Why piracy might be good for the games industry

BeefJack: "On a day when CD Projekt cease legal threats against pirates, but remind gamers that piracy is a huge problem, Mark Ankucic presents another point of view: that piracy might be a dodgy practice, but it could force the games industry to shape up..."

[h311rais3r]

Well many pirates pirate games from companies who blame pirates for ruining sales. Ubisoft for one. But when a company make a decent pc game the piracy is generally used as a demo of there isn't one. Pirates r either poor people who can't afford every game or just don't want to give their money to an undeserving dev.

[Spydiggity]

There is a massive misconception about piracy in both Hollywood and in Gaming. and that misconception is that pirates are costing them money. The truth is roughly 80% of ppl who pirate games/movies/music, weren't actually going to buy the game in the first place. as for the other 20%...it's free marketing. some games and movies have 100 million dollar ad campaigns...if they just skipped that and gave away part of their game movie for free, the social networking that the internet has created would do all the marketing for them.

the fundamental problem with these industries is that they are dinosaurs. they don't know how to capitalize with the times. as a result of their lack of creativity and ingenuity, we get BS bills like SOPA.

speaking of which...CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN! Tell them "NO" to SOPA!

[BrutallyBlunt]

There really is no confirmation as to what the exact figures are to potential buyers or not.

There should be free demo's for every game out there for starters. Giving consumers access is just one way of exposing your game.

@h311rais3r

That simply isn't true. You cannot categorize that easily why people pirate. A big factor is just how accessible games are to pirate. As for not wanting to give their money to undeserving devs then why are ALL games being pirated that can be pirated? That comment makes no sense. If it's available people will pirate it.

[MariaHelFutura]

Should people be allowed to break in to your house, steal your game console to see if they like the PS3/360/Wii?? No, is the answer. Piracy does nothing but hurt the industry, us and them (in the long term).

Also, SOPA will not be stopped, it is essentially a part of what some refer to as the New World Order.

[Ducky]

Not really a fair example.
If they steal your PS3/360/Wii, you no longer have it... meaning you won't be able to play games.
With piracy, you just have copies being shared.

A better example is if someone broke in, cloned the console, and then ran off, leaving you with the original.

[MariaHelFutura]

Yea. I guess your example would be better. Still in the end it's not good. $$$ trumps creativity in the eyes of most companies, and piracy makes them take less chances, IMO. If everyone cloned one console, would they make another? Probably not.

[ATi_Elite]

1. Every Gaming/mid range PC can Emulate a Wii PERFECTLY!

But some how Nintendo Wii is crushing the PS3/360 in hardware and software sales. So please explain how Piracy is hurting the Industry again.

2. Many people Pirate or buy games that they normally wouldn't buy just to play Mods made from that game. Pubs talk about Piracy but Pubs never talk about financially compensating the Modders who helped increase the sales of a Pubs game.

3. Ubisoft is full of shite! They make some dedicated PC titles that sale very well on the PC. They are only complaining about their horrible console ports that get pirated more than they sale. Dedicated PC titles sell well and crappy console ports do not.

4. Pirated copies act as Demos cause not every game has a demo. Demo's cost a Pub money to press to disc or use up bandwidth to D-Load!

5. 99% of the time the highest pirated games are the highest selling games. A crap game is a crap game and no one is gonna buy or pirate it.

6. Ever bought a crappy game and wanted your money back. Thanks Piracy! Also Piracy is a way to test a game from a Dev you never heard of. I'm not shelling out $60 to play something i have no clue about. I pirated a game, had fun with it, and have been buying every game in the series ever since so Piracy in some situations helps the Dev/Pub.

7. Most pirates are from countries where games cost way too much money. The United States is not even in the top ten of countries who pirate the most so i don't know what all the big hooplah is about especially when every year the Gaming Industry makes more money.

The Industry just needs to embrace the Torrent technology and listen more closely to the Gamers and above all MAKE better Games. Everyone wants to buy a quality product.

[StraightPath]

what was the figure the games industry made last year november? $3 billion...and that was 16% up with comparison with last year..i am not saying pirating is good, but when developers overcharge and use us with overpriced DLC ripping us even further and cheap tactics to make even more money such as Online Pass etc...we gamers dont stand up or anything developers always use us with bad glitchy games and bugs when released they fix it up later with patches. Imagine if all gamers stand up to those things and get heard i am sure the developer will surely piss themselves. But we dont we still back and complain on N4G.

