Piracy DOES hurt game sales, there's no doubt people are going to pirate triple A games even if there good. It's the matter of what does the game make the pirate do, if they like the game are they going to endorse the company people are smart and I'm sure someone that can hide themselves online with proxies and other tools would understand the concept of money the more a company has the more it can use to make more games. It's pirates like this that despite hurting the company come back to help, i have no plans to pirate Halflife ep:3 I intend to pre-order because i have that must trust in valve that there game will be good no matter the wait or new features. as compared to duke nukem even with the screen shots I've never played a duke nukem game nor Crysis I don't intend to try duke at all. I here 15 years of wait made it nothing but choppy and terrible, and apparently crysis 2 is getting bad reviews, i may find them online and try them before i buy. It's the matter of I want to make an educated choice before i buy. Just because others say it's "bad" does NOT mean I'm not going to like it myself, I liked loony toons sheep raider/ sheep dog wolf others hated it, i loved it and still play it.