Scisca said:
"Especially" doesn't mean that we're talking exclusively about this gen. |
Now you're really stretching.
The "elephant in the room" is talk of piracy, since piracy-talk is usually avoided.
The OP's primary focus is on recent events, and specifically states "this generation".
Now, more than ever, game development cost are at a all time high with failures costing the closure of studios, even for titles that have not even been finished.
With the costs and risks so high, availability of pirated versions poses a serious issue, and even if you want to ignore the generation and timeframe specified by op and bring up past consoles, piracy on console is still significantly lower, even with all console platforms combined, than piracy on PC where even the people that DO buy their games, op in large numbers, to do so from key-sites and services that circumvent local vat and pricing rules by purchasing software keys originating from russia, undercutting the standard software pricing by a considerable margin.
Don't patronise me by trying to tell me how studios and publishers handle the issue of piracy, i've sat in enough studio and publisher meetings discussing such issues over the years to have a pretty strong understanding of the average publishers priotitizing when it comes to maximizing profits over loss through distribution risk assessment.
