Is Piracy a Big Factor in Todays Consoles

[N1ghtshade]

Depends on the particular game and particular console. I'd say overall, very negligable. But on the psp side, iso and video loading probably hurts. Homebrew on the other hand, cancels all that out major league.


Consider this...people often pirate games they don't think are worth the money e.g they wouldn't have bought it anyway.

[Aryn]

I do not believe piracy is affecting most consoles too much. However, policies toward any console/portable system and public relations may play a larger role in the success of a console system and how many people will pirate games for it. I hope I do not sound too biased but I traded in my PSP for a Nintendo DS because I am under the impression that Nintendo's policies regarding the DS are far more friendly and courteous towards consumers than SONY's policies. Of course, the fact that the PSP's games are mostly the same old stuff people have played before and the excessive load times did not help either.

[Junixx]

Of course, the fact that the PSP's games are mostly the same old stuff people have played before and the excessive load times did not help either.

i agree with you

and i think that piracy is a factor, but not that great of a big one, seeing as only a small percentage of the general public know about and how to pirate games, i can still amaze people with moonshell, beup (MSN) and NesDS

[DPyro]

IMO piracy may even help promote games. Say theres a game that you'd like to try but isnt released in your country (say Brave Story ). If people try it out and like it, they may actually import it. I'd like to think of piracy as more of a rental - only free. Besides that, if they pirate it, it normally means they werent intending on buying it in the first place (unless of course they try it an actually like it, maybe they'll buy it). Same thing can be viewed about music piracy. More people are downloading illegally, yet sales have increased!

Well, thats my rant

[lucidtraveller]

back in the day i had the cd drive for the n64, i had hundreds of the hk silver disks for the psone....and yet, when i game came out that i was interested in, i went out and usually prepaid for it, the cheap pirated stuff was to entertain me between the games i wanted, i honestly have no real desire to runs iso's on the psp though, for me, a portable is for quick entertainment rather than sitting down with for hours playing a new game that would be better suited on a tv screen.

as far as hurting the industry, i do not think it does, yes the mass produced disks from hong kong hurt sales, but chances are that the person buying 3 dollar pirated games would NOT have gone out and bought new games anyways.

when the game is good, people will buy it, or wait and buy a used copy like i do although i still do not own a single psp game becuse it is for my emulators

piracy on computer software does do more harm as far as sales goes i think though since alot of software is insanely priced, possibly to make up for the people pirating it, but i seriously doubt that videogame industry actually takes any sort of loss because those that copy would not buy the gmes new to begin with.

done rambling.

[Dweezledap]

I've been buying and playing games since back in the Atari days. I remember saving $50 from various jobs to buy "Raiders of the Lost Ark" only to be disappointed at the fact the game was virtually impossible to finish.
I have 10 children and own just about every console ever made. I have probably spent in excess of $20,000 dollars in the past 25 years on consoles and games (Carts, UMDs, CDs/DVDs, ect).
Do I think it is alright to use pirated games?
The short answer is yes.
I use this as a try before you buy philosophy. If I find myself or one of my children playing the game for more than a week I will go out and buy it.
In short I do not believe piracy hurts companies as much as they claim.
If they release creative and fun games I believe most will pay for it. If the game is garbage they should not blame poor sales on piracy.

[acn010]

IMO piracy may even help promote games. Say theres a game that you'd like to try but isnt released in your country (say Brave Story ). If people try it out and like it, they may actually import it. I'd like to think of piracy as more of a rental - only free. Besides that, if they pirate it, it normally means they werent intending on buying it in the first place (unless of course they try it an actually like it, maybe they'll buy it). Same thing can be viewed about music piracy. More people are downloading illegally, yet sales have increased!

Well, thats my rant

lol, but dude, it is still a piracy with it, no matter what.
i wish it will stop, but its a job for people that had been maintaining their family and theirselfs,

[DPyro]

It wasnt a question of moral, it was a question of if piracy is hurting game companies....My answer was no.

[acn010]

lol
ok dude,
who want to pirate hunt!!

[arashi]

There are two types of game piracy, the ad-hoc home pirate who downloads iso's, and the organised mass duplication pirates who can run off possibly millions of copies for cheap sales, mostly in Asian countries where this is endemic. [...]

As for mass-duplication commercial piracy, the industry has a more real concern here, as the consumer can engage in piracy with absolutely no additional technical knowledge, and may not even know what they are buying is pirated. [...]

I think this is an excellent point. Pirating to test a game or music or movie etc, is one of those moral grey areas. Pirating to make money and deceive others is bad. Trying to enforce IP laws on other countries is the real challenge for companies, but would affect their profit margins the most.