Hey guys, beein' a lurker for some time, but registered recently. This is my first thread, and you may think it's kinda noobish, but I ain't feeling it that way, mostly because I suspect a crash of video game cultures nationally...

 Well, I live in Eastern Europe where things are pretty different from other international gaming communities. To be more precise I'm living in Bulgaria- one of the true homes of the computer itself ( check John Atanasoff on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Atanasoff ). In Eastern Europe there are a lot of gamers, both PC and console, with bulgarian pro-gaming quite strong over the years. That's ok.

 The market is big but undeveloped and not quite noticed by big companies. So while we do spent money to get a nice PC (or console) , it's almost impossible to buy a computer game here, you know. You can just download it, and it's no secret. I think torrents in whole Europe are now legal. Bulgaria, along with Romania and Greece, are members of the European Union, so we are European countries, but way of thinking about these things hasn't changed.

 From what I read here, Western Europeans and Americans are indeed giving their money for PC games, not console only. I know what it is to buy a computer game, of course- support the developers, that's the way of saying you enjoy the game, and so on. But isn't it just easier and... I don't know, cheaper to get games downloaded and spent your money on something else? For an exclusive console game maybe...?

 I'll be honest- I have a PS3 and buy games I enjoy. But that's for console exclusives only- if I see a multiplatform game, coming for the PC as well, damn, I can have the game without giving 60 euros for it.

 My questions: worldwide PC gaming lives? X360 flashing deal doesn't at all affect sales?

 Honest answers I need: Haven't you downloaded a torrent with a PC game? How often do you pay for PC games? If you haven't downloaded any, what's the true reason? Is it the game developing support factor you care the most?

So what you're suggesting is that PC piracy is not only a concern for PC game development, but may be a concern for console titles also available on PC?

I suppose that there probably is some adverse effect that PC piracy may have on console game sales, but it doesn't seem to be a major problem for titles like Call of Duty 4 or Orange Box.

Piracy on pc games is great than console games but if you get a pirate game rather than an original then there is a great chance you can't play online. The developers of the games know alot about this and put security to their games for example look World of Warcraft, if you play on a private server it may be a full with bugs or very laggy and if you want to play in a Blizzard server you must buy the retail version for get the activation key. Now I think that when you use it for create an account it's useless unless you delete your account and we don't know that if you buy one in a web page you can use the same activation key again.

True, piracy is probably greater on PC yet it's a lot easier to rent console games instead of buying them.

Its alot easier(and cheaper) to download a game from the internet than to rent a console game.

@Forilas

If you don't have money to buy PC games, then why do you even own a PS3 and buy the more expensive console games? The money you spent on the PS3+games would've saved you enough money to buy PC games for a decade.

About your questions:

- PC gaming is still the most profitable platform, but something needs to be done against piracy. The problem is people now think they deserve to download games for free, and that mentality is the worst. Even when there is a game they want to play on PC but can't pirate it, they will just think "meh, there's tons of other games I can download instead".

I read that out of 1000 downloads of a game only 1 copy would be sold if they couldn't pirate it, But that's entirely not true: Only 1 copy would be sold because the rest would just choose to download another game instead.
If we forced strong anti-piracy methods and people couldn't download games anymore, the only choice they had to satiate their gaming needs would be to actually buy the games, since they couldn't download them anymore, and that would make a big increase in sales.

PC is still the best, but because of piracy only small/independent and Big devs are able to survive solely on it.

- I'm not sure what you're asking about the X360, but 360 is barely affected by piracy. The Xbox Live has a strong anti-piracy method, despite being ridiculously overpriced. Since you're caught if you play a pirated game on Live, people are forced to buy the games with online mode. And Gamers being whores they want achievements, which reduces singleplayer games being pirated.

...................................

- I downloaded ALOT of games until around 2 years ago, I think. Just like any pirate, I had tons of burned cd's of games I barely played. 90% of the games I never even finished them, and alot of them I played no more than couple of hours. Now I don't download anymore, I only buy the games, except ones I can't get my hands on.

- I was a console gamer, then half-console half-PC. Now, and in the last 8 years or so, I'm like 90% PC and 10% console (Wii). I have seen the light!

- I stopped pirating because I was tired of being such a whore and have a weak mentality and I wanted my original games. Supporting the devs is just a bonus.

 @shio

 I didn't say I don't have money to buy PC games :) I have, but prefer to spent them on exclusive console titles, instead of something I can have for free...

 And about the X360- yeah, you get banned if they see you on LIVE with a pirated game, but still, the so called "flashing" is quite popular. And after all, some games (like AC) have singleplayer mode only :)

 Yes, having a PC game downloaded means you can't play on original servers. While this may be a reason to buy a game (especially for MMOs), there still are a lot of other "private" servers. Most of the times, MMO pirate servers truly suck but there's no problem in playing FPS' in those.

I dunno, it may be an issue in Europe. But in the USA the 360's software sales are absolutely epic. It is hard to believe something is actually restraining them.

@ Shio

PC the most profitable platform? Last I saw, PC gaming clocked in at 5% of a $20 billion industry in the US. If you have other numbers, I'd like to see them.

Are you talking about NPD? Are you counting also the hardware revenue? We are talking about software only.

On NPD, PC has 10% of retail revenue, but 14% of software volume. However that doesn't account for DD sales and PC casual games, which when added the estimation makes the PC have an estimated 30% of the entire North-american sofware market. And that's for the US, because in Europe and Asia the PC share is even bigger.