Do you think piracy hurts the gaming industry?

[CJL18]

I think it does i admit i wouldnt of even bought a wii, or psp if i couldnt play backups. the only system i would of bought regardless if i couldnt mod it was the 360. the only reason i dont have a ps3 is beucase you cant hack it, and 60dollars for a game is WAY to much. Some games are very worth it, but games like Naughty bear, Raven Squad, domination, i mean just terrible terrible games. Gotta ask yourself no wonder people pirate games. What do you think?

 

[Antoni-YO!]

I agrizzel. Should have added a pole to this.

VIDEO GAMES FTW...

 

[Urza]

Of course it does.

What kind of stupid question is that.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

games like Naughty bear, Raven Squad, domination, i mean just terrible terrible games. Gotta ask yourself no wonder people pirate games. What do you think?

It is a destructive circle. As long as people don't pay for games, game developers will not put large amounts of money into making great games.

Piracy = cheaper games


Back in the days before piracy became mainstream, there were lots of great games... these days, there seem to be less and less...

 

[Urza]

games like Naughty bear, Raven Squad, domination, i mean just terrible terrible games. Gotta ask yourself no wonder people pirate games. What do you think?

It is a destructive circle. As long as people don't pay for games, game developers will not put large amounts of money into making great games.

Piracy = cheaper games


Back in the days before piracy became mainstream, there were lots of great games... these days, there seem to be less and less...

That's probably due to the opposite cause.

Now, there are far more video gamers and its an exponentially larger industry. As such, even crappy games are bound to make a profit. You don't need to stand out with a blockbuster hit anymore.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Far more video gamers, but far more pirates... You'd have to look at sales figures to see if more or less games are sold these days...

 

[Urza]

Far more video gamers, but far more pirates... You'd have to look at sales figures to see if more or less games are sold these days...

The amount of pirates does not increase linear to the sale rates.

Not even close.

 

[IchigoK2031]

My uncle said it best: Piracy = more system sales, therefore Piracy is needed

 

[Zarcon]

Back in the days before piracy became mainstream, there were lots of great games... these days, there seem to be less and less...

I don't know about that. It's going to be a lot easier for us to remember the good games "back then" than the bad ones.
I'm sure if you go and look there will be a mountain of crappy games too.
It's just that now the industry is so large combined with mainstream scene lists for game dumps makes all the bad games easier to spot.
There are a lot of great games now too, people are either too jaded or too stuck in the old days to notice is all.

 

[Hakoda]

Not at all since some people actually buy the games they pirate and only pirated it to "demo" the game.

 

[AceOfAces]

My uncle said it best: Piracy = more system sales, therefore Piracy is needed

Your uncle is a wise man.

 

[murkurie]

not really, usually if you pirate something, it's because you never intended to buy it, thus no sale lost. So no it does not hurt it.

 

[spinal_cord]

Only a little and not for the reasons that the big companies say it does. The more a system is pirated, the more game reviews it has (because more games are actually getting played on that system). that stands to reason, the more games you play, the more games you will tell people about. The more games you tell people about, the more bad reviews you will give. The more bad reviews you give, the less likely it is that people will BUY that game.
A far worse problem for the games industry (and I do mean FAR WORSE) is used game sales. Think about it, if you go to your local specialist games store, you will see loads of used games for sale only slightly cheaper than the new ones. Many people will choose the used games because they are cheaper. This is where the companies GENUINELY LOOSE PROFIT.
Pirates are not prepared to spend money, therefore are not potential customers. However, people guying used games ARE prepared to spend money, but choose the cheaper option, which gives profit to someone other than the publisher, THAT counts as a lost sale.
The publishers need to focus their efforts on stopping used game sales rather than stopping piracy because as I stated, used sales damage them in a far worse way that piracy ever could.

 

[Njrg]

You don't sell 9 million+ copies of Dragon Quest IX in Japan only...
20+ Million units of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
and almost 10 million copies of Gold/Silver, a remake mind you... And then question if Piracy is killing industry sales...

Piracy isn't hurting the industry... its recession if your blame should be pointed at anything. If people want to buy a game, they will, just like how I bought Future Future Future Perfect just because I wanted to.

 

[ojsinnerz.]

I think it does i admit i wouldnt of even bought a wii, or psp if i couldnt play backups. the only system i would of bought regardless if i couldnt mod it was the 360. the only reason i dont have a ps3 is beucase you cant hack it, and 60dollars for a game is WAY to much. Some games are very worth it, but games like Naughty bear, Raven Squad, domination, i mean just terrible terrible games. Gotta ask yourself no wonder people pirate games. What do you think?
Oh, please. You think YOU have it bad? Us Canadians pay nearly 80 dollars for new games (69.99 + 12% tax). I buy it like this pretty often.

Over in Europe, you pay nearly 100 USD in some countries, and same goes for Australia, JUST TO BUY ONE SINGLE FUCKING GAME. You should be fucking GLAD that the price of games aren't as bad as the other countries.

QUOTE(IchigoK2031 @ Jun 30 2010, 09:26 PM) My uncle said it best: Piracy = more system sales, therefore Piracy is needed

Too bad software companies and third party companies would be fucked.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Far more video gamers, but far more pirates... You'd have to look at sales figures to see if more or less games are sold these days...

The amount of pirates does not increase linear to the sale rates.

Not even close.

Did I say this?

The amount of pirates increases according to the ease of pirating (broadband being a major factor).

To say that there are higher video game sales now because there are more gamers ignores one major factor: not all gamers buy games. The increase in gamers may be due to the increased accessibility of roms & isos.

DVD sales have slumped.
CD sales have slumped.
It's not such a jump in logic to imagine that game sales have also slumped.

 

[murkurie]

Far more video gamers, but far more pirates... You'd have to look at sales figures to see if more or less games are sold these days...

The amount of pirates does not increase linear to the sale rates.

Not even close.

Did I say this?

The amount of pirates increases according to the ease of pirating (broadband being a major factor).

To say that there are higher video game sales now because there are more gamers ignores one major factor: not all gamers buy games. The increase in gamers may be due to the increased accessibility of roms & isos.

DVD sales have slumped.
CD sales have slumped.
It's not such a jump in logic to imagine that game sales have also slumped.

CD sales have only dropped because of digital downloads for cheap prices and the ability to just buy 1 song

 

[Talaria]

Far more video gamers, but far more pirates... You'd have to look at sales figures to see if more or less games are sold these days...

The amount of pirates does not increase linear to the sale rates.

Not even close.

*snip*
DVD sales have slumped.
CD sales have slumped.
*snip*

Increase in Blu-Ray sales and Blu-Ray players
Internet music sales have increased dramatically
Increase in purchased Video downloads

 

[Urza]

To say that there are higher video game sales now because there are more gamers ignores one major factor: not all gamers buy games. The increase in gamers may be due to the increased accessibility of roms & isos.

Except the number of gamers who don't buy games is an incredibly small minority.

I'd go as far to say that the majority of even those who frequent this site buy at least a few games a year across the various platforms.

 

[luckwii]

I don't think this question can be answered. How can you prove whether someone would have bought an individual game or not if it wasn't for piracy. Everyone is different, and have different reasons for doing things. Not to mention people's moods, bank accounts, or reason for doing things change throughout the day. So overall, to try and recreate the exact moment that either they hit the download link or went to the local Gamestop and busted out the wallet in a spur of the moment purchase, is hard to compare.