Pirates are the video game industry's "largest customers"

It has become a common occurrence across all the major entertainment industries to blame loss of sales on pirates. Of course, why wouldn't they blame it on the law-breakers who are known to snag the game for free, rather than actually buying it legally. But, recently, some major studies are being developed that aren't supporting this statement, and are actually proposing quite the opposite.

After a study done on Dutch file-sharers, Prof. Nico van Eijk of the University of Amsterdam concludes, "These figures show that there is no sharp divide between file sharers and others in their buying behaviour. On the contrary, when it comes to attending concerts, and expenses on DVDs and games, file sharers are the industry's largest customers... There does not appear to be a clear relationship between the decline in sales and file sharing."

It seems, that rather than these file-sharers stealing more and buying less, they are buying more games than the average consumer - quite to the contrary of popular belief. See below:

Well there you have it.

I guess the logic is that if someone is so in to something that they have to pirate it...they will most likely spend more money on similar products and services down the road?

Lol it dosent matter what they buy.... If ure a pirate you share games movies etc... so if you share a game for example and its downoladed 1000 times.... you negate your purchase x 1000 :P

Here is an observation I have: Why would pirate something that they have no interest in? It would seem to make sense that a pirate would have a larger interest in what they pirate than the average person, and possibly could be forced to buy more stuff if they had to. It is possibly they have been forced to buy more now, because they can't pirate as much. Or the industry has offered enough bonus incentives to get them to buy, in the form of knickknacks that come with the games.  Another option is a pirate has an interest in games larger than his budget can afford.  The pirate then finds out how easy it is to pirate stuff, and they go that route.

You got to wonder how fast their internet connection is on the open sea....

all I can say is that here in latin america noone buys original games (I do if I really like them) so Ican see why pirates are biggest portion of the market. I can tell you that EVERYONE had a ps2 and it was hacked, and now that you cant hack the ps3 or it is very difficult noone has them. that´s why EVERYONE I know has a wii cause its easy to hack too.

I had never heard of Aim (fine UK hip-hop DJ) until I was given some MP3s ten years ago. Since then I've bought all his CDs and attended 3 gigs with friends whom I had given the MP3s to.

It's anecdotal of course but I'm sure it happens all the time.

You could have millions of studies proving such things, but it doesn't matter. When it comes down to companies like to believe the opposite. They like to be able to blame pirates for music or games that are not appealing. It's easier to claim that "But it's the pirates" than admit that they screwed up in marketing or it just sucked. Then they can sue a few people millions of dollars of money they wouldn't have made.

PC Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads 2009:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000, Nov. 2009)
2. The Sims 3 (3,200,000, June 2009)
3. Prototype (2,350,000, June 2009)
4. Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000, Sept. 2009)
5. Street Fighter IV (1,850,000, July 2009)

Xbox 360 Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads 2009:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000, Nov. 2009)
2. Street Fighter IV(840,000, July 2009)
3. Prototype (810,000, Feb. 2009)
4. Dirt 2 (790,000, Sept. 2009)
5. UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000, Mar. 2009)

Wii Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads 2009:
1. New Super Mario Bros (1,150,000, Nov. 2009)
2. Punch-Out!! (950,000, May. 2009)
3. Wii Sports Resort (920,000, July 2009)
4. The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000, Feb. 2009)
5. Mario Power Tennis (830,000, Mar. 2009)

All of those are "unapeling" to you. Multipy those numbers by the MSRP of those games and see how much money the gaming industry lost last year alone (not all games btw) then tell me thats its all their fault for not marketing them properly....

Edit: Link to the numbers.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/36988/MW2-most-pirated-game-of-09