Can piracy be a good thing?

[ameratsu]

cleveland124 said:

code.samurai said:
There are lots of examples of popular successful platforms that may have been helped by piracy Windows, PS1, PS2, Wii, DS.

I'd like you to prove this statement. Just because a system is popular, doesn't mean it is because of piracy. PS1 and PS2 were easy to pirate, but Wii and DS are not. You have to buy a $30-40 adapter to pirate on the DS from a shady Chinese website. I'd guess most consumers won't take this route. Only hardcore gamers that need to have 10+ games/year or be able to play older games they love. And to my knowledge the Wii has not yet pirated. I thought the reverse spin system made it very cost prohibitive for pirates because you'd have to buy a special copyinfg drive for thousands of dollars.

 

 

The bolded parts are flat-out lies. The Wii was hacked right around launch and modchips are widely available. DS games are very easy to pirate. The cards themselves can be used by basically anyone, and depending on where you live, you can buy them locally. Even if not there are multiple reliable websites in canada I could buy from and have a card by next week.

It took a few years for there to be a no-swap modchip for the ps2 (to play copied dvd and cd games) and it was an insanely hard install. Compare this to the first modchip available for the wii which was available shortly after launch had about 6 solder points and was absurdly easy to install. The newer Wii's are somewhat harder but still easy as pie compared to the 20+ wire installs needed for self-booting copied games in the midst of the ps2's life