That's silly, you want to have a debate of anicdotes?  Alright, a buddy of mine pirates on the PC and the PSP because he can and it's easy, but buys every game he plays on the PS3 because he can't pirate as easily.  Therefore if the PSP and PC were more difficult to pirate he would have bought some of those games he truly wanted.  The idea that people only pirate things they don't want that much is far too black and white, of course how easy it is to pirate is a part of the equation as well.

In reality there is a spectrum of pirates just like anything else: some pirate solely for the power trip and others pirate because it's easy and they can save some money, and to get any reasonable idea how many of those people would buy the games they pirate if pirating was impossible would be a survey.  To just say "you can't just say I believe" and then talk about how you know 6 or 7 people that prove your point about pirates as a whole is ludicrous.

You need better proof than "I believe". I've actually talked to people who pirate stuff, and it's the power trip for them more than price.

Perhaps but when the choice is pay or go without, they will pay, they will obviously be more selective but do you genuinely believe that if piracy is eliminated these people will simply stop playing games? Absurd.

If I implied that, I didn't mean to. I just meant that a rush of sales upon piracy elimination is as big a pipe dream as stopping piracy alltogether. It's far easier to just make a game that appeals to people willing to pay money.

I dont think there would be a rush of sales upon piracy elimination either. But, the game being good or bad doesnt change anything, piracy will still remove some sales, probably even more in the case of the good game.

Which is why I explicitly typed "games people are willing to pay money for" instead of "good", which brings up a lot of subjective arguments, and that someone will claim reviews are what decides makes a good game, even though this is about sales.

I think to some degree the pirates ARE doing it because they can, but take away the option and they might very well go somewhat legit. They just won't be buying all the game they pirate. Only the rare few that kick there interest.

I have a friend who owns a PS3 and a 360. He bought the 360 specifically to play pirated games (it was a modded console) and bought the PS3 for its exclusive. When the PS3 was hacked, he stopped buying those exclusive as well and pirated everything. Now I am 100% certain he would have purchase a few of those game he pirated if he couldn't get them any other way, so in the end, it is lost money... just not the 1:1 ratio that a lot of pundit believes.

All a misunderstanding then. The first half of your op is a bit confusing and has many statement that can be taken out of context. Even taken in as a whole it seems to imply that piracy as it stands cannot hurt sales because the interested consumers have all been reached.

Which is why I explicitly typed "games people are willing to pay money for" instead of "good", which brings up a lot of subjective arguments, and that someone will claim reviews are what decides makes a good game, even though this is about sales