i really dont think that pirating the music industry is killing themusic industry, just changing it. Where bands would usually make most of their money from album sales they now make alot more from touring because more people know about their music as a result of pirating. I also think its good in a way for smaller indie artists who wouldnt usually be able to get a foot in the door of a major record label to get their music out there. This may just be me but in Sydney we're seeing more live acts then ever before, in the past month ive been to two massive concerts, less than jake/ reel big fish and Daft Punk!!!! (best night of my life btw.) in aus we're getting more live acts coming down here than ever and i think piracy may be a cause of that, and because i love live music im actually alittle thankful for piracy!!!! haha that was my rant :P

Reel big fish played in my hometown a few months back to about 500 people, twas good. Anyway I like something tangeble for my music, I have massive CD collection 400 strong and with the way things are going in 10 years I wont be able to buy CDs or vinyl.

Not quite, but it'd be close.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clip/a-telling-look-inside-that-chinese-wii-copycat-330022.php 

Piracy is simply a nessecary evil, it's a double edged sword.

While it can damage the relevant industries, at the same time it can help become a tester for many products in a kind of 'try before you buy' way.

I will openly admit here and now that I download lots of films and PC games. I watch and play what I fancy and if I genuinely love them, I buy them. I absolutely love buying DVD's and my healthy collection would prove that to anyone, and my digital buying of games from Steam is getting worryingly obsessive with the number of titles I'm adding to that!

Admittedly I haven't bought music in years, and continue to download albums, but in years once I have much more of a disposable income, I have promised myself to buy every CD I've downloaded and truly loved.

Like I said, for me and many others it's a tool for aiding a decision to buy or not.

Low PSP software sales arent all due to piracy, both of my parents have PSPs to watch tv episodes and movies instead of buying a portable dvd player.

On topic, my psp is modded, and the reason behind is it that its not very convienent to carry around 7-10 UMD games in my backpack or in my pocket. I own every game that I have on the memory card, but its alot easier to just have them all saved to my 4 gig memory card.

Stealing is wrong, yet everyone does it to one degree or another, my itunes library proves that point.

Piracy will always b.

Piracy is not something that helps the industry in any way at all and it is not something that cannot be just ignored.

You may sit there and think piracy isn't some huge thing since you think it's only a couple thousand people doing it or it's spreading the word about good games but it isn't. It's more than a few thousand people and the people that say they pirate to test games don't. They "test" the game and then never pay for it.

In fact, all those people that say they mod their console to test out games first or run homebrew are flight out lying to you and lying to themselves. They are modding their console for no reason other than playing free games and taking money away from the people making those games.

The video game industry is different than things like the music and movie industries where people get paid huge salaries. In the video game industry every cent is used and the people that make the games don't like the rock star life and actually need those "couple thousand" sales in order to make money and actually be successful.

So yeah, sorry to be rude and a little vulgar but fuck you people saying you're modding your console for whatever reason and acting like it doesn't matter of you're sticking it to the man.  You're not doing anything righteous, you're just being spoiled little snots.

Really, you can't compare music to games anyway. A 5 person indie band vs. a 5 person mainstream band...eh, you could like either one...they're almost interchangable.

A 5 person indie game vs. a 100 person professional game...there's a difference. Games are made by advanced tools, advanced game designers, writers, modelers, etc. They are made by companies, and they are expensive for a reason (for the most part...things could maybe be cheaper...but the consumers are the ones that demand the uber-graphics of today.)

5-person indie games can be good. Look at Darwinia and those games. But it's very difficult for them to reach the quality of bigger games...simply because to make games just requires a ton of collaborative work that can't be substituted by smaller groups.

So even though the music industry can survive through piracy by touring more, and because ultimately, music is created by individuals or small groups; the videogame industry would not fare as well if piracy increased.

Explain to me, if games started selling 10k each, no more, how A) these companies would stay alive, B) you would continue to get the same quality games you love to steal.

twesterm, what you've said is completely fair (although I think you're being too harsh in saying everyone who pirates is flatout just that, a pirate), but I wanna throw one thing into that mix of yours.

I could imagine that a certain chunk of those game's developers who have raised concerns about the effects of piracy would also go on at some points to express distaste at the rising costs of games development itself and in that I see a bit of hypocrisy. You might as well look at MS and Sony who in their own right might as well be encouraging the higher costs of games development, and to the effect of the end consumer, higher game prices.

It's a pretty vicious circle, and in the end it's not surprising that piracy is getting worse for consoles, especially handhelds when DS and PSP games cost just a little short of a home console game now, which have always been getting more and more expensive as well.

 EDIT: I suppose a way of summarising this is that it's not just consumers who are guilty of causing piracy in the first place. 

 How is someone who pirates not a pirate?

 Game costs are rising but that makes pirating even more vicious.  With the rising cost of games it is harder to make a profit.  Pirating just makes it harder so I'm not really sure where I see your argument here.  Game prices have been right around $50-60 for most games.  Yeah, they're more expensive in other countries but that isn't because they feel like raising the price for grins and giggles, there are other things that go into that and more people that want to make some money.

 Besides, the games cost too much argument is crap anyways.  There are plenty of things I can't afford and that in no way justifies my stealing them.  If I really want those things, I'll save for them or if they are beyond my means, I'll just have to do without.  As fun as gaming is, it isn't an essential part of life.