By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Piracy is the real reason why core games on Wii don't sell as well?

Hephaestos on 04 May 2010
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Squilliam said:

One has to have an interest in something to bother pirating it. The same interest is required to buy something as well. The most pirated games according to torrents are also the highest selling games.

For online im talking about a smaller sub group which has a greater interest in online play to compliment the local play experience. Having online play doesn't hurt, having no online gameplay does hurt for a reasonable number of people as online gaming becomes more mainstream. This subgroup is also the group which is part of the likely pirate demographic.

 

Interest=/=Willing to Buy.

People have to have interest before they buy. People without interest don't buy and they don't pirate so the pirates have to have at least a marginal interest in a game before they pirate it.

the equivalence is not an exact match.

 

You need just a marginal interest to download, however you need a 15£-40£ interest to actually buy.

 

most pirates probably don't ever see/play over 1/2 of their movie/series/games collections. Heck I don't even have time for the games I buy :x



OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Around the Network
Squilliam on 04 May 2010
Hephaestos said:
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:

Interest=/=Willing to Buy.

People have to have interest before they buy. People without interest don't buy and they don't pirate so the pirates have to have at least a marginal interest in a game before they pirate it.

the equivalence is not an exact match.

 

You need just a marginal interest to download, however you need a 15£-40£ interest to actually buy.

 

most pirates probably don't ever see/play over 1/2 of their movie/series/games collections. Heck I don't even have time for the games I buy :x

It doesn't have to be a match. The important area for consideration is at the margins where someone might be swayed in either direction. Im not talking about the professional pirates but the people who could go either way between purchasing and pirating. All im saying is that the largest source of these people are core gamers as they have the will and technical know-how to pirate games and they are the early adopters of piracy. With the DS in Europe the flash SD cards are gaining momentum from the core market into the casual market and the same I believe applies here.



Tease.

OoSnap on 04 May 2010
DM235 said:
I think the effect of piracy is highly overrated.

Take a look at the Others region. The PS3 is yet to be hacked, while the XBox 360 was hacked just after it was released. Right now there are roughly 15.3 million each of XBox 360s and PS3s sold in this region. And the software sales? 94 million for PS3 and 91 million for the 360.

Even if you discount the 3 million in sales the 360 had before the PS3 was even released, that would put the numbers at 94 million and 88 million.

That puts the difference at 6 million or 6.8% over 3 years. I know that may have been the difference between losing money and making money on some games but I think for the most part it would not have mattered.

I also know that this isn't a very scientific comparison, so if anyone knows of a better one, please share...


It could be that 360 games could have sold much more if it wasn't hacked. I guarantee you softwares sales would up dramatically for Wii, DS, 360, and PSP if piracy didn't exist. I mean you seriously believe the virtually non existence PSP sales have nothing to do with piracy?

 

It's baffiling people say piracy doesn't effect sales. That's the same thing many people said (including pirates) about the music industry and we all know how that turned out.

 

 



FF_Fanatic on 04 May 2010
z101 said:
FF_Fanatic said:
actually piracy is bigger than ever on wii, you thought it was bad on ps2, pirating on wii is just too easy and you can put your iso images on HDD, meaning you don't even have to get up to swap copied disks, I think when PS3 finally gets the ability to play backup's then it will sell more hardware and slightly less software, but most owners will still buy the original game because ps3 games has really good quality compared to the majority of wii games.

When you look at the game line-up of the consoles at whole, the Wii has more quality games than the ps3.

 

But the fact is, that it is really easy to pirate games on the Wii, and yes that is the one and only reason, especially for europe, why some Wii games sell bad.

ROFL lol only when the latest SMG2, Zelda and the latest metriod comes out. And Last Story will be more epic than the last two FF's put together:):)

Uncharted 1&2, Killzone 2, Infamous, Heavy Rain, GOW III, Ratchet and Clank >> Zelda: TP, SMG1, NSMBWII & Metriod



Hephaestos on 04 May 2010

@squil
that's a valid point.

on a sidenote... flash cards used to be available on Amazon.co.uk ....lol



OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Around the Network
DarkCronos on 04 May 2010

piracy is certainly a big factor in 3rd parties games flopping on wii, but the real problem is the mentality of a large part of wii users. most people simply don't see third party wii core games as worthy of beeing purchased, or purchased at a full price.



 

Become a fan of I Love Videogames on facebook! The most updated and fun italian videogame fanpage on facebook! click here!

Also visit I Love Videogames: a new and fresh italian videogaming site! click here!

 

kitler53 on 04 May 2010
RolStoppable said:
No, piracy is not a legitimate excuse.

