DonFerrari said:
Aeolus451 said:
It's not irrelevant because that's how many games were pirated and some of those games would have been bought if the person didn't have the option to pirate them in the first place. How many games would have been bought, rented, resold then bought as used by someone else and dlc purchased any time the game switched hands compared to what is gained with pirates deciding that they like a game enough (out of the hundreds they steal) that they choose to purchase it? if That's just you trying to invalidate the biggest weakness in your argument.
My argument is not really a moral one but rather a mathematical one. Video game companies lose money when potential consumers pirate their games in bulk. Pirates have no sound arguement to justify the thievery of hundreds of games each one likely does. I'm fine with someone sneaking a few games that they really wanted when their country prohibits the games themselves due to censorship or high taxes or politics but not alot of games because it's detrimental to the video game industry.
I'm addressing the whole of it while you're only addressing the uptink in game sales due to pirating. If you simply just look at how many possible sales they lose compared to how many they'll gain in sales, you'll see the faults in your points.
If 100 games have to be pirated in order to get 20 legit sales from one person who pirates, how is that an increase in legit sales or profit? They are losing a lot more than they gain. How does that make any sense to a company from a financal standpoint? It does no good to the industry if a person takes a liking to gaming through pirating games when that person becomes a lifelong pirate of their games.
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Because the argument will turn in either the pirate wouldn't buy anything (so the 20 is a gain that we have to thank the pirates for) or that they wouldn't buy more than those 20 (so the industry isn't losing money because that person wouldn't buy it anyway).
It's funny to see the justification that what they do is good.
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it's neither funny nor unfunny, it's simply reality and how things actually work
given the disposable income, people will spend on their favourite hobby. and nor just by direct sales, but also merchandise, fandom, etc.
especially since the bulk of people who actually pirate games are 1) younger kids with no disposable income to fuel their hobby or 2) people in poorer countries or with low access to affordable gaming (or outright censorship)
it's a magical thinking that just because one of such people managed to download 100 games, that instead they would be buying 100 games. that's just being completely out of touch with reality.
again, there's absolutelly nothing preventing people from pirating pretty much any game they want, and still most people still decide to buy their games. this should be telling you something
