Piracy has its benefits, says Angry Birds studio

[DS1]

Rovio can "afford" to have their game pirated.

Pretty much the point I was going to make before I even read the post. Plus it's almost like they are arguing piracy is good because it changed the gaming industry model to something that was easily exploitable. Instead of pumping out a masterpiece for sales, you make a little something-something (tower defense game, trajectory game, etc.) that you can expand with 'character goods'. Japanese devs could benefit from this model world-wide, but they are so stuck on their bottomless-wallet local otaku fans that everyone else gets left in the dust (or pays $100+ for crap that was priced for a completely different economy, on top of shipping costs).

RE: Music Industry - I think the best model is Pandora, followed by Spotify. I have bought more albums since listening to them for free via Spotify than I have.... EVER. I am more likely to want to purchase a full album after having listened to it 20 times than I am after hearing a few crappy singles on the radio. Sorry to those who only like bands that can only produce two or three good songs at a time.

 

[Foxi4]

Rovio can "afford" to have their game pirated.

Pretty much the point I was going to make before I even read the post. Plus it's almost like they are arguing piracy is good because it changed the gaming industry model to something that was easily exploitable. Instead of pumping out a masterpiece for sales, you make a little something-something (tower defense game, trajectory game, etc.) that you can expand with 'character goods'. Japanese devs could benefit from this model world-wide, but they are so stuck on their bottomless-wallet local otaku fans that everyone else gets left in the dust (or pays $100+ for crap that was priced for a completely different economy, on top of shipping costs).

RE: Music Industry - I think the best model is Pandora, followed by Spotify. I have bought more albums since listening to them for free via Spotify than I have.... EVER. I am more likely to want to purchase a full album after having listened to it 20 times than I am after hearing a few crappy singles on the radio. Sorry to those who only like bands that can only produce two or three good songs at a time.

The fun part about the Music Industry is that it would stay fairly afloat even if CD's DIDN'T sell well at all - artists draw alot of benefits from other sectors of the industry (movies, games, radio, TV) for "borrowing" given songs for broadcasting etc. and earn loads upon loads of money which the gaming industry does not and will not recieve. That, combined with ticket fares for concerts makes a hefty profit *already*. If anything, "piracy of music" boosts a given band's popularity, making concert tickets sell like freshly-made ambrosia. Comparing the two is completely moot.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

As a side note, I hate Angry Birds. Such a stupid game. I'm tired of going to the Android Market and seeing Angry Birds, Angry Birds Xmas, Angry Birds Rio and the other one always in the top 10 downloads.

 

[prowler]

take cave story for example, the game started as a free game which helped advertise the game, now you can get it with improved sprites/graphics and added content for the pc and some consoles...

Except Pixel never had the idea to sell Cave Story in the first place until Nicalis came along.

 

[shakirmoledina]

its not that good but if u fight it, the consequences are terrible esp if anon or lulz finds out

 

[Ben_j]

There's an important detail about Angry Birds though. It's a casual game, that costs only a couple of dollars/euros/whatever money you pay in, it's dematerialised, and anybody with a smartphone is 20 seconds away from getting it.
Piracy of Nintendo DS games, for example, is much more harmful. A "classic" (non-DSi-ware) Nintendo DS game costs much more, and has a much smaller target than a game like Angry Birds. If you have a flashcard, it's much easier to download the rom, put it on your SD, than going to a shop, buying it online and wait for it to arrive, you can't try before you buy, etc...

 

[nando]

That sounds great for gamers. Doesn't really work out for music.

In the future hopefully things like Bandcamp will take hold and offer a more direct way to pay musicians.

i simply make sure i see the bands i like live whenever i can, that's the best way to pay the artist directly. i do avoid ticketmaster fees at all costs, those guys are the real pirates, high jacking events and inflating ticket prices.

 

[DS1]

The fun part about the Music Industry is that it would stay fairly afloat even if CD's DIDN'T sell well at all - artists draw alot of benefits from other sectors of the industry (movies, games, radio, TV) for "borrowing" given songs for broadcasting etc. and earn loads upon loads of money which the gaming industry does not and will not recieve. That, combined with ticket fares for concerts makes a hefty profit *already*. If anything, "piracy of music" boosts a given band's popularity, making concert tickets sell like freshly-made ambrosia. Comparing the two is completely moot.

