I pirated games in thc C64 era as a 12-14 year old. I also paid for roughly 40 C64 games, mostly through what was called a "paper route". It was like the internet as you know it today, but with 100% less pornography, and I would throw it at you.

I am currently "pirating" One Punch Man Season 2, only because I have no other option to see it now. I will buy it on Blu-Ray as soon as I can, and probably pay through the nose. I paid $80 CAD for season 1. If I had no choice, I'd pirate it outright. It's a tough world. I support it because I can though.

Every study on this topic has shown that piracy in fact increases the sales of content in the long run. Personally, I only discovered Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem and many other games that I've later spent big money on because I pirated the older games in the series.

Piracy is a service problem, not a people problem. If the services are there, piracy disappears (See the massive decline in torrenting following the rise of Netflix and Steam). Companies have nothing but themselves to blame. Like Nintendo, if they actually offered a decent service that allowed access to their older games, very few people would pirate them anymore; they don't so people (including myself )do.

Uh... No...

The national acceptance and adoption of internet is what popularized video games once the video game industry began implementing internet functionality en masse.

Once internet console gaming hit it's stride on Xbox 360 & PS3, a wide audience of console gamers were exposed to internet multiplayer in a fashion that was otherwise predominantly exclusive to PC gamers, considering thats where it was largely the only place to access internet in a household during the mid 90's all the way up to the mid 2000's. (yes, I'm well aware that the PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast had "some" online games, but for obvious reasons can't be used as an example)

By the end of the X360's & PS3's lifecycle, the adoption rate of online multiplayer had skyrocketed and the video game industry hasn't been the same since. Couple this with the advancements of visual fidelity in modern gaming, higher & more accessible internet speeds, and it was no longer "for nerds" or "losers" and video games finally became an accepted entertainment medium.

Piracy has ZERO credibility for the popularization of video games. Infact, PC gaming and its association with hackers and hobbyists did more harm than good for lifting the stigmatism surrounding video games...

When my old PS2 broke I was doing the opposite; putting legit PS2 games into my PC to play them.

They lose money from lack of future income.  Somebody getting a copy of something for free is far less likely to pay for it in the future.  For example, my brother use to buy movies all the time.  Then he got a plex server and started pirating them.  Guess how many movies he has purchased since?  0.  Those companies have lost his money in their revenue streams because he just pirates everything now.  He went from probably spending a couple thousand bucks a year to spending nothing.  Piracy obviously has an affect on companies bottom lines, no matter how you want to rationalize it to yourself.  

Pirating games? no Movies? no Songs? no. The only thing I "pirate" is anime, and even then I try to use as many legal services as possible first, and I still feel bad about it at times. Sometimes things just aren't available or convenient, so if people pirate for those reasons they have my sympathy but not my regret.

You should know me better than that.  I don’t pirate anything.  I actually won’t even watch movies at my parents house (my brother lives in their basement) because he has them on his plex too.  I use vudu.  I’m not a rule breaker.

Games I don't bother as you need specific hardware to play them. Plus I like playing those games on the hardware they made for,

My biggest issue is taking up space. VHS, DVD and now BluRays all take up a lot of space. Then you got 4K HD then soon 8K HD. I honestly got sick of buying discs everytime a change happens and the need to upgrade the player to play it potentially. Hell you can't even get rid of the VHS as a lot of R rated movies have been watered down for DVD and BluRay compared to their original release

Movies / TV Shows I wish they started doing proper digital distribution. I don't want monthly streaming services that fight over a few exclusives, I don't want my movies tied to a platform that may or may not go bankrupt after purchasing a digital copy (had that happen with a few blu ray digital copies already). I don't wan't movies that download in itunes or another software that has DRM. Region locking o BluRays is also a joke.

All i want is for them to release mp4 or mkvs with freedom for me to put it on a memory stick, my own hdd, or my phone and take it where I want to watch it either on holidays or at home. It also reduce the physical space needed to store this stuff. I would pay for that convenience.

Hell for the environmentalists it even saves the need to make plastic boxes lol.

I can also add, out of sheer anecdotal evidence - every single person I knew as a kid had PS2s where they would buy pirated games exclusively.

Fast forward to today, there is Sony supremacy for people who still play games, and franchises like GoW, GTA are hugely popular based on nostalgia.

So what you are saying is...because something isn't physical, it doesn't equate to the same type of theft. Lets use an extreme example. Company spends $100M on a game. They proceed to get 0 sales. They did have 10 million people however, who copied the game. It didn't actually cost the company any money each time somebody copied the game, so there is nothing wrong with it. While an extreme example, it illustrates how regardless of it being a digital asset, it DOES still certainly cost the company money. If I put time and effort into making something, I absolutely don't want anybody to enjoy that for free just because they have some bogus excuse that it's too expensive for them or it didn't cost me anything anyways.

What is it that makes you feel you are entitled to that game? Why do you feel such an urge to assure others that this is ok? It is theft, plain and simple. I don't quite frankly care how much video games cost in any one region, if they aren't within your budget...then you shouldn't be playing video games.

I would absolutely love to buy about 50 games per year, but unfortunately don't make remotely close to enough money for that, therefore I proceed to buy 1-2.

That being said, I think it really comes down to, regardless of whether somebody would or wouldn't have bought an item, I don't think that is what qualifies something as theft. Many thieves would never have bought an item, but they take it so they can gain from it (and being able to play a game you otherwise couldn't play is certainly gaining).