You know that the origin of the "first" widely distributed virus was a "copyright" prank? Two brothers in pakistan put a code in their medical SW that if someone would copy the content of the disk it would release this code that would say that you were breaking their copyright and if you wanted the message removed from your computer to call they number... but it spread much further than that and started showing overseas for people that never even touched their SW.

Look, I'm all for you saying your opinion but lay off going after me as a person otherwise leave me the fuck alone. I don't have any reason to converse with anyone who can't debate without resorting to insults. Can you converse like an adult? I guess we'll see in your next reply.

I'll use your example. if you pirated 100 games and bought 20 of those after the fact, you still pirated 80 games. Sure some of those you'd might not have bought if you didn't have the option to pirate them but it doesn't change that you pirated those games. Also, a good portion of those 80 games, you'd probably would have bought if you had no option to pirate. So yes, they're losing money/purchases to pirates. 

I didn't know about that and you make a good point in posting it. It's an interesting story, though. Hmm do you think someone copied it for shit and giggles or that it just spread from one infected HW to another? I think the game corruption would work though.

Sorry but unless you have the full demonstrative of sales, profits, costs, etc then you can't just absolutelly say 100@20 is better than 10@60. If that was the case (that you would even get to sell 10x more by having price at 1/3) then why doesn't any company release the AAA at those prices? Perhaps they saw that they wouldn't have much more profit for lower prices?

There is a bit more than just the game sales though, at least it today's gaming market. How many of those 100 vs that 10 are paying for DLC and/or microtransactions for example?

I didn't know about that and you make a good point in posting it. It's an interesting story, though. Hmm do you think someone copied it for shit and giggles or that it just spread from one infected HW to another? I think the game corruption would work though.

Some companies did this during the 90s, although I think it was easier back then because pirated games were carts instead of digital downloads. You could try to make a game commit suicide if the copy protection is tampered with or something (the trigger). Although it could still be eventually cracked once people figure out how the trigger works.

I think your DRM just needs to work long enough to protect your game during launch and the months after, which is when you'll get the most revenue. That's the logic some companies have with Denuvo. The problem now is that Denuvo is getting cracked in less than a week after a game release, so who knows what the next big anti-piracy system will be.

well... i can literally say that 100@20 is in fact better than 10@60. that's just maths. what you might be arguing is if at 20, there would really be 100 sales vs 10@60

but you can simply go on Steam and check how the same game is priced differently depending on which market is being sold. a new game sold on a russian account is pretty much half the price of the same game in western europe. so yeah, this type of price variance already exists

That's actually wrong.

Emulators were a thing indeed, specially NES emulators, the most famous one being a psone shapped called PolyStation (as it tricked silly parents into buying a PlayStation, lol), but even during third gen, TEC TOY support was enough proof people supported what they could.

The Sega Master System sold better here than in any other place in the world because we had a company that locally understood the reality here and fully supported it. But later with the PS1 and PS2, the consoles were also EXTREMELY popular here, because people could pay cheap for the games as they were massively pirated.

As a matter of fact, PS2 hardware sales here were very significant while games sales were basically null. People could pay for the tool but not for the products, I remember the first time I went to a store to buy a original PS2 game and it was 20x what I used to pay for 2, as yes, people mostly didn't pirate themselves, they bought it, and when the economy got better (a bubble that exploded now, but it was better to consume back then) and the PS1 kids got older, like me, a big shif happened, PS3 got more popular than the easily piratable and then successful 360 and the PS3 got more popular as it got cheaper and people could now afford a feel games, the PS3 used games market is still likely the country biggest market.

So, emulators weren't a big factor, arcade machines culture was a bigger thing than emulators here until piracy reigned supreme when the PS1 came.

That's actually wrong.

Emulators were a thing indeed, specially NES emulators, the most famous one being a psone shapped called PolyStation (as it tricked silly parents into buying a PlayStation, lol), but even during third gen, TEC TOY support was enough proof people supported what they could.

The Sega Master System sold better here than in any other place in the world because we had a company that locally understood the reality here and fully supported it. But later with the PS1 and PS2, the consoles were also EXTREMELY popular here, because people could pay cheap for the games as they were massively pirated.

As a matter of fact, PS2 hardware sales here were very significant while games sales were basically null. People could pay for the tool but not for the products, I remember the first time I went to a store to buy a original PS2 game and it was 20x what I used to pay for 2, as yes, people mostly didn't pirate themselves, they bought it, and when the economy got better (a bubble that exploded now, but it was better to consume back then) and the PS1 kids got older, like me, a big shif happened, PS3 got more popular than the easily piratable and then successful 360 and the PS3 got more popular as it got cheaper and people could now afford a feel games, the PS3 used games market is still likely the country biggest market.

So, emulators weren't a big factor, arcade machines culture was a bigger thing than emulators here until piracy reigned supreme when the PS1 came.

@bold

it's irrelevant for the argument that x games were pirated. the argument is: does piracy increase or not the legitimate game sales, so please, argue this point.

again, you push assertions with nothing to back them up: "a good portion of those 80 games, you'd probably would have bought if you had no option to pirate."

So yeah, i need to ask again, from where are you pulling that exactly? when a person is afluent enough to be able to afford this hobby, their time is not spend in mental gymnastics on how to circumvent the rules. they will take the easy path to get their pleasure. it's just how humans work.

My conclusion here is this, you're arguing from a moral standpoint. It means you are not even ready to concede that a net positive is possible from an action you deemed immoral from the start.

I am arguing from a practical standpoint. I can see how this action can have a positive effect to the industry. I can see that the long term "investment" on new gamers does pay off by fostering 1 more person that will take gaming as their main hobby even if at some point of their life they couldn't afford it. 

So look back at what your main point, look at my point, and then determine which one exactly is addressing the main question of the OP.

Then tell me how was charging 400 Reais for Disgaea here cheaper or the same as 60 Dolars in the US? Ask Lipe if he didn't pay it for Disgaea before it got a second printing this year.

Games pricing here has been usually 250 to 280 for anything not Sony or very feel other companies ever since the bubble exploded here, and they were 200 when the Dolar was around 2 to less to 1 here, meaning a release should come for 100 to 120 max. Nintendo Switch games are still over 300 and near 400 sometimes here, and they are officially distributed here and not direct imports anymore.

That's just considering raw pricing and not actually going into buying capabilities, wage, and money distribution making the actual money impact on a brazilian to buy games/consoles be around 4x the impact of someone in the US doing the same.

Yes, gaming is absurdly expensive here.

Emulation was a thing, just not as big as it sounded in your later post, it didn't keep gaming going by itself here, arcades and tec toy did, until piracy mass popularity took in.

They mentioned the Phantom System there, it was the most successful NES clone (another famous one was the Dynavision), the PolyStation got more famous but the Phatom System was the biggest, early, copycat hit. The PolyStation got a PolyStation 2 and 3, tho, lol, seriously, it took copycatting to another level hahaha ( all three were the exact same NES emulator, just shapped under Sony different consoles xD)