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Bofferbrauer on 17 August 2015
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LuckyTrouble said:
Bofferbrauer said:

Legally speaking, piracy is theft in pretty much every juristiction worldwide. While, as you explained, it doesn't exactly fit into the classic scheme of a theft, it could be still considered as one since you're taking something from the owner unaware, in this case the data of the software. And while they are not losing any data in the process, you're still getting something which you haven't paid or worked for or been given as a gift, which is another definition of a theft.

While not every pirated copy translates in an otherwise bought copy lost, the ratio is around 90%, in some cases even above 95%. Worst case being probably World of Goo, which has been downloaded over 16 million times yet not even broke the 500k sales. The Witcher games, which get released DRM-free on PC, also have piracy rates above 80%, meaning for every bought copy there are over 4 pirated copies. Which also proves that your third point is totally wrong to begin with. What's true about it is that piracy on current gen consoles is almost unexistent - but that's more because cracking their anti-piracy measures has become extremly difficult

Also, while the companies which made the games might be very rich, I still feel that pirating software is a big slap in the face to every programmer/artist/IT worker involved into making that game or program. The company might not be worthy of our respect, but their basic employes certainly do.

Your entire second point implies that you understood what I said, and then went the completely other way with it. You still seem to believe that piracy = lost sales. You can throw numbers at me all day, but it doesn't change the fact that those 16 million people largely would never have bought World of Goo. I'd be amazed if even 2% of all those pirates would have bought the game if they had absolutely zero ability to pirate. I admit I may have generalized a little too much saying they wouldn't impact if every pirate in the world suddenly went legit, but at the same time, piracy rates, on average, are much, much, much lower than those numbers. I mean, you're pulling out the worst of the outliers. The Wii was cracked wide open, and if I remember correctly, it was only a number in the hundreds of thousands for people that even downloaded the most basic program required for Wii homebrew and piracy. It goes back to the idea that demand for a product and demand for a paid product are entirely different things. If people think something is worth money, they will spend that money on it outside of flimsy justifications for piracy.

In the end, developers simply need to make a product that people want to buy. I know it isn't easy, and it's unfair to put all the responsibility on them, but if people think a game is worth money, money will be spent. Games like Rocket League are a great example of that.

Edit: Also, piracy is not theft. People like to call piracy the same as theft, but in the end, piracy falls under a different set of laws such as copyright and intellectual property laws.

If they never would have bought the game, then why did they bother to download it in the first place? And don't say to try out the game as World of Goo had a free demo of the game for this.

@the other bolded part: That's a bit of a trap, as a product more people willing to buy also means at the same time more people willing to own or play it by the same percentage. So while sales would go up, piracy wouldn't go down (hence why I mentioned the Witcher series in my previous post, highly acclaimed game by both critics and core gamers, yet still abysmal piracy rates)

I agree both games are among the worst examples, but that was also due to both games having no copy protection, thus making piracy very easy. They were also both acclaimed by gamers and critics, thus also giving much incentive to do so

I'm also not saying that I'm innocent. I was even a mod on an (now dead, it's name was abandonware-paradise.fr) abandonware site 6 years ago. But we also had a clear rule there: any game legally available on any other site (like the then still young GOG or the developers/publishers website) got it's download link removed and a link to where to buy the game legally. Which was in the end ironically the doom for the site, as most wanted the games for free.