Pirating indie games would be even more bad .

[Pikajew]

Because it lets us try games before we buy them :)
The only games I dont pirate are indie games

[closnyc2]

you make a good game, with pc in mind and not just a crappy port then ill gladly buy, and a guaranteed purchase if its on steamworks. Witcher 2, bf3, skyrim are examples of pc gaming being more than alive and well with over 1 million in sales each. There is no reason to give us crappy unplayable ports or massive intrusive drm, you give us awesome we pay for awesome.

[LightofDarkness]

Yeah, two sides to every coin and stuff.

Honestly, I think we, the Napster generation, owe all subsequent generations an apology (and all creative artists too). You see, we've convinced you and ourselves that creative content ("art" as some could call it) has no value. And of course, that's simply not true. It is the stuff that enriches our lives beyond almost anything else and carries an incredible cultural value.

The problem with the ability to duplicate things like music, movies and games is that our traditional method of valuing things dictates that these items simply have no value any more. There's no scarcity, the items in question can be infinitely reproduced without destroying the original copy.

If somebody came out with the "Duplicatex Duplicator Ray" tomorrow, a device that duplicates anything from a rolex to a Bugatti Veyron, that would be the end of economics as we know it too. NOTHING would have value under our system any more. Value has everything to do with supply and demand, and if there is no scarcity or rarity attached to an item, it has very little value, because it can't be bartered/traded against for something of better or equal value. Everyone can have one, consequence free. And believe me, if that device existed in abundance, you'd all be using it.

And that's the world we live in when it comes to the creative arts (that can be digitized). What we need to do is come together and suss the situation out a little better. Clearly, the old methods are useless in this scenario. Trying to profit off of these things in the way that they used to won't cut it.

I don't have the answers, but I certainly understand the problem. And that's step 1.

[Ducky]

Well, the entertainment industry isn't exactly starving.
That, and currently, the entertainment software that is sold (music, movies, games) are now being sold digitally. So supply isn't really an issue to begin with (even if companies like EA try to trick us otherwise by telling us to buy a digital download 'while supplies last')

[LightofDarkness]

It's a step in the right direction, but there's still a lot of resistance and a large impact on the traditional models of sale/resale.

EA, to further illustrate alongside you example, are also still charging 49.99 and 59.99 for their games. These prices make no sense if there's no physical distribution and logistics to worry about. Furthermore, retail outlets will continue to die, which results in a fairly hefty amount of jobs being destroyed.

EA/Activision seem to wonder why their games are the most pirated, while it just so happens that they are some of the most expensive games available online. But of course, it's the pirates' fault, right? ;)

Again, the entertainment industry isn't starving, but its reluctance to move while the tides are rushing in is causing far more headaches than are necessary.

[Dark11]

We need piracy to keep the balance in this industry
cuz if piracy died, developers and publisher will take control of the industry and things will BE worst .. YES WORST THAN ONLINE PASSES AND SELLING DLC THAT ALREADY IN THE DISC!!!

[h311rais3r]

If a game releases with on disc content I always pirate. I will never support paying for what I already paid for!

[BrutallyBlunt]

Bring balance? You mean like allowing people to murder and rob people so that we can employ police officers?

People can validate all they want on why they pirate games, the fact is you don't have any right to. YOU didn't make any initial investment, YOU didn't put any time in creating those games, YOU are merely a potential customer.

I don't have the right to sneak into a concert and see it for free. I also don't have the right to tell management at a movie cinema that I should be able to view the movie for free. It's called entertainment, not a necessity in life like access to water and air.

[BrutallyBlunt]

Tell me, where exactly does this sense of entitlement come from? Is it from parents who don't know how to parent? Therefor kids grow up feeling as if everyone owes them something? Is it just ignorance? Both?

Gaming is a hobby and if you can't afford it oh well. If most people pirate games then there would be less investment, it really is that simple. Society needs to stand up and stop supporting freeloaders. I don't expect a free lunch so why should you?

[LightofDarkness]

We can't know that for sure, that's the problem with things that never happened.

Although there wouldn't be so much online passes and heavy handed copy-protection to worry about, but more likely exorbitant prices would be the chief concern.

