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[nenjin]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-30-how-bad-is-pc-piracy-really-article

A pretty decent article courtesy of Eurogamer. In it, the heads of DRM companies, dev houses and distribution platforms cite various amounts of piracy and try to explain (once again) their DRM philosophy in a way that sounds appealing to legitimate users.

"Piracy levels, depending on country, range between 40 per cent and 80 per cent," Reinhard Blaukovitsch from Sony DADC, the company responsible for SecuROM, told Eurogamer as part of an investigation into the true impact of PC game piracy. That means that between 40 and 80 per cent of total copies of a game being played are pirated. "The commercial value of global software piracy is growing by 14 per cent annually."

"At the higher end you can see 90 per cent illegitimate usage to 10 per cent legitimate," Svensson, [of PC Gaming Alliance and Capcom] says. And they're not, what he calls "victimless crimes". He says Capcom had support calls from people playing pirated copies of the game. "There's a dollar cost to that. They're not even aware of what they're asking being wrong," he shrugs, "they're not aware it's theft. It's a cultural issue. And you'll find that the sensitivity to it or against it really varies a lot, a lot, from country to country."

And yet on the last page of the article is a pretty clear view from the other side of the fence, from GOG.com and their experience with selling Witcher 2 DRM-free (eventually.)

Rambourg is a man of his word. The Witcher 2 was sold on GOG.com with no DRM, and DRM was quickly patched out of other versions (it was there originally to prevent pre-release leaks) - a bold experiment. And a successful one?

"Honestly, we are very satisfied," he tells me. "I'm not doing some corporate blah blah right now - we are really happy. Just to give you an idea - of course I cannot disclose sales numbers: in the first two months of release we have sold more units of The Witcher 2 than of any other game on GOG.com in the past. Even when we released Fallout, Duke Nukem 3D or any triple-A back catalogue title, we never sold that many units within the first two months."

While this is mostly a PR debate that big companies wage badly because they don't provide much of their data....I found the numbers they toss around kind of interesting.

[a1s]

Of course I cannot disclose sales numbers

Why the hell can't he disclose sales numbers? What harm could that possibly ever do? They already tell this number to the government, so why not the public?

[forsaken1111]

Of course I cannot disclose sales numbers

Why the hell can't he disclose sales numbers? What harm could that possibly ever do? They already tell this number to the government, so why not the public?

Because then their competitors would know.

[Pillow_Killer]

Because if the sales numbers were disclosed, they would lose their point. THere's no correlation between piracy and sales. Pirates dont buy games, they never would - so no sale was lost. Those who do buy them are not pirates - they bought a copy and never caused any harm to the company. They understand, and they dont want to admit that since that would mean defeat in the censorship control. Moreover, oh boy, CAPCOM CEO? The same CAPCOM that delivers nothing but shitty half-assed console ports and generic resprited fighters(And then try to sell tons of DLCs on it, because the most powerful chars come in DLC, so anyone playing multi competively will HAVE to buy the DLCs) Oh oh, I wonder why are they losing sales, but it's probably not their shitty business practice of releasing crap.

[forsaken1111]

THere's no correlation between piracy and sales.

Source? This is a rather sweeping statement. I'm certain that there is an overlap, that is some people who pirate games because they don't want to buy them but would buy them if they couldn't pirate them. I don't know what percentage of the total piracy this is though.

The fallacy is the "Every pirated game is a lost sale" thing that they always try to push.

"Well 90 million people pirated our game so that is 90 million sales lost! At 60 bucks a game that is 5.4 billion dollars in damages! BLARGH!"

[a1s]

Because if the sales numbers were disclosed, they would lose their point

That point being? Isn't Rambourg arguing for no DRM?

There's no correlation between piracy and sales.

There is actually. It's on the order of 1 unsold unit per 100 units pirated though (in other words, if they admit 80% or so of the market is piracy, they're missing on about 4% additional revenue. So yeah).

[forsaken1111]

I'll admit freely that I have downloaded games in the past. I often end up buying these games too, if the game is good. If the game is shit, then I delete it. I've never spent more than an hour with a game I've downloaded and NOT purchased it.

[webadict]

40-80% is a reeeeeally vague percentage (The difference between 2-4 out of 5 games are pirated. Not likely, unless you have pirates playing several copies of the same game at once.) And I really doubt 90% of any game EVER is pirated unless said game is so terrible no one buys it (though, why would anyone pirate it then? There are better games to pirate!) or it is unavailable otherwise (how often does that happen?)

