Why do you buy games?

[Chary]

Because it's nice to keep the industry alive and support it so that more video games release in the future?

I like paying for the games that I care about, because not only do I want the self satisfaction of supporting a given company, I like having physical games displayed, or digital games all together in one place. Like the oft-quoted Steam motto, people will pay for convenience.

 

[WD_GASTER2]

^ what Chary said.

Also to add, not every developer is smoking money bags away in a high and mighty building. Some developers need the revenue to keep the lights on and feed themselves.

 

[DANTENDO]

Everyone should try and stop pirating thers no need for it anyway- most of you should hav part time jobs at least to afford any game plus if yr studying instead you shouldnt be playing much games

 

[godreborn]

pirating becomes more about collecting. if I pirate a game, there's little chance I'll play it, because there's no obligation to.

 

[DANTENDO]

pirating becomes more about collecting. if I pirate a game, there's little chance I'll play it, because there's no obligation to.

Yes and having to many games to chose from is bad for yr health as yr head could explode thinking what the fk do I play next

 

[godreborn]

Yes and having to many games to chose from is bad for yr health as yr head could explode thinking what the fk do I play next

that's how it is with my 93 switch games. the most recent game I've beaten is new luigi u on the switch.

 

[Hardline]

I buy games because I like to hold them in my hand and look at the cases, then it looks so nice in the game shelves

 

[DANTENDO]

I buy games because I like to hold them in my hand and look at the cases, then it looks so nice in the game shelves

Yes some people like ther House to look attractive so buy a good looking shelf

 

[Davey159]

I buy games so then I can play them... AMAZING

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Am I the only one who plays grand theft auto on my 3ds xl?

 

[Taleweaver]

It's a necrobump...but it's not like the question has lost any relevance, so I might as well answer the OP's question (even though it's been a few years)...

i was sitting near my friend as he saw my steam library. He asked me why do i buy games instead of pirating them, you still get the same product, right? I didn't even know how to answer this question.
Can someone tell me why do most people buy games instead of pirating them?

My two obvious answers are "convenience" and "maintaining the industry".

Convenience is, I've got to admit, my main reason. Yes, I've recently heard that there are apparently piracy sites out there that roll out the carpet for you and do things like auto-patching, fast downloads and no real harm. Perhaps I'm old, but whenever I scour into the "dark web", I run into sites that claim they host all myriads sorts of awesome games, but whenever I search for a download button it's buried under a dozen adds and then redirects you to the slowest australian server where you can download part 27 of 42 of a game...provided you waded through some 1337Sp3Ak to obtain the password that unlocks that 42-part .rar file. Oh, and btw: part 41 was only hosted on an Australian host that burned down, so perhaps you should try your luck at another game. But ey...at least now your virus scanner doesn't flag the entire thing as suspicious.
Oh, right...and the obvious: it's hardly ever the linux version that's getting hosted anywhere. Not that I don't see the reason why, but it's hard to claim that linux is superior if everyone's ignoring it because "everyone" uses windows.

Maintaining the industry is a tricky thing to say. Of course it boils down to "developers have to be paid", but it seems like everyone just assumes that just because one game raked in over a million sales, the entire industry is as well. That's...a pretty weird way to go about it. I mean...you never hear readers say things like: "hey, I hear Stephen King's so successful that he doesn't spend all his money. Therefore, it's perfectly okay to blatantly never buy books and instead print all my books from <insert book piracy site> ". Those AAA-titles have to make a lot of costs to even break even, and while I'm not much of a fan on how they recycle the same freaking game loops pretty much every game, I can't deny that most of these people actually put in a lot of work in their job, so not being able to break even is just a slap in the face for many of them.
But IMHO the situation is even worse for indie titles. I can easily name a dozen games that most of you have probably never heard of but that are absolute gems. Their overhead might be much less, but their exposure suffers for it (hint: they don't spend much on marketing). In terms of getting paid for their job, being an indie developer is almost by definition a thankless job (unless you can somehow create a hype around your game). The least I can do is get their games (which isn't priced as high either) so they get at least some bit of moral support.

 

[CORE]

Games need to be bought in most cases to be Pirated and on top of that I buy to support developers and Games I enjoy in general.

In particular buy off GOG.com they more than any deserve support.

 

[godreborn]

content must be decrypted with a legit license to make it free (psn content for example).

 

[Stwert]

Well, piracy may be rife - it always has been, ever since we traded cassettes in the playground - google them you young whippersnappers

But when push comes to shove, legality aside, if we don’t buy games the companies who make them don’t generate revenue. It’s a business, if they’re not making money, they’ll stop making games.

I know what you’re thinking, but enough people buy games for them to make massive profits. Yes they do and that’s my point, that’s why I buy games. If everyone decided, fuck it, let’s just pirate, as unlikely as that is, it would lead to the decline of the industry.

