How bad is PC piracy really?

"Make no mistake," said SEGA this week, "if one quarter of the people that usually pirate [Football Manager] switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double." That was the eye-opening statistic used to justify Football Manager 2012 requiring Steam to play. In other words, more than 80 per cent of people playing Football Manager are doing so with a pirated copy.

[dangert12]

You know what I care so little about these big companies games getting pirated as alot of them still make loads don't get me wrong I'm a gamer and do care for the bigger devs just not as much...But when people crack and hack indie games and put them up for download thats wrong suppose to support the little fella theres not been a single indie dev Ive spoke to that has not replied to me like a human being that just loves what his doing and will do his best to help you out if your facing difficulties using his stuff...the bigger companies on the other hand...

[zerocrossing]

I actually have a personal experience with piracy.

Me and my little bro made a casual game a few years back, nothing huge but it was just the 2 of us so it took a a while to make, anyway a few months later I found it up as a free download on some Arab website, and you know what I couldn't give a damn, at least people still brought the game from the casual game website and the people pirating it where probably never going to buy the game in the 1st place.

[mandf]

You are the reason big name publishers don't make big budget exclusive games that fully take advantage of the PC. PC gaming gets 2-3 AAA games a year exclusive to your system. Yeah I know mods, Keep living off old games. A lot of us gamers want new ip's. Indie games MMOs, and casual games are what keeps PC gaming afloat. If I was PC gamer I would be mad to see console gamers get so many big budget games. Argue all you want other than indie developers who developes exclusively for PC. Times are changing and more and more PC developers are jumping ship for consoles because it's were the money is other than MMOs. Justify it any way you want, you are the problem. The whole hurt big companies is stupid and without logic.

Edited for grammar.

[pctrollv4]

i have two consoles...never bought a single game for either one of them as they are both hacked. I buy every single pc game i want, all AAA titles on steam. Console exclusives are not even that elevant now, its almost guarantedd there will be a cheaper better pc version afterwards. In the meaniwhile, while we wait, we got plenty of choices.

[mandf]

For the disagreer, just like a thief hide behind the button.

You think hurting the big guy helps gaming, if there were no big companies we would all be playing Angry Birds and games of its type. There would be no GTA's, Sims, Battlefields, and other large ips. Gaming would be boring. You can't live off mods for the rest of you life. With no big budget games, gaming would be all casual. That's sounds boring to me. Hide behind your disagree. I love the video game industry and fully support it. I don't hide behind I was just trying it. That's what demoes are for and youtube videos. You are a thief plain and simple. If you hate a company don't buy their games. Vote with your wallet. THIEF

[dangert12]

i pay for every game im purchase. if a publisher don't want to make a big udget game thats there choice...they could still do it with or without my money

[radphil]

"You are the reason big name publishers don't make big budget exclusive games that fully take advantage of the PC"

More like companies want money and want to perform to the masses.

Pirates aren't the main reason. Yes it's an issue, but there's no way in hell that's the main excuse, cause if it was, they would have stopped PC stuff in general way back in the 90s.

Plus how the hell can you take full advantage of the PC and expect a major profit?

There's people out there that barely have the specs to go on Ultra for BF3, and that's not using the best cards to their advantage. Not only that, but by the time one game comes out that would hypothetically take advantage of DX11 and the highest card, there's new ones already made and/or are out on the market.

PC platform evolves so fast, it's next to impossible to "fully take advantage" of.

[gamingdroid]

Here is a little thought experiment:

Has there ever been a PC game that hasn't been pirated? You know freely available on any of the torrent networks?

The answer is NO, ANY game can be found there. So whatever DRM put in place isn't preventing piracy!

However, is DRM hurting legitimate owners from playing their game? Especially compared to the pirates?

It's easy to see then that the incentive to become a pirate is pretty big. No payment and no hassle!

That said, I grew up on piracy. That was the norm, but as I grew up and had an income, game purchases of known franchises is something I do now i.e. I was a pirate, but now a paying customer. On the flip side, one only has to look at MS past strategy:

"Microsoft doesn't want you to pirate their software, but if you must choose between illegally installing Windows or a competitor's operating system, Microsoft would prefer that you choose them. While the company obviously won't endorse the illegal use of software, it does believe that piracy can result in profit."

http://arstechnica.com/micr...

Key here is NOT to think of it as "how to prevent", but rather how to "create a consumer out of the pirate"!

[Motorola]

Piracy is pretty bad, games are cracked and on torrents before release date.

[zerocrossing]

As long as most of us still go out and buy the games instead of pirating then there's nothing to worry about, piracy has been going on for years and its never affected the industry that much, so I doubt we need to worry at all just yet.

[Motorola]

If its a SP game, a LOT of people pirate.

[awi5951]

Its really bad you can get cracked copies of anything

[Suicide_King]

The whole problem is exaggerated. Good games will sell. Mediocre games will get pirated and then uninstalled.

[Anderson8]

agreed.. i think the current pricing of games doesnt help most if not all are grossly overpriced

[zerocrossing]

The most annoying thing is after a couple months the price is almost always cut in half, It's hard to really gauge what the games are worth to begin with, especial when some games will last you twice as long as others.

[Pikajew]

I don't care about piracy. Pirating movies is the same as pirating games. Piracy helps people try games befor they buy them also

[CaptainMarvelQ8]

I find the "trying the game before buying" excuse the same as when pirates say "it is used for homebrew only".Im not denying that there are actually people who only do it for those sole reasons,but the thing is that the MAJORITY of people aren't,but are doing it for pirating games

[mandf]

Finally someone gets it.

[awi5951]

If you play a cracked game you arent going to buy the real one the game and story gets spoiled.

[evrfighter]

The try before I buy has always been my philosophy. Just because you fail at committing to it doesn't mean everyone else does

I have 135 games on steam btw

[pucpop]

Ahh... the shady lady streets of Glesga, doon the Barras as a wean, waiting in line as x-copy pro delivered a dodgy stash of Amiga games. Canny beat it. I can still smell the reek of pish and vinegar.

[Saryk]

There are a ton of choices for anti-piracy measures.These options are the ones I would do!

#1 Don’t piss of gamers.
#2 Don’t say that the DRM used is uncrackable.
#3 Add your games to some kind of digital services, like Steam
#4 Don’t sell your game at retail stores.