Why I Pirate Games: A call to Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony
The fundamentals of capitalism are relatively easy to grasp. Business compete to offer a quality product at a price near or below their competitors. Those companies that can offer a quality product at a cheaper price thrive. This is how Big Box store have proliferated. What these companies do not understand, or maybe they forget, is that the law applies to consumers. As consumers we want the best products at the cheapest price we can find them. And while there ARE regulations against consumers (no shoplifting or downloading illegal or pirated things), these regulations are hard to enforce.
Unless you are Apple.
I hate iPods and I hate iTunes. However, one thing that Apple has realized that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have yet to realize is that if you change with the trends of the consumers rather than the trends of the business, you can profit. Apple realized that there are a few factors into why people pirate music. One reason is that it is cheap (or free). Secondly, it is convenient. Finally, it gives consumers more control over what they purchase. Apple realized that people pirated because consumers were tired of spending $17 on a CD for a few good songs. Furthermore, the consumers didn't have a way to listen before they bought.
Why hasn't the game industry realized this? They slowly have, yet Nintendo's new DSi doesn't account for any of the consumer trends. Why, for instance, didn't Nintendo include 8 GB of flash space in their units? If Nintendo (and Sony) were smart, they would control and distribute the ROMS to be used on SD cards.
Users download roms for the same reasons that people download music: it's cheap (free!), convenient (I don't need to sell my soul to Walmart), and we have control (We can demo a game, and we can put what we want on the SD cards). Right now, there are about 6 DS games that I enjoy playing regularly. Who likes lugging around 6 DS games? Who likes lugging around more than 3??? Who even likes turning off . . . ejecting . . . injecting . . . turning on. This might sound like laziness, but it isn't, it is convenient.
Furthermore, many find $30 per cart a little steep, especially for something that might suck or be short. 3rd parties AND Nintendo would benefit from selling roms at half that price (hell, they could afford to sell it even cheaper if they weren't greedy like the RIAA and Apple). If I could buy ROMS at $10-15 and get them directly from Nintendo or the DEV, so long as I had rights to that ROM, I'd would, and so would many.
The fundamentals of capitalism are relatively easy to grasp. Business compete to offer a quality product at a price near or below their competitors. Those companies that can offer a quality product at a cheaper price thrive. This is how Big Box store have proliferated. What these companies do not understand, or maybe they forget, is that the law applies to consumers. As consumers we want the best products at the cheapest price we can find them. And while there ARE regulations against consumers (no shoplifting or downloading illegal or pirated things), these regulations are hard to enforce.
Unless you are Apple.
I hate iPods and I hate iTunes. However, one thing that Apple has realized that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have yet to realize is that if you change with the trends of the consumers rather than the trends of the business, you can profit. Apple realized that there are a few factors into why people pirate music. One reason is that it is cheap (or free). Secondly, it is convenient. Finally, it gives consumers more control over what they purchase. Apple realized that people pirated because consumers were tired of spending $17 on a CD for a few good songs. Furthermore, the consumers didn't have a way to listen before they bought.
Why hasn't the game industry realized this? They slowly have, yet Nintendo's new DSi doesn't account for any of the consumer trends. Why, for instance, didn't Nintendo include 8 GB of flash space in their units? If Nintendo (and Sony) were smart, they would control and distribute the ROMS to be used on SD cards.
Users download roms for the same reasons that people download music: it's cheap (free!), convenient (I don't need to sell my soul to Walmart), and we have control (We can demo a game, and we can put what we want on the SD cards). Right now, there are about 6 DS games that I enjoy playing regularly. Who likes lugging around 6 DS games? Who likes lugging around more than 3??? Who even likes turning off . . . ejecting . . . injecting . . . turning on. This might sound like laziness, but it isn't, it is convenient.
Furthermore, many find $30 per cart a little steep, especially for something that might suck or be short. 3rd parties AND Nintendo would benefit from selling roms at half that price (hell, they could afford to sell it even cheaper if they weren't greedy like the RIAA and Apple). If I could buy ROMS at $10-15 and get them directly from Nintendo or the DEV, so long as I had rights to that ROM, I'd would, and so would many.
