Chinese player buys Battlefield 4 on Taobao, gets link to download pirated copy

Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao may not be the Wild West it once was, but despite the fact that if has been dropped from the US’s notorious piracy list, there’s still plenty of sketchy business going on there. Following the launch of Battlefield 4 (see our review here), a post about the game has gone viral on Chinese message boards after one gamer says he bought a copy on Taobao and was just given a link to download a pirated copy after the transaction went through.

When confronted about it, the seller told him that he’d never said what we was selling was the authentic version of the game, and that he hadn’t tricked anyone because the buyer had never asked directly whether the copy was legit. The Taobao listing for the game (pictured below) does say several times that it’s the “official version,” and it’s both illegal and against Taobao policy to sell pirated games, so the seller doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. On the other hand, though, it seems the buyer was also a bit naive given that the game was being sold for RMB 200, which is about $30 or roughly half of what a legit copy of Battlefield 4 costs right now.

This is probably not an isolated incident. There are thousands of vendors selling copies of Battlefield 4 on Taobao, and while some are certainly gray-market imports or other semi-legitimate versions, there are an awful lot of people selling “CD Keys” for a few dollars.

Game piracy in China is still incredibly common, especially when it comes to games like Battlefield that have a hefty-up front price tag. But part of the problem is that legitimate copies of the game can be difficult to attain in China. EA’s Origin digital distribution service, which is the exclusive digital provider of Battlefield 3 and 4, doesn’t always get along well with connections from the Middle Kingdom, and buying through a third party on Taobao or simply pirating the game can sometimes be the most convenient way for Chinese gamers to get it.

(via Sina Games)