Exactly, a lot of groups I know are like, "We don't care if you pirate the album, just come to the shows." I think I've only heard one group say, "I see all these people at shows, and I know they're not buying the album"

 

[nando]

well, it's the record companies that want you to buy the albums, of which the artist makes very little out off anyway so of course the artist would rather have you go see the show.

 

[YayMii]

Well, Angry Birds is completely free on some platforms, so they're not really losing money if someone pirates their game.

 

[Zetta_x]

I think the moral of the story is that piracy is free advertising and increases fan base.

It's the same old shit with piracy, many people throw good arguments for piracy and many people throw good arguments against piracy. However, all of you fail to look at the big picture. You may try and argue that pokemon games sell a lot less because of piracy, however, you have no evidence to support and answer the question:

"How much less popular pokemon would be without piracy"

You can't reverse time 20-30 years and take back all piracy. So all of your arguments trying to compare what piracy has done to the gaming industry... making it for better or worse... is just speculation that's flawed in so many ways.

The basic fact is, piracy is free advertising and in the end it increases their fanbase which helps their business grow. A game that has been pirated by 10,000,000 people will grow so much advertising for that company, it would be improbable for that company to go out of business, the fans wouldn't allow it no matter how much revenue they lose from piracy.

 

[redact]

originally pirated angry birds, later bought it and even bought some dlc for it too

 

[Foxi4]

originally pirated angry birds, later bought it and even bought some dlc for it too

Did you do the same for all the games you pirated for the DS/Wii/Whatever system you own, which, unlike Angry Birds, actually cost $30+? Doubt it.

When a game costs as much as a sandwich, I can see how people "buy'em" just "because". When they have to actually empty their wallets though, the situation is dramatically different.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I think the moral of the story is that piracy is free advertising and increases fan base.

It's the same old shit with piracy, many people throw good arguments for piracy and many people throw good arguments against piracy. However, all of you fail to look at the big picture. You may try and argue that pokemon games sell a lot less because of piracy, however, you have no evidence to support and answer the question:

You're kinda the playing "Well you can't disprove it" card. There's no statistics that say piracy increases sales or helps advertising.

Personally, I've pirated games that I probably would've paid money for, but the fact that I can pirate it made all the difference. Pretty sure the only game I've pirated and bought was Goldeneye 007 (for the Wii), and I only bought it because it was a good game and it was on sale for $10.

Piracy certainly hurts the gaming industry more than helps. Demos and trials are "free advertising". Saying piracy is advertising is like showing an entire movie as its trailer and then asking people to see it in theaters. Excluding the "big screen" experience, what's the point?

 

[Foxi4]

I think the moral of the story is that piracy is free advertising and increases fan base.

It's the same old shit with piracy, many people throw good arguments for piracy and many people throw good arguments against piracy. However, all of you fail to look at the big picture. You may try and argue that pokemon games sell a lot less because of piracy, however, you have no evidence to support and answer the question:

You're kinda the playing "Well you can't disprove it" card. There's no statistics that say piracy increases sales or helps advertising.

Personally, I've pirated games that I probably would've paid money for, but the fact that I can pirate it made all the difference. Pretty sure the only game I've pirated and bought was Goldeneye 007 (for the Wii), and I only bought it because it was a good game and it was on sale for $10.

Piracy certainly hurts the gaming industry more than helps. Demos and trials are "free advertising". Saying piracy is advertising is like showing an entire movie as its trailer and then asking people to see it in theaters. Excluding the "big screen" experience, what's the point?

Basically "yes". After pirating and playing through a game, the only reason to actually buy it is its collector's value or in the case of not fully pirated consoles, "online gaming". In those cases, people usually grab "popular franchises" and usually get them "used", thus the only one benefitting from the sale is the game store. This spells absolute DOOM for smaller developers which do not always recieve recognition.

