Is Piracy a Big Factor in Todays Consoles

[Mike83]

I would say the biggest reason for piracy is due to the prices of games. I have downloaded games in the past, and I imagine I will do so again, but, if i download a game I really enjoy, I normally go and and buy it from a shop.
I am also more likely to buy a game if it isn't highly priced, an example being Pro Evo 5. I have this game on the PC and on the Xbox. One is pirated, the other I paid for.
On the Xbox, the game should be between 29.99 and 38.99.
On the PC, the game cost me just 19.99 new, and is currently only £9.99 from play.com (and well worth buying)

I know a number of people who also download games, and are the same as me, they often pay money for there games when they are not highly priced.

[b8a]

First of all, does the fact that it probably doesn't make much of an impact it make it right in ANY way? Nope. Not at all.

Does it have a big impact? Financially speaking, no, I highly doubt it for the majority of situations in the western world. Despite what Oninotsume wrote, the anecdotal evidence that I've heard from many developers is that they have more money than they know what to do with. And with the games industry eclipsing Hollywood in sales and profitability, this isn't hard to believe. I'm not calling Oninotsume a liar though. Japanese companies typically pay their employees far less than they could get in comparable overseas positions, so I could easily see them making excuses for that. On top of that, we all know that the companies that make the most original, innovative games are the least profitable, and if he works for one of those, than him and his company may very well be telling the bold faced truth (not trying to get in a fight here, Oninotsume -- I personally totally sympathize with your position and knowing what it feels like to see something I've worked hard on and earned next to nothing from become popular while I can't even pay rent -- my point is simply that a lot of game company employees WILL tell, and have told, an exactly opposite story)

And the last point there is the one that I'd like you pirates to consider. You make yourself feel better by sauing that it's not doing any real harm because the game companies are rich and that you wouldn't have bought the game anyway, but when unoriginal, uninspired, cookie cutter franchises and spinoffs are the only games that a developer can make money off of (because they're the only game concepts that the general population -- the population less likely to be familiar with pirating -- has any familiarity with), you have to realize that you're killing the incentive to produce interesting and innovative games by downloading them instead of taking a risk and purchasing a game that you're curious about every once in a while. You may not be strinking a huge blow to the industry on whole, but there ARE deffinately situations where piracy will have a huge effect on the bottom line.

And guys, you need to get it through your heads that being poor is not an excuse for stealing these games.

Hey oninotsume, if the long hours and stress of workiing in the gaming industry are too much for you, you can just get a job flippin burgers at Burger King. theyre always hiring. But if you did that then you wouldnt make enough money to buy videogames so you would have to download them if you wanted to play

This sort of mentality is fundementally flawed. I don't know anyone who loves riding horses but will go out and steal a horse because they can't afford to buy one on their own. And yet, people will gladly do exactly that when it comes to software. That's some very sorry sense of entitlement. When it comes to a hobby, if you can't afford it, that's the end of the story, you need to find another hobby. Especially the pirates among you who do nothing but play games. Buy the games that you truly want and can afford, but there's plenty of worthwhile ways to spend your time otherwise. The best things in life are legitimately free.

I think that everyone just needs to stop complaining about piracy existing and stop trying to make others stop piracy will always exist, there is no way around it you either like it or hate the fact thats all there is to it.

Well sorry, but even if Wraggster's a marauding pirate himself, the rules of this site still say no ISO discussion. Firstly, as Wraggster has pointed out on many occasions, homebrew is not about piracy. I know that a lot of people out there pirate, I'm not trying to deny it, nor am I under the delusion that that fact is going to change anytime soon, but this is a HOMEBREW site, not a piracy site, and there are people like me who do come here simply for homebrew and take offense to the implication of "Shhh! Everyone's doing it!". Nope, we're not all doing it, and the fact that this site has a no ISO policy is part of the reason why some of us come here. Keep it to yourself -- this is no more a forum to talk about your ISO usage than it is a forum for intelligent discussion of botany.

At the very least, I think you should have respect for your host (Wraggster's) wishes. If I were him, I'd take each and every pro-ISO post as a personal slap in the face. And Wraggster sounds like a real stand-up guy, I personally wouldn't dream of treating him that way. This is not the place to flaunt and discuss your pirating activities and that's been made ABUNDANTLY clear.

