Hey, my thread!
1. As others pointed out, 1 pirated copy=/= 1 lost sale
I'm poor, I'm 19, and I literally get $5 pocket money for a month. I managed to get a used gaming PC for christmas+birthday, and that's it. If there would be a failsafe anti-piracy protection, I would quit gaming, with no other option.
2. If you could COPY an expensive car, would you do it? That would hurt the manufacturers too, but this awesome ability to copy anything would naturally re-shape the economy anyways.
The informational revolution changes the rules of traditional copyright. Information is no longer the power of a few, to be witheld.
Publishers must find incomes from new sources, like advertisments, selling hardware, or other actual services with the bare software "information", and possibly making cheaper games.
Musicians can get money from concerts, movies from the cinemas, etc.
3. I'm not that amused by the current state of the industry, a crash would probably benefit it.
Even if I would have money, there would be only a very few games that I would consider worthy of buying. I game, because I'm bored and I don't have anything better to do, but I actually hate where gaming is going, and the current blockbuster trend. They are spending 10s of millions on mediocre games, and they are surprised when they go bankrupt.
