Methinks, according to some people I shan't bother buying used games, and just pirate them directly, if I can't justify buying it new. What a flawless logic.

Either way, gamers get screwed with ridiculous DRM methods.

Make your game good and then you don't have to worry about used games.
Make piracy your demos and you saved yourself some ads dollars.

Don't make shitty games and cry.

They're in the minority, though. Chances are high that when you can get one game for free, you want the other for free, too.

Piracy is worse. At least with a used game, the developer can look forward to you purchasing DLC.

Neither are anywhere near to being as damaging as people would suggest ...

While over time pirates can become consumers, they are not going to purchase the kinds of games they're downloading in the quantity they're downloading them at if it became impossible to pirate them. I wouldn't be surprised if for every 100 game downloads only 1% to 5% of the people would buy the game if they couldn't download it.

With used game sales I could be wrong but I believe that most of the people who are selling their games used are doing so in order to buy another game new. While there would be some lost sales due to the (massive) cut the retailer takes, for the most part used sales act like a flow-through system that ensures the same number of new games are sold. Once again, I wouldn't be surprised if game sales only increased 1% to 5% if you completely eliminated used game sales.

Piracy hurts developers more for sure. Used games are a huge source of income for video game stores, and without being able sell used games, many would close down as it provides them with a lot of income, so therefore used games benefit the economy more. But even so, game piracy is minor, is it not?

Piracy,

When it comes to used games, selling off an old version of an annual sports title makes a player more likely to buy a newer more up to date version.

Saying piracy doesn't damage the industry is complete bullshit, look at how the music industry colapsed as a result of piracy.

Anybody saying piracy is most likely biased and/or uneducated on the matter.

People who pirate the games would probably not have purchased it if the game wasn't available to be pirated.

BUT

People buying used games, if used wasn't an option, wouldn't be shelling out THAT much more for a new title and likely would end up getting it new.

What does this mean? Well, pirates aren't affecting gaming anywhere near all that much, because most of them wouldn't have spent the money in the first place. They're just taking advantage of an opportunity to enjoy something they wouldn't have enjoyed otherwise. They exist outside of the sphere of influence.

Used game buyers, however, while they may be more ethical, are absolutely hurting the industry worlds more. They're shelling out money to a conglomerate that doesn't develop titles and instead just sells them - and gets most of their money from selling used copies. Yes, used games are limited by how many new are sold, but that doesn't stop used game buyers from being able to find nearly everything they want AS a used copy.


As for that Silicon Valley Insider chart, it also is extremely biased, because (1) not all digital purchases are tracked so digital numbers are significantly higher than they represent them as, and (2) it fails to provide for the fact that we're in the biggest national and world recession since before that chart even shows. Also, our culture was HUGE on music in the mid 90s, but for the past ten years, focus has been shifting drastically. Of course, music is still huge, but nothing like it was for us ten-fifteen years ago. Piracy doesn't account for anywhere near the amount of damage that graph would like us to believe.



But it ultimately, neither damages the industry as much as people are trying to pretend it does.

Lastly, I've pirated zero games in the past year, purchased a couple dozen used, and about 15 new. Not including digital downloads.

This point has already been refuted with a simple comparison to the collapse of the music industry due to piracy. perhaps you're the one who needs the education.