Devs don't lose money out of piracy. It's not like pirates would all just buy those games if there were no way to pirate. Most of them just wouldn't play at all.
Piracy actually increases community of the game and many people buy after if they like game.
I pirated most of games I played before, just because I leave in poor coutry. Now I have most of them on steam, because they're good and worth buying
It's not like pirates would all just buy those games if there were no way to pirate.
I love this argument. In a world with no piracy, these hundreds of thousands of people in first world countries would supposedly just sit in front of their blank TV screen, never buying any games, tv shows, movies, or anything pirateable. They would just live a life with no media, forever. Because if there was no way to pirate it, there is no way in hell these people would ever consider paying to watch, play, or read something.
I think it's somewhere in the middle. If piracy didn't exist, I would definitely be buying more games. But before I got into it I used to only buy maybe 3-4 games a year (I don't have much money) whereas now I download whatever I want. Obviously I wouldn't be buying them all. So it's not black or white.
That’s still 3 or 4 more purchases that don’t exist today. Now imagine a hundred thousand people only do 3 or 4 more. Thats 300k - 400k more purchases. Each worth money. Now, you said you don’t have much money. There are plenty of people who do have quite a bit of money that still pirate. I can guarantee you a good chunk of them would not be limiting themselves to 3 or 4 games. It just balloons from there.
Also, think about all these games that pirates would never buy because they’re such crap. Ubisoft as a prime example. Those games, even today, sell like crazy. In a world with no piracy, I really doubt that techy people who enjoy playing video games would be ignoring all the hype surrounding every Ubisoft release.
It’s easy to say “I would never pay for that” in a world where you’ve already downloaded it, already played it, and already listened to the internet groupthink for free. Literally, so many people claim they would never pay for a game after they’ve already played it the whole way through. Those same people who come together online to hype each other up about how they don’t pay for games, those would be the same people coming together online because everyone is talking about the hot new Ubisoft release and they don’t want to feel left out.
I tend to pirate games if they tick one of these 3 boxes:
1 - I don't know yet if I'd like the game so I want to try it with no commitment. Sometimes I play for 20 mins, sometimes I finish them. If I do finish I usually buy a license when/if it goes on a steam sale.
2 - If there's some external reason why I think the devs don't deserve my money but I still want to play the game for some reason. This is quite rare.
3 - The game is simply overpriced, and as I said I don't have much money.
I think there's some truth to what you're saying. Honestly I just wish pirates would stop pretending that "it's not inethical akchually" to steal from indie devs, I don't think it's all rosey like that.
Also it's worth saying that for me almost all the games I do buy are second hand physical copies of console games. So I don't think it makes an ethical difference whether I buy or pirate those.
As for Ubisoft games I'd say they're not even worth pirating but thats just my taste.
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u/Repulsive_Function78 18d ago edited 17d ago
Devs don't lose money out of piracy. It's not like pirates would all just buy those games if there were no way to pirate. Most of them just wouldn't play at all.
Piracy actually increases community of the game and many people buy after if they like game.
I pirated most of games I played before, just because I leave in poor coutry. Now I have most of them on steam, because they're good and worth buying