If piracy disappeared

[Zetta_x]

If piracy disappeared, do you think movies/games/others would start selling more?
What would happen to gaming websites, will they shrink in size or become less used?
Would the prices of games go up given higher demand or no longer needing to compete with piracy?

Post what you think would happen and give reasons why you think so. Be creative, non-original stuff is rather boring.

This is a hypothetical situation, do not post: "It will never happen so blah blah blah"

 

[Thesolcity]

An absence of DRM maybe? But IP rights are still in effect even without piracy so anti-piracy would still exist in a form. So I guess businesses would find a way to protect against that which didn't exist. Of course I'm only being cynical, maybe quality content would be delivered to the consumer for once with no DRM restrictions.

 

[thegame07]

I wouldn't pay £15-£20 for a blu-ray film ever! They should be £6 max imo ... 99% of them you buy you will only watch once.

It would suck when it came down to music. I'm a big music fan but having to buy every single song you listen to would be insane and very pricey. I think not being able to download music would effect people the most out of anything else. Everyone does it even people who don't know much about computers etc.

I've been converted to pc gaming now and I buy all my pc games 100% of the time, I've bought over 700 in the last year etc (most on sale and in steam packs. Far to much I know but hey gaming is my hobby. Also isn't as expensive as it sounds with the insane deals you get on pc games. I don't think piracy being stopped would effect me gaming wise anymore unless it came down to handheld games or playing a game I can't get my hands on/that's not released in europe. I nearly pirated Batman Arkham city due to the shitty drm they added into the game but ended up just forgetting the game completely, Shame I was going to pay full price for it until I seen the activation limit crap.
.

 

[Zetta_x]

Totally agree... I have watched maybe 1 or 2 DVD's more than once out of the 50 I own.

No DRM sounds nice

 

[Hells Malice]

If there was absolutely no piracy, Ubisoft could get their self respect back by not ruining games with shit DRM that destroys the games for everyone except pirates.
S'bout it though.

I think game sales WOULD rise, but not by a huge margin. Most pirates pirate because they don't want to spend money on the game to begin with. I pirate all the time, but I still buy games I find to be worthwhile.
Hell sales might even stay the same, since piracy does actually promote sales sometimes. I was skeptical of Valkyria Chronicles at first, but of course I finally pirated it and ended up loving every single second of it. I bought a brand new sealed copy as soon as I could to support the game (and left the game unopened, I might add. it's shiny). 999, Corpse Party, Fate/Extra...the list goes on. I pirated a ton of games, only to buy them afterwards. Demos just don't cut it.

The only thing I think would happen, aside from no DRM, is less pointless multiplayer. Games seem to try tacking on multiplayer in an attempt to slow down piracy. It doesn't work, mind you...but they try. Though hell, it is fun sometimes. Bioshock 2 multiplayer was actually incredibly fun...mostly because I kicked serious ass at it.

 

[VVoltz]

Good question, I would think sales would go up. I mean just think about the games that you currently didn't pay for, I'm guessing would would like to play at least one of those, right?
I would.
However, I would also think market prices would drop, App store style, since more consumers will be buying those profit margins would remain high.
Quality would also drop, as less budget would be require to make those margins go up, in the end I think high quality, long developed games, like Skyrim would die or become extremely expensive so only SOME people would be able to buy those.

 

[jurassicplayer]

End of the world as we know it. Everyone's head would asplode. On the other hand, the largest haven for piracy would be removed...stupid school, copying valuable information and redistributing it for the low cost of succumbing to society. At least flashcarts are a one-time fee.

 

[omgpwn666]

More suicides because people who are broke are very depressed since they have nothing to do. Games/movies/music sales would go up, and maybe the economy in America would begin to fix.

 

[Hop2089]

Wouldn't affect me in the games department but music is another story, because Japanese music like with games and anime are expensive and unlike the other two I have less incentive to buy CDs unless it's from artists I really like overall. I import 1-3 anime each season if I like series in that season enough, many Japanese games each year, but only 1-2 CDs each year if even that, I did get 4 character CDs last year though.

 

[PolloDiablo]

I would be abble to play just 2 or 3 games per year

 

[KingVamp]

After more people are in jail (while some people that should be jail are free mind you) eating up our tax dollars, stuff would probably relatively stay the same for the most part with money since people don't magically get jobs or money for taking it off the net. Things well will start to get boring much faster. You would have to pay for any content or information you use.Want to make a meme? You have to pay for it first.

Internet would possibly just be terrible...

 

[VVoltz]

I guess if piracy would not exist we would have to create a new taboo.

 

[awssk8er]

Personal:

I wouldn't really be effected because I only play my 3DS now. My Wii wouldn't have any games, but I really only play Zelda on it now.

I would have a ton more room on my hard drives.. that's for sure.

Global:

Sales would go up, and people would be limited to less games a year. I feel that developers would try much harder on games because in a world with no piracy, the better the game, the more copies sold.

With piracy, obviously the same thing is true, but also more copies downloaded.

 

[stinkoman]

I'd assume a lot of services like spotify or netflix would pop up, and the price of higher quality media would drop by a bit to cope with the lower prices. Anime would be significantly less variant, but probably more abundant on english speaking TV because there are things weeaboos haven't seen online now. With the monthly fee music streaming, music would probably get cheaper to distribute on smaller platforms, and as a consequence smaller artists and shitty bands would be easier to find. Popular music would sound pretty indistinguishable due to the inability to get unpopular or new genres into the limelight with the abundance of artists out there. This'd cause large scale recording companies to produce masses of shit that sounds the same and sells insanely well, only changing when a new band somehow manages to spread virally around the interbutt and rise in popularity. Hardcore anime fans would be very uncommon due to the requisite of learning Japanese to actually understand what you're watching. Indie gaming would probably get significantly more popular because indie games tend to be free and people still want free shit.
That's what I think, anyway.

 

[nunavat2010]

Topic was motivated by mega* raid?

Personally, it would do lots of good. I would not hang around hacking forums that much. I don't buy music, 'cause I don't listen to anything other than car radio. Movies, no I would not buy will wait until netflix. Hopefully, they will start making better movies.

 

[DinohScene]

If I was desperate to pirate I'd go to the second hand video game store and ask a mate if I could borrow a few games.

Then rip them to whatever console I want and play the backups, returning the originals.

No loss for me.

 

[spotanjo3]

If piracy disappeared, do you think movies/games/others would start selling more?
What would happen to gaming websites, will they shrink in size or become less used?
Would the prices of games go up given higher demand or no longer needing to compete with piracy?

Post what you think would happen and give reasons why you think so. Be creative, non-original stuff is rather boring.

This is a hypothetical situation, do not post: "It will never happen so blah blah blah"

Yes but the piracy will never disappeared at all. I know that you said do not post but I am going to say it anyway. Never will as long as consoles, portables, and movies existence.

 

[wasim]

TBH i can't imagine a world with piracy.
No music, no full version softwares !
i'm just 15 and i don't wanna spend my money on these.

And i'll have to buy most of the things online, cuz nothing's available here. :\

 

[Youkai]

Well depends if that would ever happen i might really lend me every single game before i buy ... and would hardly ever buy any new music at all XD

I have like 500$ worth of Japanese CD's here but i would have never bought them if i could not have pirated them before to hear if they are really worth all this money and hell they are ^^

 

[rockstar99]

I would disappear aswell