Burgie's Cozy Kitchen Anti-Piracy Mode Drives Sales Surge
The developer's playful anti-piracy system turned a piracy problem into a marketing success, showing that unconventional DRM can generate positive attention and revenue.
Reporting from 1 sources: Automaton.
Developer HeyNau reported that the anti-piracy harassment feature in his idle game Burgie's Cozy Kitchen has unexpectedly boosted sales, especially in China. The game detects pirates and replaces customers with pirates who pay little and leave mocking reviews. Sales have broken records daily since the feature went viral on Chinese social media.
Developer HeyNau introduced the anti-piracy measure on Reddit on June 20, explaining how it works in Burgie's Cozy Kitchen. The game, a burger shop management idle title, launched in Early Access on Steam in February 2025 with 96% positive reviews out of about 400. Full release is scheduled for June 26, 2026.
After about an hour of play, if multiple piracy triggers activate, customers appear as pirates who pay only one coin and leave reviews like 'Pirates don't leave tips.' An accordion version of the main theme plays and cannot be muted. The feature went viral after a Douyin streamer's demo video spread, along with videos on pirating the game. Comments on those videos showed users asking how to stop pirates from not paying, and some Steam users left negative reviews after being caught by the system without understanding the irony. HeyNau replied to those reviews explaining the pirate customers, which spread on Chinese social media. Sales have broken records daily since.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.