Pirate ‘redemption’ offered by Samorost studio

Amanita Design, the widely applauded Czechoslovakian adventure games studio, is calling for amnesty after its most recent title has been reportedly stung by widespread piracy.

PC title Machinarium, a game that earned the studio three Develop Award nominations, has apparently been struck by a piracy rate that could be around the 90 per cent mark.

The studio’s official website – where Machinarium was being sold at $20 – has announced the game will retail at $5 until Thursday August 12th.

Amanita says the short-term discount is for all, but is specifically targeted at those who pirated the game.

In what is being labelled the ‘Machinarium Pirate Amnesty’, Amanita says the cut-price title offers those who pirated it a “chance to redeem themselves”.

Read Amanita’s blog post: “We released the game DRM free which means it doesn’t include any anti-piracy protection, therefore the game doesn’t bother players with any serial codes or online authentication, but it’s also very easy to copy it.

“Our estimate from the feedback is that only 5-15% of Machinarium players actually paid for the game. If you decide to buy the game, you can be sure you’ll support directly the developers, not any big publisher or distributor”.

Amanita Design, and its founder Jakub Dvorský, broke onto the scene in 2003 with the Flash game Samorost.