Developer blames piracy for Son & Bone's poor sales. „We can't devote time and resources into something that will be pirated and given away for free”
Studio TeamKill Media apparently dislikes the PC not only for vulgar mods but also for piracy, allegedly responsible for the poor sales of their team's games on PC.
The unexpectedly announced Son and Bone was to suffer due to piracy. That's what the developers from TeamKill Media studio (Quantum Error, Code Violet) claimed after the release of their title on personal computers and PlayStation 5 in September last year.
Evil pirates and unprofitable PC port
The team recently "became famous" for explaining the absence of a PC version of their latest title, which is scheduled to launch this year exclusively on PS5, due to concerns about "vulgar" mods. However, this is apparently also related to another issue, which the developers referred to in a series of posts published on X.
The devs stated that their game met the same fate as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. They point to "torrents," which were supposed to appear immediately after the launch of Son and Bone on Epic Games Store, as the main reason for the low number of players (which a few users of X were supposed to remind the studio about).
That's why the team doesn't see the point in investing effort and money into a PC version just for someone to later download their game "for free." And due to the aforementioned tendency of players to create "pornographic mods," which the developers don't like out of respect for the actors involved in the production of Code Violet.
Piracy or bugs?
Although it is possible to agree that piracy harms game sales, in this specific instance, there might be considerable doubts regarding the developers' claims. Just take a look at the Son and Bone card on Steam and the four reviews that were given by users of Valve's platform, only one of which is positive.
Furthermore, internet users quickly pointed out this and other omissions in the community note, which was promptly labeled with the developer's post. Fans noticed that first: the game was not really promoted after the unexpected announcement a year ago, which is why most potential buyers have not even heard of Son and Bone. Second, the title had serious issues related to bugs on day one, which effectively discouraged many buyers.
Some users humorously noted that concerns about "vulgar mods" are baseless, as Son and Bone and Kings of Lorn (TeamKill Media's previous PC release) have together only received one modification. Ironically, this shouldn't really delight the devs, as Bethesda's games demonstrate that mods boost game sales even years after release.
It's also worth noting that the director of FF VII Rebirth, as mentioned by TeamKill Media, while preferring not to see certain mods, values the modding community. Besides, the second installment of the remake didn't threaten the giants of Steam, it still performed more than three times better than the first game - despite similar problems with piracy, as allegedly Son and Bone. (Let's also skip the fact that in the case of FF, it's "just" a port on PC, released over a year after its launch on PlayStation 5).
As a result, most internet users completely disagree with TeamKill Media and view this and the studio's previous post as an effort to generate buzz and thereby "promote" their new game.
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