Does the hunt on piracy piss off anyone else here?

[Alpinex2]

If you use this website (retro gaming) and pirate video games you are a loser and should be banned.

Even if you don't agree with drm you're steal a thief if you pirate.

[lisalover1]

If you use this website (retro gaming) and pirate video games you are a loser and should be banned.

Even if you don't agree with drm you're steal a thief if you pirate.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

If the PC industry wasn't declining (and it has been, for quite some time) because of piracy, we wouldn't need DRM. PC retail sales were down 23% in 2009. That's crazy. 2008 was down 14% from 2007. And 2007 was down 6% from 2006. Digital distribution isn't enough to explain this, especially when the game industry (except for 2009) has been growing rapidly. The piracy rates are ridiculously high for PC games.

I'm just asking for some clarification here. Do you mean PC hardware sales, PC software sales (of all types), or PC game software sales?

JY

[Hatta]

If the PC industry wasn't declining (and it has been, for quite some time) because of piracy, we wouldn't need DRM. PC retail sales were down 23% in 2009. That's crazy. 2008 was down 14% from 2007. And 2007 was down 6% from 2006. Digital distribution isn't enough to explain this, especially when the game industry (except for 2009) has been growing rapidly. The piracy rates are ridiculously high for PC games.

What industry wasn't down 23% in 2009?

Oh, you say the PC gaming industry has been in decline since 2005/2006? What happened in 2005/2006? Hmm, the Xbox 360 was released in late 2005, and the PS3 and Wii were released in 2006. Think that might have something to do with declining PC sales?

Piracy has been around for as long as video gaming has been around. If piracy was going to kill PC gaming, it would have done so 20 years ago already.

[Limewater]

Oh, you say the PC gaming industry has been in decline since 2005/2006? What happened in 2005/2006? Hmm, the Xbox 360 was released in late 2005, and the PS3 and Wii were released in 2006. Think that might have something to do with declining PC sales?

Piracy has been around for as long as video gaming has been around. If piracy was going to kill PC gaming, it would have done so 20 years ago already.

I think another big difference is that high-speed internet connections became a lot more widespread over the last five years. In 2004, most people were still on dial-up. There was a lot less piracy when everyone was downloading at 56kbps.

[Kebo]

If the PC industry wasn't declining (and it has been, for quite some time) because of piracy, we wouldn't need DRM. PC retail sales were down 23% in 2009. That's crazy. 2008 was down 14% from 2007. And 2007 was down 6% from 2006. Digital distribution isn't enough to explain this, especially when the game industry (except for 2009) has been growing rapidly. The piracy rates are ridiculously high for PC games.

What industry wasn't down 23% in 2009?

Oh, you say the PC gaming industry has been in decline since 2005/2006? What happened in 2005/2006? Hmm, the Xbox 360 was released in late 2005, and the PS3 and Wii were released in 2006. Think that might have something to do with declining PC sales?

Piracy has been around for as long as video gaming has been around. If piracy was going to kill PC gaming, it would have done so 20 years ago already.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with industries, but do you realize just how massive a drop 23% is? The game industry took what is considered a big hit, at 8%, in 2009. Multiply that by three. That's following a huge (14%) down year previously. The game industry's 8% hit was following growth.

The PC gaming industry has actually been in decline since 2001, around when the internet and faster connections started to gain greater popularity. Since 2000, the gaming industry as a whole has TRIPLED in revenue. Yet PC game sales have shrunk? The PC pirate rates have increased, and are anywhere from 1:10 to 1:20 (as in one purchase to every 10 or 20 people that pirated it). Think that might have just a little to do with the fact PC gaming sales have declined? I didn't know anyone pirating PC games in 1995. Almost everyone I know pirates them now. I suspect I'm not the only one that can say this. Now, not many companies want to develop PC exclusive games despite an ENORMOUS userbase. This decline is despite a growing number of women, and kids that play PC games compared to 2001.

I can't fathom how someone could delude themselves into believing piracy hasn't hurt the PC game industry. I guess the statistics are just meaningless, and developers are simply liars, right?

Look, here's the simple data. People can make of it what they will. But with an explosion in the internet, faster connections, and a greater proliferation of both gaming in general and piracy, I can't see how anyone can dispute this point and keep a straight face.


US PC game Revenue:
2001: 1.6 billion
2002: 1.4 billion
2003: 1.2 billion
2004: 1.1 billion
2005: 0.95 billion
2006: 0.97 billion
2007: 0.91 billion
2008: 0.70 billion
2009: 0.54 billion

US Game sales revenue:
2000: 6.6 billion
2001: 9.4 billion
2002: 10.3 billion
2003: 10.0 billion
2004: 9.9 billion
2005: 10.5 billion
2006: 12.5 billion
2007: 18.0 billion
2008: 21.3 billion
2009: 19.7 billion

Hmm, so in 2000 PC gaming was 1.6 billion and the industry as a whole was 6.6 billion.

In 2009, PC gaming was 0.54 billion, and the industry as a whole was 19.7 billion.

No, pirates, despite their overwhelming transparency all over the internet, clearly did not do this. All these hardcore PC gamers simply flocked to Xbox 360 and abandoned PC gaming. ^googleplex

[noiseredux]

[Alpinex2]

EXTREME!!! Mod_Edit!

Fighting with gigantic annoying pictures isn't allowed, okay?

[ZeroAX]

The pc gaming market is going downhill because microsoft released the xbox in 2001. And most of it's high profile exclusives are games you would have seen come out on the pc, for the pc gaming demographic.

But ever since it came out, the young gamers who like FPS games did not get into PC gaming like the people a few years older than them. And pc gaming is going down hill only in the US and UK (which are significant markets), and guess which are the 2 main markets for the xbox brand.

now I'm not accusing MS for stealing gamers from pc, that would be fanboyishly stupid (but I will never forgive them for ruining deus ex 2 for me), but piracy is hardly the problem. when people didn't download games they bought them at 1/10th the original asking price.




also

http://kotaku.com/5475349/ubisoft-on-th ... m-measures


this is exactly what I had in mind when I started this thread. While pirates get hunted down, gaming companies can bend us over with stuff like this and we just have to accept it.

No I'm sorry. I don't pirate because I love my video games to be original. But in a Robin Hood scenario, I don't give a crap if publishers lose sales on multi million sellers, when they are this evil to their legal PAYING customers.


and don't go blaming pirates about this, or say they have the right to strict DRM because of piracy. Because the freaking pirates will play the game without restrictions.


also did you read my post 1-2 pages back about how I got treated by buying an original game?

[gtmtnbiker]

This decline is despite a growing number of women, and kids that play PC games compared to 2001.

I think with PCs, there are lots of options for entertainment other than PC Games that you buy. What about a site like webkinz.com or bellasara.com or funkeys.com? My daughters played webkinz.com for 2 years before getting their DSes. If you are not familiar with a Webkinz, it's a cute stuff animal that you buy in a store for $10 or so. It comes with a code that allows you access to webkinz.com for one year. At the site, you see your stuffed animal, can dress it, decorate its room, and then play all sorts of games in order to earn KinzCash. KinzCash is used to buy items for the room, clothes, etc. You can also socialize with other people (friends) online.

I don't deny that piracy has an effect but I don't think it's the sole reason for the decline of PC gaming. How much of an effect piracy has on PC Gaming, I couldn't tell you.

I know in my household, we have never pirated any PC games. Nor do we buy any.