If a game sells twice as much on the Wii as it does on a PS3, while being significantly cheaper to produce in the first place, you really think they're gonna care if it was pirated as hell?

I'll answer that for you, don't bother: yes they will, and they'll complain about it too. But guess where their next game will be? The Wii. Piracy or no piracy, if it costs less and sells better, that's still where the profit is.

Also, you're seriously overrating piracy. If you actually do believe that 3:1 ratio... well, there's not much hope for rational debate with you.

Hmmm......... dun think i am over-rating it. Just that I seen the world more than you did.

If you have seen more of the world then I'm pretty sure you know that piracy was the name of the game for the PS2 outside of the 3 major territories (America, Japan, Europe) last generation, and piracy is NEVER a problem in the 3 major territories.  You want to tell me where a solid 75% of 3rd party developer focus was last generation, or do you need me to spell it out for you?

So the 5 - no, I'll go crazy - 10% of consoles that leak the Japanese market to the rest of pirating Asia - plus the North American ones that go Latin - are responsible for 75% of wordwide software "sales"? Right.

And where did any of that stop other consoles like the former Playstations?

@all three:

I'm sorry, but where are you guys getting your stats from?

75% was just a generalization.  Piracy is rampant in China, Korea, Armenia, the Phillipines, and other countries that can't often afford to pay for full priced games.  However, it has no real bearing on the industry, so I don't know what he is getting at.

This is what I was able to dig up (and there are undoubtedly more sources that may have differing numbers - just like VGChartz, Media Create, Enterbrain and NPD!):

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1993_June_4/ai_14017081

Top pirate countries by dollar loss amounts are as follows, with percentages in parentheses indicating how much of the installed software is thought to be pirated: Japan (92 percent) $3.0 billion, United States (35 percent) $1.9 billion, France (73 percent) $1.2 billion, Germany (62 percent) $1.0 billion, United Kingdom (54 percent) $685 million, Korea (82 percent) $648 million, Taiwan (93 percent) $585 million, Italy (86 percent) $550 million, and Belgium/The Netherlands/Luxembourg (BeNeLux) (66 percent) $419 million.

Surprise surprise Japan!

http://www.since1968.com/article/148/

• Vietnam, with a GDP per capita of US $410 and a piracy rate of 95% (in other words, 95% of the software in use in Vietnam is pirated)
• Indonesia, GDP per capita US $680, piracy rate 89%
• United States, GDP per capita US $35,200, piracy rate 23%
• Norway, GDP per capita US $37,020, piracy rate 32%

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

This is not specifically video game software related, but software in general, if I'm not mistaken. 

From what I understand, though, the US and Scandinavian countries (Finland being most prominent, if I'm not mistaken) are the worst, per capita in illegal file sharing. Can't find the sources, but I do clearly remember reading about it. (File sharing being potentially software, but also music - and in this respect there are gross piracy issues rampant everywhere).

Well that's piracy on everything though correct, not the games industry? Because there is no way that's how it plays out if you narrow it down to video games only. Japan often has higher attach rates on their systems than either of the other 2 major territories. However, in China you can walk into a store and find a burnt copy of a Wii game for the equivalent of 3 bucks. It's nothing like that in America. Obviously, there aren't stores that sell pirated software here. I can't imagine there are enough tech savvy gamers in America for piracy to make any real dent on the industry. Music? Movies? Absolutely. Any idiot who can use torrents can abuse that, but video games? No, I can't see there being any real effect on the Wii being slightly easier to pirate games for than the PS3.

If piracy was going to kill the software industry, it would have happened long ago, long before the Music and Movie industries started to bitch about how digital formats are killing them, because software, for all intents are purposes of this discussion, has always been digital.

Well that's piracy on everything though correct, not the games industry?

As far as I'm aware, correct - and I mentioned as much in my post.

Japan often has higher attach rates on their systems than either of the other 2 major territories.

What I find so surprising is how they are willing to ise illegal software but buy original games! I would love to see what the videogame vs software (applications and operating systems) piracy rates are like over there. 

However, in China you can walk into a store and find a burnt copy of a Wii game for the equivalent of 3 bucks.

Only if you want to overpay - you can get games for US$0.64!

It's nothing like that in America. Obviously, there aren't stores that sell pirated software here. I can't imagine there are enough tech savvy gamers in America for piracy to make any real dent on the industry.

Actually the US are pretty savvy when it comes to these things - and the rest of the world for that matter.  When I stayed in the US with a friend that's all he would do - visit warez sites and download games to burn onto CD or DVD. Here in Hong Kong I met a Canadian who was really into Xbox but had loads of games that were downloaded via torrent sites and burned onto DVDs - and he did this with a friend when he was back in Canada. In fact, of all the Americans and Canadians I know here that play games, they all pirate - and it wasn't a habit they acquired in Hong Kong; they started back home. The availability of pirated software in stores means they can just go and buy the games for the cheap now, but I'm willing to wager that they would continue downloading games illegally if Hong Kong lacked pirated software.

The fact that all these guys pirate games from back home is very telling IMO. Of course this is anecdotal, but out of all of them, they all do it - and that's a 100% batting average!

I think piracy is rampant worldwide, period. I don't know how much of a dent each country may create on the overall gaming industry, but small dents are still dents and collectively they can cause "MASSIVE DAMAGE" (heh) on the industry as a whole.

Finally, video games are very available online. Wii games are everywhere, as well as Xbox, 360, DS, PSP and PS2 games. Only the PS3 doesn't have any piratable games yet, but that's more a matter of when, not if.

Of course, I don't know exactly what the videogame piracy rates are, but I'm looking for references and links. If any of you can find anything please post! It's an interesting subject IMO.