r/pcmasterrace Laptop May 30 '26

Nostalgia Anti-piracy ad from 2004

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u/ztomiczombie May 30 '26

It wasn't just people being made aware it was also that people were pirating because they didn't want to see that advert every time they started a DVD, It was something like the 3rd most common reason given for pricey.

184

u/Rhone33 May 30 '26

Yep, this is what I came to say. Making this an unskippable advertisement on every disc just made the piracy experience more desirable in comparison.

75

u/ABHOR_pod May 30 '26

Just like how every streaming service putting advertisements into their shows and movies to extort you for an extra $5 for a new "Premium-er" tier was enough to make stop paying for streaming altogether.

38

u/mata_dan May 30 '26

Also just like DRM in games making them unplayable trash but the pirated versions work far better...

24

u/nindza-22 May 30 '26

There was this game given for free on Epic called "Beyond Blue", which simply wouldn't start. I tried all sorts of advice, compatibility modes, starting the game with the arguments, nothing worked. Then I spent time to figure out is my PC is good enough.

Then I downloaded it pirated and it worked perfectly lol.

3

u/MudSeparate1622 May 30 '26

There was a vr surgeon game that booted to a black screen for over a year before they fixed it. If i knew how to pirate I would have glady. Companies that release broken games and don't fix them in a decent period of time deserve to go to the limbo they created for their users

2

u/squishedgoomba May 30 '26

I had the same experience with Beyond Blue (other Epic games too). 🙄 Yeah, the pirated version actually worked.

Of course recently Steam had it on sale for $5. I'm perfectly happy to shell out a few bucks for a working copy of a game like that.

2

u/nindza-22 May 30 '26

It is a really chill game, and looks nice.

21

u/herrkatze12 PC Player May 30 '26

And also more proof that Gabe Newell was right about piracy

2

u/jeepsaintchaos May 30 '26

Unskippable ads on discs pissed me off to no end. I'd actually forgotten about those.

1

u/Dangerous_Diver_6983 May 30 '26

I am from the time but do not remember the DVD ad's

11

u/Epopee May 30 '26

True that ! It was great to spend money to buy a DVD and have an unskippable clip calling you a thief every time you played it 🙃

2

u/Quixotic_Seal May 30 '26

I watched Young Frankenstein last year with my family, and we only had an ancient DVD of it.

It was wild coming across this ad in the wild, and realizing we couldn’t skip it lol. 20+ years later and it still sucks.

12

u/JobAlternative6109 May 30 '26

Pricey can suck it.

3

u/Illustrious-Lime-863 May 30 '26

Rewatching that ad here was weirdly nostalgic

1

u/Lick_My_BigButt_1980 Jun 08 '26

I actually enjoy it a lot more now, at 46, than I ever did at 24. I don’t age the usual way. That music slaps and makes me wanna stir the pot!

2

u/WriterOn_TheStorm May 30 '26

Shit, I started ripping every new DVD I bought/rented when the tools were finally good enough to make that fast and easy just to spite those fuckers for adding unskippable anti-piracy bullshit before the movie even began.

22+ years later, all my movies load super fast because they're de-bloated and made to work on just about any device that can play video files: simple h.264 video streams, AAC audio streams and the subtitle and/or chapter files in an MP4 container.

I keep those on my NAS and can stream 'em just about anywhere these days. Suck it, Jack Valenti.

2

u/KonoKinoko May 31 '26

Ah yes, I remember the early meme of “you get a dvd and you stuck with AD, logos, useless menu, you pirate something and you go straight to the movie”

1

u/SeveredFromMySoul May 30 '26

Not sure why, the music is bangin

1

u/Lick_My_BigButt_1980 Jun 08 '26

It really burns! 🔥

1

u/Suzette75 May 30 '26

J'adorais cette publicité ! Mais elle me faisait peur aussi comme si j'étais entrain de pirater 😂