As a side note, bringing up GBA/DS piracy compared to today's games is kind of a faulty comparison. 2D game making technology and methouds really haven't changed much in the last ten years, whereas the technology in todays 3D games is still constantly evolving and getting more complex. You could easily argue that it doesn't cost as much to make a GBA/DS game, because the methouds to do so are so much better documented, and many more people are experienced and competent at making them. If the game's cheaper to make, the developer ends up making a larger profit on each unit sold, and the more profit they make on each legitimate unit sale, the more they can "afford" to loose the profits from someone stealing the product.

[MUDD]

blahh.blahh,blahh

[DPyro]

I don't know anyone who loves riding horses but will go out and steal a horse because they can't afford to buy one on their own. And yet, people will gladly do exactly that when it comes to software

Theres a difference between physical objects and software. With software, anyone can make a copy. Physical objects such as a horse can't be 'cloned' so easily.

[corenskae]

dagamer you think youre so goddamn cool with your machine translated signature. well guess what youre WRONG. If the psp wasn't so hackable do you think it's sales would even compare to what they are today? bull$#@!. And as to piracy being the reason games are so expensive? wake up and smell the coffee ffs even if there was no piracy in the world theyd still be expensive and you know why? because idiots like you run out and pay for games that are about as fun as having a brick dropped on your head. I bought a psp to play homebrews and isos. I could care less about sonys financial troubles when they bring out $#@! like the location free player which is the price of a small yacht.

[SSaxdude]

It's hard not to pirate PSP games because most suck and they are expensive for a handheld game. I was going to buy GTA Liberty City Stories when it first came out but Sony made it only for 2.0 PSPs. So when MPH Gameloader came out, I made a dump of the game, and that's how I became into isos. I probably wouldn't buy that many PSP games anyway (iso loaders or not.) Piracy is another reason why to buy a fast internet connection or more memory in your computer. There are people benefitting off piracy.
BTW: let's have a poll on this subject.

btw, speaking of pirates, is Pirates of the Caribbean 2 any good?

Yes, I saw it and I'm also downloading it.

[jwilds73]

UMD movies are a joke. I do not want to watch movies on my PSP. I didn't buy it to watch movies. I bought it for gaming. Also if I even had the desire to watch a movie on the PSP the price of UMD movies keeps me away. The UMD medium is a one trick pony it only works on the psp and has less features then their DVD counterparts. If UMD movie's where $7.99 to $9.99 then I would consider buying them but not at $19.99 to $24.99 no never.

[slayer2psp]

One thing is for sure. Piracy has nothing to do with the cost being charged for games. In Australia, the average AAA PC title costs around 80-90AUD. The PC has plenty of piracy issues. Compare this with the XBOX 360 where there is NO piracy and those games cost 100-110+ AUD. How they justify the ridiculous prices for XBOX 360 games in Australia is beyond me. If they are wondering why the PS2 is still outselling the XBOX 360, it all comes down to the pricing.

What makes the 360 game pricing even more of a joke is when you compare a title like "Prey". Prey ran far smoother and had higher resolution textures in some places on the PC Demo than the 360 Demo I tried, so in some cases, you'll be getting an inferior product for 20+ dollars extra.

wow were i live the 360 is the most pirated. ever hear of the firmware hack it takes like 10 mins to do a 360 if you know what to do i have all the 360 games and lets just say they arent from a store. and the pc thing is miss leading to run prey real good on the pc you need a pc with a good video card which cost as much as my 360. Australia
sucks for gaming anyways your damn goverment bans way to many games pgr 2 got banned on the xbox becuse it had some roads from your country in the game. so they thought people would go out and race on those roads and crash or something just sad. becuse of crap like that. id guess Piracy would be very high in Australia since your sad goverment doesnt think a enough of its people not to imatate whats in a game. i could never live there

[acn010]

theres people selling copied games on the streets and police walks around and they don't even care

[FullGore]

I don't think piracy can be problematic. Totally the oposite. Since I can't rent any games at my country, when a game comes out either I REALLY know that the game ain't gonna dissapoint me or I download a pirated version of it just to check it out.
This way is the safest to know what to buy and where not to waste money.
Unfortunately, I've made lots of mistakes in terms of buys. The last one was Monster Hunter for the psp. Imo the game is really mediocre. Tested it and threw it into the box again. Such situations can be easily avoided.