I'll bring back the Cing argument again - Cing games were bloody awesome. Their studio is gone now. Coincidence? I don't think so.

 

[machomuu]

I think the moral of the story is that piracy is free advertising and increases fan base.

It's the same old shit with piracy, many people throw good arguments for piracy and many people throw good arguments against piracy. However, all of you fail to look at the big picture. You may try and argue that pokemon games sell a lot less because of piracy, however, you have no evidence to support and answer the question:

You're kinda the playing "Well you can't disprove it" card. There's no statistics that say piracy increases sales or helps advertising.

Personally, I've pirated games that I probably would've paid money for, but the fact that I can pirate it made all the difference. Pretty sure the only game I've pirated and bought was Goldeneye 007 (for the Wii), and I only bought it because it was a good game and it was on sale for $10.

Piracy certainly hurts the gaming industry more than helps. Demos and trials are "free advertising". Saying piracy is advertising is like showing an entire movie as its trailer and then asking people to see it in theaters. Excluding the "big screen" experience, what's the point?

Basically "yes". After pirating and playing through a game, the only reason to actually buy it is its collector's value or in the case of not fully pirated consoles, "online gaming". In those cases, people usually grab "popular franchises" and usually get them "used", thus the only one benefitting from the sale is the game store. This spells absolute DOOM for smaller developers which do not always recieve recognition.

I'll bring back the Cing argument again - Cing games were bloody awesome. Their studio is gone now. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Well they didn't have the best sales in recent years anyway, and while they may have been "bloody awesome", but even if people didn't pirates didn't pirate their games, I don't know if that would've changed things.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Well they didn't have the best sales in recent years anyway, and while they may have been "bloody awesome", but even if people didn't pirates didn't pirate their games, I don't know if that would've changed things.

Maybe sales were bad because of piracy?

I honestly think the whole "people lose no money from piracy since they'd never buy it in the first place" is gigantic bullshit. People will easily pirate a game with no intention of buying it and then find the game is awesome. But why buy it now when they already played it? Or people may want to buy a game but if they have easy access to a pirated version of it, why not save yourself $60 and pirate it? As someone whose chosen piracy over purchase multiple times, I can safely say the argument that piracy doesn't affect sales is jack shit.

Alan Wake sold relatively poorly but was pirated heavily. People liked the game and it got great reviews. While it's no "Halo" or "Gears of War" brand, it was still obviously popular enough to get a lot of piracy action. Plus as a single player game you have nothing to lose over a legit version.

 

[Foxi4]

Well they didn't have the best sales in recent years anyway, and while they may have been "bloody awesome", but even if people didn't pirates didn't pirate their games, I don't know if that would've changed things.

They released games specifically for the DS and the Wii, I honestly believe that piracy had a big influence on their financial situation.

 

[machomuu]

Well they didn't have the best sales in recent years anyway, and while they may have been "bloody awesome", but even if people didn't pirates didn't pirate their games, I don't know if that would've changed things.

Maybe sales were bad because of piracy?

I honestly think the whole "people lose no money from piracy since they'd never buy it in the first place" is gigantic bullshit. People will easily pirate a game with no intention of buying it and then find the game is awesome. But why buy it now when they already played it? Or people may want to buy a game but if they have easy access to a pirated version of it, why not save yourself $60 and pirate it? As someone whose chosen piracy over purchase multiple times, I can safely say the argument that piracy doesn't affect sales is jack shit.

Alan Wake sold relatively poorly but was pirated heavily. People liked the game and it got great reviews. While it's no "Halo" or "Gears of War" brand, it was still obviously popular enough to get a lot of piracy action. Plus as a single player game you have nothing to lose over a legit version.

I never said it didn't, and I'm not lauding such an argument either, but what I said was situational. Honestly I do believe piracy affects sales, and you can see in many of my past posts that I believe that.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I never said it didn't, and I'm not lauding such an argument either, but what I said was situational. Honestly I do believe piracy affects sales, and you can see in many of my past posts that I believe that.

Yeah I know, I was honestly just going off on a tangent/rant, not really involving you. No offense