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[justinlee999]

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.

Most people have either slow internet or no internet at all here. Pirates download the games, and charge. They've been increasing their prices lately. (I've seen this pirate selling a pirated movie for like, what, 10 USD?)

Granted, it's not very often, but some people still do that.

But with faster internet this is becoming obselete, and the pirates are somewhat lowering their prices now, but still, just terrible.

There's also this certain idea that all original games are ridiculously expensive and sales on original games do not exist. If you buy an original game you're a rich and spoiled brat.

[Shadowlord]

If you buy an original kid you're a rich and spoiled brat.

Slavery is EVIL, man!

(I would imagine piracy-and-sale-of-pirated-western-games happens quite a bit in places like China)

[klingon13524]

People SELL pirated stuff now? That brings it to a whole new level of wrong. How can these people live with themselves?

[Realmfighter]

People SELL pirated stuff now? That brings it to a whole new level of wrong. How can these people live with themselves?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Son, I'm sorry to tell you this, but there are people who do thing a bit worse then software piracy (And by a bit I mean a lot) and they're just fine with living.

[Stworca]

People SELL pirated stuff now?

It's happening ever since i remember. Over a decade at least. I once seen a hardware shop running a pirate-game "background" store, in the middle of a city, no less.

[Itnetlolor]

People SELL pirated stuff now?

It's happening ever since i remember. Over a decade at least. I once seen a hardware shop running a pirate-game "background" store, in the middle of a city, no less.

Bootlegging has been around for a good amount of time (even before computers; I think the earliest I can recall is Moonshining.). Heck, if I recall correctly, there have been some people that did the service of burning DVDs with emulators and as many games as possible on them for you; the only price is providing the solid materials (postage, DVDs, and packaging) for them. Essentially, the price is paying the transfer fees and materials for them. That's how one (set) of vendors once did them. Good for those without the convenience of a good internet connection (or computer with sufficient capacity to do the task) and knowledge of torrenting (or having a safe enough ISP to do such things) or sniffing out good sources that aren't likely to cause problems to your computer.

In certain cities (like New York, for example), you can almost easily come across vendors that provide bootlegged videos of movies just after they came out in theaters in DVD or Blu-Ray format for the price of a ticket to the theater (essentially). They stick their necks out to acquire and burn them (material costs), as well as selling them at that very moment, of course they'll be charging you at least something for that risk.

[Haschel]

I'm kind of wishing there was more data on piracy on platforms outside of PC stuff. PC game piracy has been discussed to death, and I don't think anything will be resolved until someone decides to make serious, broad, and in-depth research into the subject. I never see discussion on handheld piracy though despite knowing it is quite popular these days. Relevant to my current interests I guess.

[ChairmanPoo]

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.

Add to the examples mentioned already the people who pay for premium accounts at megaupload (and there are quite a few of them).

[Rakuhn]

A previous poster brought up a good point, some people pirate games not to enjoy it for themselves, not to test them out, not as a form of DRM vigilantism, and not to spread the joy of a good game to others. Some people pirate games to make a profit.

While I normally am in favor of entrepreneurial endeavors, knockoff goods make up a portion of revenue for violent criminal organizations. I haven't seen any reports on how much pirated software revenue goes to them, but even a small amount is more than I am comfortable with.

In any case, I hope that "free" pirating will drain resources from these groups.

[Vattic]

I'm kind of wishing there was more data on piracy on platforms outside of PC stuff. PC game piracy has been discussed to death, and I don't think anything will be resolved until someone decides to make serious, broad, and in-depth research into the subject. I never see discussion on handheld piracy though despite knowing it is quite popular these days. Relevant to my current interests I guess.

There was a little fuss here in the UK over DS flashcarts and I remember reading about a study on them. A quick search revealed this mention. Nintendo took the issue to the British courts where the judge ruled that it was illegal to sell them in the UK.

Heck, if I recall correctly, there have been some people that did the service of burning DVDs with emulators and as many games as possible on them for you

I know people who bought DS flashcarts of the net that came full of games.

[PsyberianHusky]

The moral implications of piracy are a can of worms.
It is also super irresponsible for these companies to make claims without disclosing any hard evidence.
GRUMBLE GRUMBLE

[Haschel]

$41 billion seems like a bloated figure and I generally take information like that with a grain of salt. That said, I'll admit to having a different perspective on handheld piracy compared to PC piracy. The difference to me is the way it's packaged and the way I see handheld gaming as a much more casual and less primary source of entertainment compared to PC gaming, and thus I personally find it harder to justify investing similar amounts of money into it. It's not to say that I don't want to spend money on handheld gaming, I just find it much much harder to resist the idea of free games that I'd like to play while conserving my cash for the more anticipated console and PC games.

There are so many developers I'd love to support yet I only have so much money. I haven't pirated a game myself in several years, but I'll soon be having a handheld and I can't say for certain how well I'll resist the temptation. It's kind of a grey area for me- I'll feel bad if I do it, but it's difficult to say whether I would have spent money on certain games in the first place. It's much easier to invest in games that you already know are worth it though.

[Reiina]

I think some drm is directly encouraging piracy, like the drm that require you to be constantly connected to internet to play a single player game.

It's a bit like those adds(didn't buy a dvd recently so I don't know if that's still there) on dvds with "Would you steal a handbag", unskippable anti piracy adds. Those drove me insane. It was like I was being punished for being a dvd instead of pirating it >.<.

On a side note: Stephen Fry's opinion on the subject which pretty much sums up what I think too. He talks about music but I think it's pretty much the same for games.

[Zangi]

Piracy wouldn't happen so much if the software was easily available for sale to everyone outside the target audience...
Congratulations, you have +Sales and -Pirates! Oh yea, never going to happen.  Costs too much to make it available like that and they can use it as a bloated excuse.

Do they even account for people buying legit and pirating cause of the DRM?  Heck, ton of people just skip over the first part of the equation since... why even bother?

[Pandarsenic]

I'm kind of wishing there was more data on piracy on platforms outside of PC stuff. PC game piracy has been discussed to death, and I don't think anything will be resolved until someone decides to make serious, broad, and in-depth research into the subject. I never see discussion on handheld piracy though despite knowing it is quite popular these days. Relevant to my current interests I guess.

No company would fund it because they know it wouldn't support their position.

I can't think of a single game I've pirated that I would have bought if I couldn't have pirated it. If it's good enough to buy, I'll buy it. Hell, some games I've bought twice (KotOR, X-COM, Deus Ex). And some (Just Cause 2, Jade Empire, etc.) I pirate, play, go "Ehhhh," seed to 1.5, and delete forever.

Regarding the handheld example: I have a pirated PSP I bought off a friend of a friend, but I would never have bought a PSP or any games for it without that. I've only played pirated games, but when Capcom FUCKING RELEASES MHF3 I'll have my first legitimate PSP game purchase. Until then, it languishes in its case. I haven't played a game on it since MGS:Peace Walker, I think.

I don't know about other people, but I do game and music pirating basically the same - if I do like something, but not enough to spend money on it instead of on other things (e.g. better games/music, Steam sales, food, rent) I supplement my entertainment sources with piracy. If I have an adequate abundance of money and no great surplus of new things to spend it on, I occasionally (these circumstances are rare, after all) legitimately purchase things I've had pirated to support the creators.