Piracy is not so bad

[corn619]

No, I'm serious. If they're not making games for the love of them, they shouldn't be making them. I'm not saying they shouldn't be upset about people pirating, but that they should at least be happy that people are playing their game.

How would they get the money to make more games if making money off them is of no concern? No offense, but it makes no sense. Anyways here we go again. Piracy hurts everyone. From pain in the ass DRM to digital only consoles like the PSPgo. These measures are a direct reaction to piracy.

Guess who get it up the ass....the paying customer. Anyone who says piracy doesn't affect the game industry and the customer is full of shit. Pretty soon IPs will so locked down that playing them will require a blood sample and verification quiz before your able to play. And when game companies refuse to sell physical copies of a game due to piracy, downloading a overpriced copy though them will be your only choice since competition will no longer exist. So pirate away, it hurts us more then them.

[RCBH928]

I just want to add that I pirate games because locally the prices are more than funny. I would have to say the average price of any current gen game is $80-90.
That is not when its new. That is forever, the price does NOT go down. Here is an example.

Last time I checked a local store couple weeks ago, I asked them a about the price of some mediocre Gamecube game(discontinued 2006, no idea how old the game itself). He told me they got an offer on this one, after 20% discount it still costs more than $60!!!!

[corn619]

I just want to add that I pirate games because locally the prices are more than funny. I would have to say the average price of any current gen game is $80-90.
That is not when its new. That is forever, the price does NOT go down. Here is an example.

Last time I checked a local store couple weeks ago, I asked them a about the price of some mediocre Gamecube game(discontinued 2006, no idea how old the game itself). He told me they got an offer on this one, after 20% discount it still costs more than $60!!!!

Man, time to consider a relocation! $60 is crazy expensive for GC games.

[Inazuma]

I just want to add that I pirate games because locally the prices are more than funny. I would have to say the average price of any current gen game is $80-90.
That is not when its new. That is forever, the price does NOT go down. Here is an example.

Last time I checked a local store couple weeks ago, I asked them a about the price of some mediocre Gamecube game(discontinued 2006, no idea how old the game itself). He told me they got an offer on this one, after 20% discount it still costs more than $60!!!!

That's amazing, man. So you don't even have the internet where you live? There are many old games for dirt cheap available on the internet and you would only need to worry about the shipping.

[IcKy99]

all i know is i got a little bummed out when my band played a show, two kids came up, one bought a cd and the other said "dude can you burn that for me?"

on one hand i'm glad someone liked my band enough to want the music even though they possibly didn't have enough money to buy one, but on the other hand i'm kinda bummed out that i have to hear that immediately, because i spent my own money and time writing the songs, recording the record, paying for it to be pressed, etc.

so i can see why it's a bummer. which is also why i don't pirate new systems, at all. except the psp, i think that doesn't really matter, because i don't think the psp should exist. personal opinion. hah.

i pressed my own 7'' as well . i also put it online for free the same day. punx is poor man

[elvis]

I've yet to see compelling proof that piracy was a main cause of the DCs death. CD burners were still rather expensive back then and not that many people had them.

"Piracy" (stupid word for "copyright infringement") happened long before "download and burn at home".

Those that did have CD burners could easily burn and sell titles for 1/4 the shelf price or less. That method of illegal/unlicensed software distribution is still alive and kicking in south-east Asia on modern consoles.

[equalsign]

I've yet to see compelling proof that piracy was a main cause of the DCs death. CD burners were still rather expensive back then and not that many people had them.

"Piracy" (stupid word for "copyright infringement") happened long before "download and burn at home".

Those that did have CD burners could easily burn and sell titles for 1/4 the shelf price or less. That method of illegal/unlicensed software distribution is still alive and kicking in south-east Asia on modern consoles.

My first encounter with bootleg games was when my best friend first got a Playstation back when we were kids. Under the tree that year he got the console and a very thick stack of burnt games his parents bought off a street peddler. People were burning games long before 1999.

Of the 4 people I knew who had a Dreamcast during its original lifetime only 1 of them had more than a couple legit games. I've name dropped the Dreamcast quite a bit over the past few months (out of excitement for its tenth birthday) and almost every person who had the system back in the day told me they loved that you could just burn the games. For example, I went over to some guy's place to watch a movie with some friends and saw he had a Dreamcast sitting under his TV. Excited, I asked to see his games and he handed me a CD case full of CD-Rs.

To say copied games weren't a problem for the Dreamcast goes against everything I've seen and heard firsthand.

[Limewater]

I understand piracy is supposed to rip the creators of the games off, but the gamers have been getting ripped off for years.

Where exactly are gamers getting ripped off? Every time a gamer buys a game, it is completely voluntary. You choose to buy a game at a particular price. If you think the price is too high, just wait. Most games depreciate worse than automobiles.

The only way I can see a gamer getting ripped off is if he buys a game and goes home to find that it is empty or contains "Barbie Horse Adventure" or something.

[gtmtnbiker]

I think one could use Console Attach Rates to see if piracy has a big effect on sales or not. There's an interesting thread over at http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=18305

April 21, 2009 - 5:30:10pm (edit: 4/21/09 - 7:46pm) 10 of 25
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Latest attach rates and LTD software sales in the US:
For most of its lifetime, the Wii has had a slightly higher tie ratio (i.e. more software per owner) than has the PlayStation 3. Recently that situation has reversed itself. As of March 2009 the PlayStation 3 had a tie ratio of 6.5, just above the 6.2 tie ratio of the Wii
.....
While the tie ratios above tell us that Wii owners have purchased two fewer games per system than have Xbox 360 owners, that isn't the full story.

Remember that Nintendo has sold 19.6 million Wii systems in the United States while Microsoft has sold 14.9 million Xbox 360 systems. The PlayStation 3 lags both system significantly at only 7.5 million systems, according to the latest NPD Group figures.....
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=23308

Till March 2009 Tie Ratios :
360 : 8.3
PS3 : 6.5
Wii : 6.2

LTD software (March 2009) :
360 : 124 M
Wii : 121 M
PS3 : 49 M

So while the Wii has a bigger hardware install base than the 360 (by over 5 million units), the 360 has still sold more software units in total than the Wii, as well as having a higher tie ratio.
Without the 11 million in Wii Play(it's more hardware than software) sales inflating the Wii numbers, the gap is even bigger.

I would have expected PS3 to have a higher tie rate than the other consoles due to the lack of piracy.

[gtmtnbiker]

I just want to add that I pirate games because locally the prices are more than funny. I would have to say the average price of any current gen game is $80-90.
That is not when its new. That is forever, the price does NOT go down. Here is an example.

Last time I checked a local store couple weeks ago, I asked them a about the price of some mediocre Gamecube game(discontinued 2006, no idea how old the game itself). He told me they got an offer on this one, after 20% discount it still costs more than $60!!!!

It seems like there might a good business opportunity for someone to get in there and undercut the competition.