First off, when someone says that core games don't sell on the Wii, then that usually refers to third party software. Nintendo's games sell, so it really is a question of quality. First party software sets the standard for what gamers expect from a full price product. The list of third party core games that are comparable to Nintendo's offerings in terms of the overall package (quality, content, longevity etc.) is incredibly short, so it shouldn't be surprising that many people hold off of a purchase until these third party titles reach a more appropriate price point.

It's really not that different when compared to the HD consoles where gamers also pass on short games until they drop in price.

which core-centric nintendo games are selling all that well? fire-emblem, BWii, and disaster didn't do so hot.  Metroid did pretty good so i'll give you that one.  after that nintendo doesn't really make core-centric games, nintendo makes cross over games.

anedocal evidence i know but i have a couple friends that are pirates.  they "own" a lot of wii games but they pirated all of them (yes, including nintendo games) but they have purchased ~10ish ps3 games (for the simple reason they can't pirate them).  i don't know exactly how bad piracy is on the wii but from what I can tell it's not that hard to pirate wii games.  ..and the guys that are pirates just so happen to the "core gamers" as well.



Smashchu2 on 04 May 2010
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:

But that doesn't mean it's because those are Wii games. Those games are just worth about that price to consumers period. It would be the same on the HD systems.

Is it? You've got one system with very strong copy protection and the other has a big downside to piracy in the form of losing access to Xbox Live and some console features. With comparable games, features like online are far weaker as well as overall user experience due to loading times etc. These features are more likely to reduce value for a Wii game for a significant proportion of the core gamer market on the Wii, which by itself doesn't make up a majority of sales but it does have relevance when talking about the relative sales of applicable core titles.

That just means less piracy, not more sales. Just because one can't pirate something doesn't mean one will buy it. One has to want to buy it to make one buy it.

As for online, that's debatable, since many of those online games have been shown to sell better with local multiplayer, and worse without. So that does not reduce value.

Loading times? Are you kidding me? The Wii's loading is no worse than the other systems. So claiming that reduces value only counts for those that believe that false fact.

One has to have an interest in something to bother pirating it. The same interest is required to buy something as well. The most pirated games according to torrents are also the highest selling games.

For online im talking about a smaller sub group which has a greater interest in online play to compliment the local play experience. Having online play doesn't hurt, having no online gameplay does hurt for a reasonable number of people as online gaming becomes more mainstream. This subgroup is also the group which is part of the likely pirate demographic.

 

There's a huge difference between going to the store and shelling out $50 or $60 on a game verses loading up a torrent site and just downloading it for free.

The "interest," you speak of is the interest to play the game for free. They have no intention of buying the game but want to play it for free. If they can't pirate it, they wont buy it.



kitler53 on 04 May 2010
Smashchu2 said:
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Squilliam said:
LordTheNightKnight said:

But that doesn't mean it's because those are Wii games. Those games are just worth about that price to consumers period. It would be the same on the HD systems.

Is it? You've got one system with very strong copy protection and the other has a big downside to piracy in the form of losing access to Xbox Live and some console features. With comparable games, features like online are far weaker as well as overall user experience due to loading times etc. These features are more likely to reduce value for a Wii game for a significant proportion of the core gamer market on the Wii, which by itself doesn't make up a majority of sales but it does have relevance when talking about the relative sales of applicable core titles.

That just means less piracy, not more sales. Just because one can't pirate something doesn't mean one will buy it. One has to want to buy it to make one buy it.

As for online, that's debatable, since many of those online games have been shown to sell better with local multiplayer, and worse without. So that does not reduce value.

Loading times? Are you kidding me? The Wii's loading is no worse than the other systems. So claiming that reduces value only counts for those that believe that false fact.

One has to have an interest in something to bother pirating it. The same interest is required to buy something as well. The most pirated games according to torrents are also the highest selling games.

For online im talking about a smaller sub group which has a greater interest in online play to compliment the local play experience. Having online play doesn't hurt, having no online gameplay does hurt for a reasonable number of people as online gaming becomes more mainstream. This subgroup is also the group which is part of the likely pirate demographic.

 

There's a huge difference between going to the store and shelling out $50 or $60 on a game verses loading up a torrent site and just downloading it for free.

The "interest," you speak of is the interest to play the game for free. They have no intention of buying the game but want to play it for free. If they can't pirate it, they wont buy it.

given a choice between free and $50 people will always choose free.  that holds true if your only slightly interested in a game and would have no intention of buying it at $50 or if your are super hyped for a game and would be willing to pay $50 if that was the only option.  hell, most torrents get released before the retail release so if a pirate is super hyped why would they pay more and wait longer??



BoneArk on 04 May 2010

U could be right, they're are a lot people who own a Wii and hack/modify their Wii.