A message informs the player that people are choosing to pirate their studio's game, and profits will drop until the virtual company eventually goes bankrupt.
Greenheart Games released a 'cracked' version of its Game Dev Tycoon to illegal downloading sites, but there's a sting in the tail - anyone attempting to play the game development simulation beyond a few hours will get a subtle hint about the consequences of their actions. As major game publishers push overbearing copy protection that frustrates legitimate players, an indie studio has taken a novel approach to the difficult problem of piracy.