Because if the sales numbers were disclosed, they would lose their point. THere's no correlation between piracy and sales. Pirates dont buy games, they never would - so no sale was lost. Those who do buy them are not pirates - they bought a copy and never caused any harm to the company. They understand, and they dont want to admit that since that would mean defeat in the censorship control. Moreover, oh boy, CAPCOM CEO? The same CAPCOM that delivers nothing but shitty half-assed console ports and generic resprited fighters(And then try to sell tons of DLCs on it, because the most powerful chars come in DLC, so anyone playing multi competively will HAVE to buy the DLCs) Oh oh, I wonder why are they losing sales, but it's probably not their shitty business practice of releasing crap.

Comparing sales to piracy isn't fair at all, because pirates are more constant, whereas sales fluctuate more. So, if sales are down, then OF COURSE piracy looks worse. It's like have a store that keeps getting robbed by 3 people. If no one buys anything, then OH GOD THIEVES ARE STEALING EVERYTHING! If you're selling things off the shelves like crazy, then thieves are a pest, but a minor one.

Those thieves will consistently steal things. That's what they do. They steal. Try to stop them. Go ahead. Try. Having a bomb attached to the items isn't going to stop all (or even most of them). It's just making it a hassle for a lot of customers. And it sure won't increase sales.

[Bremen]

The 90% mention is an actual figure, IIRC. I forget the game (World of Goo?) but it had 10x as many copies of the game submit to the public scoreboard as actually sold. And submitting scores was an opt-in feature in the game .

Because if the sales numbers were disclosed, they would lose their point. THere's no correlation between piracy and sales. Pirates dont buy games, they never would - so no sale was lost. Those who do buy them are not pirates - they bought a copy and never caused any harm to the company. They understand, and they dont want to admit that since that would mean defeat in the censorship control. Moreover, oh boy, CAPCOM CEO? The same CAPCOM that delivers nothing but shitty half-assed console ports and generic resprited fighters(And then try to sell tons of DLCs on it, because the most powerful chars come in DLC, so anyone playing multi competively will HAVE to buy the DLCs) Oh oh, I wonder why are they losing sales, but it's probably not their shitty business practice of releasing crap.

In truth, I think it's really the middle ground here. Not all pirated copies are lost sales, but some people would buy a game if it weren't pirate-able. A lot of people use DRM free games selling well (IE, Witcher 2) as evidence against this, but the problem is we don't know how well they would have sold without piracy; in most cases where I see this example, the game in question sells well because it's a really good game.

For example, awhile back Sins of a Solar Empire released with no DRM and sold well. It was a fun game, and I bought it (didn't even "demo" it first with a pirated copy); but whenever I played it multiplayer everyone wanted to use hamachi instead of the legit servers (I'm sure you can guess why). The game still did well, but it became obvious to me that a lot more people pirated it than bought it. Combined with my first point, yes, Piracy does hurt sales, possibly significantly, though nowhere near the level of a lost sale for each pirated copy.

However, I'm still not in favor of DRM. This is because current types of DRM simply don't work; they might delay a pirated copy by a week, but even that's optimistic, and the more aggressive ones are a pain for legitimate users. Right now, sadly, the best option for game companies is to go DRM free and write off piracy as a necessary evil. If someone came up with crack-proof DRM that didn't noticeably impact legitimate users, I'd be all for that being on every game ever.

[GlyphGryph]

or it is unavailable otherwise (how often does that happen?)

Constantly, actually. Absolutely all the bloody time if you live outside the US - your options are often pirate the game or don't play it at all. I wonder how much of any given piracy number is from people outside the "target" country who have no way to legitimately acquire the game (or a copy of the game that isn't terrible, or without waiting months to years after which no one bothers to play it anymore so what would be the point)

[Jay]

I pirate games to see if they're good.
If they are, I buy them.
Derp.

The solution to piracy is obviously to make your games good.

[Dakorma]

Eurogamer has become the Daily Mail of the gaming press, take what they say with a grain of salt.

[webadict]

or it is unavailable otherwise (how often does that happen?)

Constantly, actually. Absolutely all the bloody time if you live outside the US - your options are often pirate the game or don't play it at all. I wonder how much of any given piracy number is from people outside the "target" country who have no way to legitimately acquire the game (or a copy of the game that isn't terrible, or without waiting months to years after which no one bothers to play it anymore so what would be the point)

Ah, right. I forget about you people outside the country. Yes, you indeed would have trouble with some games. I don't blame you. I couldn't think of how often that happens, so I left it in as a possibility.

Also, you're a terrible person and no one will ever love you, ya scurvy seadog. EA says so.

[justinlee999]

They need to take into consideration about accessibility.

No use region locking your game to the US and crying about piracy when everyone outside of the US is forced to pirate.



Also, education of the public will help. I see some friends who actually buy pirated games that is more expensive than the price of buying it legitimately during a sale.

[webadict]

Also, education of the public will help. I see some friends who actually buy pirated games that is more expensive than the price of buying it legitimately during a sale.

People BUY pirated games? Why?? FOR MORE MONEY?!?

Example, please? No need for links. Just written, if you don't mind.