 

[DANTENDO]

And then you wil get those idiots saying don't care I've got enough games to last me a lifetime - don't think thers nothing more stupid than saying tht unless someone can think of something even more stupid tht someone would say

 

[Taleweaver]

And then you wil get those idiots saying don't care I've got enough games to last me a lifetime - don't think thers nothing more stupid than saying tht unless someone can think of something even more stupid tht someone would say

Hey! I am one of those idiots. I say that to me all the time. Usually it goes something like this:

Humble bundle: how about you spend any money you like for these games...say: just one buck? You'll get these games that you might like, and you're helping charity in the process.
Me: Nope. Not going to happen. I've got enough games to last me this lifetime and thanks to my karma boosting I'll be playing right until at least the next three lives.
Devil on my shoulder: that might be...but you don't have THAT particular game.
Me: that platformer that has great steam reviews from a totally anonymous source? That is apparently "the bees knees will hiphop for coins again 9/lol"? Surely I can live without it.
...
Me: I'LL TAKE IT!!!
Me: (but that 0.07 cent charity better fixes climate change )
<one year later>
Me: man, look at all these keys. I can't hope to ever play all of that. *donates about half of it on a giveaway*
Humble bundle: oh, haai! You wanna get some great bundle?

 

[Stwert]

And then you wil get those idiots saying don't care I've got enough games to last me a lifetime - don't think thers nothing more stupid than saying tht unless someone can think of something even more stupid tht someone would say

Well, if I started playing all of my games, from oldest to newest, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get to the end before I’m pushing up daisies. But then, I’m already getting old, so that’s hardly surprising

As for the more stupid statement, there’s bound to be someone who dusts off: piracy doesn’t hurt the games industry. Yes, it bloody does, I know that first hand. Yes, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry, but as has been said before by publishers, the reason there’s so many sequels and significantly less investment in new franchise ideas is that’s where the money is.

These are businesses, they have to satisfy their shareholders. So it stands to reason, the more money they make, the more possibility of investing in new ideas.
Take for example, just randomly, GTA5. There’s a game that when you lump the costs of developing, publishing and advertising cost in excess of $250,000,000. Whatever way you look at it, a quarter billion is a heck of a lot of money to make a game.

I’ll grant you, it’s made in excess of 20 times that in revenue since launch, but that’s how business works and that figure hasn’t included the ongoing costs of infrastructure and continued development. If they didn’t make large profits, they wouldn’t keep at it. Not to mention that if GTA5 cost 250 million to make. GTA6 will cost a heck of a lot more.

I’ll never tell people if they should or shouldn’t pirate, that’s up to you. If you want to take food from the mouths of developers children, hey that’s your choice

Ranting over


Nearly..... I will say, personally I don’t think piracy hurts the industry as much as they will claim it does though. Because the people who are pirating the games probably wouldn’t buy them in the first place.

 

[The Catboy]

I originally started pirating games because I grew up rather poor and I kept pirating games due to poverty. I buy games now because I have the money to do so and really didn't care to be a pirate in the first place.

 

[depaul]

Pirating games is no different from stealing money from someone.

why wouldn't we just steal anything from anyone? huh?

 

[Stwert]

I originally started pirating games because I grew up rather poor and I kept pirating games due to poverty. I buy games now because I have the money to do so and really didn't care to be a pirate in the first place.

Y’know, I have no problem with that. As I said, there’s always going to be a subset of people who pirate who would never ever buy the game anyway.

I know what it’s like to grow up in a poor family, though I wouldn’t dare say we were anything like some poor people in the world. But my folks didn’t have a lot of money to spend on frivolous items when I was a kid. I was a teenager before my parents had anything resembling “spare” money. And when I grew up I was fortunate enough to end up in a very good job.

So I’ll never deny, that when I was younger, my friends and I would pass around the odd pirate cassettes to one another for our Spectrum/CPC 464/Commodore And so on, and floppies for Amiga and Atari ST’s.

I did buy games when I saved up my pocket money, and I did amass a decent collection over the years.

I like to think I’ve made up for it since then, by spending a ridiculous amount of money on games, systems and accessories. I’ve still got all, god, 80 something computers and consoles I’ve owned growing up and they all still get used. I think not having a lot of money helps to make you appreciate what you have and to take care of it.

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Pirating games is no different from stealing money from someone.

why wouldn't we just steal anything from anyone? huh?

Sadly, there are poor unfortunate souls in this world who have little choice but to do just that. I don’t mean the arsehole yobs, but people who are struggling to survive sometimes have to make very difficult choices. Oddly enough though, when you look at the larger picture, people who are in real poverty - and I do mean REAL poverty are significantly less likely to steal than the bloody yobbos or junkies. They may be starving and have absolutely nothing, but they are still proud and honourable people.

Which is why I’m one of those people who others often roll their eyes at for some reason. I give what I can every single month to several charities, poverty, cancer, blindness, aids and so on. If I can help someone, even if it’s someone I meet in the street, I will. Even simple things like carrying shopping bags for some poor old soul who’s struggling, or giving them a lift home and just talking to some of them. It’s ridiculous how many old people in this country have literally no one to talk to day after day. A chat can make a huge difference to someone’s life, yet it’s so simple and costs nothing but time and surely we all have a little time.

I’m not churchy or anything, I don’t even have a religion. I just care, it’s the way I was raised, do unto others and all that........

.....Man, my morphine has definitely kicked in

 

[Uiaad]

@depaul remember piracy does not equal a lost sale - as @Stwert says there will always be a subset who won't pay for anything.

Right now I have to be very careful about what I buy. I don't have the luxury of going out and buying a game, getting it home and finding its a complete pile of trash and let's face facts how many demos do companies put out these days, especially AAA titles ? Not many. I use piracy as a means to an end, I'll see what games are worth my time actually pay for them when i can. I can't actually remember the last time i pirated a game and completed it, I usually get a couple of hours in and think meh that's enough and wont touch it again or i'll go out and buy it when i can.

Devs deserve to be paid for their efforts, just like writers, artists and musicians.