players that their in-game studio may soon go bankrupt due to players stealing it. The message reads:
"Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally. If players don't buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt."
If players continue to play an illegal copy their studio will indeed go bankrupt. Even more brilliantly, some afflicted players went online to voice their displeasure about the feature, unknowingly outing themselves as having stolen the game.
Thankfully Greenheart themselves are anything but bankrupt, currently hard at work on their follow-up game Tavern Keeper.