[admiralvic]

While its always good to flip an argument... there is no reason to here. The only thing companies need to do is stop assuming every "pirate" is an instant lost sale. It get's rather annoying when someone claims "my game was downloaded X times and I lost out on X sales... **** pirates!".

Going off what you said most kids lack the funds to really help the industry, but there are plenty of "cheap enough" solutions. If parents taught them to be thrifty you would see plenty of kids being able to game more. I won't get into an argument about deals as most kids don't value money much either...

Sadly I wouldn't consider price a factor either. Many people attack companies for this left/right and justify stealing for just this reason. We all conceptualize value differently and plenty of "loser titles" get clearenced out for nothing in the end. I bought Quantum Theory for 4 dollars just a month ago (retail/sealed). Simply delaying gratification can usually result in a perfect middle ground for consumers/companies.

I don't even get your "media center" point. My psp could play shows/mp3's/load photos just fine before modding it... maybe some codecs were missing, but that's with most other platforms anyways. Furthermore how many Japanese games ACTUALLY get English translations? I would be surprised if it was even 20 games... Anyways several systems/high tech items with apps are Lost Leaders. The same is true for the vita which they sell for a lower price to get you to buy content for it. I don't really think Sony cares if people are buying them in masses without anyone picking up content for it. Ultimately it makes the sales figures look worse. Even if 1% of 50,000,000 pirates thats still 500,000 sales you most likely will never get.

Overall though you don't really make a point. In essence you're just countering their tired arguments and basically claim that all piracy could lead to cash down the road. Finally Apple/Amazon do well because its far easier for less informed consumers to buy items. This demographic is usually not the pirate demographic and thus not even important to the point.

[kevnb]

maybe if not everyone could do it, because word of mouth is good.

[smashcrashbash]

This is BS. Why should I endorse chaotic piracy that MIGHT get my game out there? Who says that it won't just bankrupt me because of the people who decide they would rather just share it with friends instead of really buying it? That is what advertising budgets are for.

The only people that keep harping on about piracy being good are third party developers who have the game on multiple systems, huge companies that can afford the loss that piracy gives them or people like Microsoft who doesn't really give a damn because most of the games on their system don't belong to them anyway and they still sell consoles whether people pirate or not.

But what about the people who can't afford to lose sales because of this? Suppose a thousand people are honest enough to actually buy the game legit and five thousand people decide that it is not worth buying the real thing.That is five thousand people plus anyone they decide to share the game with that could have been customers. People spew this crap pretending like the hackers that they are trying to help, when they really are screwing me sideways.

So in summary, people think I should just let you steal everything that BELONGS to me because you MIGHT get it out there for me and make my game,movie or book popular. And suppose that doesn't work and people just decide to take it and never pay for it? Where does that leave me? Should I kiss the pirates and hackers feet for trying to 'help' me?

It is amazing how people can justify the wrong things they are doing so well. Go ahead a steal and take and sponge off if you want but stop justifying it. It's stealing no matter what you say. It doesn't matter if I can afford it. It doesn't matter if it is ONLY 100 million dollars I am losing on piracy. It is MY 100 million dollars. It belongs to me. If I had ten cars is it okay to take one because I have nine left and can afford it?

If the companies are raising prices too high then refuse to buy anything from them until they lower them. I don't see stealing it from them as a solution at all.Piracy is not justified because you can't get something you want. You can do without it.

[smashcrashbash]

@ LevelHead. I am not sure. People have this attitude constantly. You can't afford something that is not needed and you figure because you can't afford it you deserve it for some reason. You don't deserve ANYTHING. Because you brought Sonic the Hedgehog ten years ago doesn't entitle you to emulate and copy it now.

I want to know where it is written that if someone has something you want but you can't afford it, it makes it okay to steal, copy and distribute it especially for monetary gain.Its not okay for me to sell something I made with my time, my effort, my resources at the price I think its worth but it is more then okay for someone who probably spends a day copying it and distributing it to everyone to sell for less despite the fact that it isn't theirs and they did almost nothing to deserve any of the money they get.

So to answer your question, I really don't know where this ignorant sense of entitlement comes from. Gamers and people in general have reached a certain level of justifiable ignorance that can't seem to be penetrated by any form of logic of any kind.