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S.T.A.G.E. on 22 June 2009
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bugrimmar said:

I kinda expected at the beginning of the generation that the PS3's lack of mass piracy would lead to more game sales. It seems, however, that the effect of an "original games only" console has been negative, or neutral at best.

Almost every multiplatform game has sold better on the 360, despite mass piracy on that console. In fact, the PS3 has the lowest attach rate out of the 3 consoles, with the 360 having a very large lead. Aside from that, franchises from the PS2 (that also suffered mass piracy) didn't really experience a huge bump in sales on the PS3 (ex: sports games, Metal Gear), and in fact some franchises experienced a reduction in sales, meaning to say that fans will buy the original game nonetheless. I have now two propositions:

1.) Piracy actually helps you sell hardware, since some consumers are only willing to buy the console for the promise of cheap games, and more consoles on the market means more potential for software.

2.) People who wanted to buy the original game in the first place will buy it despite the presence of pirated games, so removal of piracy doesn't really result in the increase of software sales.

So I am led to believe that piracy can actually be a good thing for console and game makers. Any ideas fellas?


Game developers hate pirating. This makes no sense. They also hate Gamestop, because Gamestop makes profit off of used games upon their launch, which harms their sales. Developers don't make profit off of used games, Gamestop does.

Secondly, Multiplatform games sell better on on the 360, because the 360 has a more active userbase than the PS3. Xbox Live itself generates a huge amount of profit, hence why Microsoft pours so much back into Xbox Live.

Buying a game doesn't equate to pirating. Copying a game, or downloading games off of torrents is pirating. This is what is fucking up the PC Platform.

Having exclusives on a system that is very expensive is the only reason the PS3's exclusives aren't selling as they should. It's about the games...not the system. Sony seems to have forgotten that. This is third parties are begging Sony to drop the price of the PS3 now. Still...no response from Sony.