Not only is PC gaming more expensive, but it has a shorter life cycle too. If you want to keep up to date on the PC, you will probably upgrade your graphics card at least once in the same lifetime that a console has. Add into the fact that most 5 year old PC won't run newer games (eg, there are already games that won't run on anything without PS3.0, and that is less than 3 years old).

 Also the fact that most PC games these days almost always require patching just to fix basic bugs that should have never been shipped. I can see consoles starting to run into this too with the 360 and PS3 allowing game patching. Consoles have always been much easier to get going on that latest game rather than worrying about if it will run and what patches you need.

 I'm not sure how much steam has done to combat piracy. There are definitely pirated versions of games only available on steam that are just as available as any other pirated games. 

piracy is an excuse. The same excuse that the music/movie industry used.
if someone isn't going to buy the game in the first place, s/he isn't going to buy it, no matter what.
There are a few PC games that went without any sort of protection and became best seller. Why? Because the game was good and worth a purchase. An example, Galactic Civilization.

All the disc protection is really annoying. Why the hell do you want your disc drive to periodically spin just to check if the disc is there? The whole game is already on the HDD. All sort of problem comes from disc protection, too. But that's another story.

If your product is good, people will buy it. If it's crappy, people will "test" it before buying. Those that won't buy it regardless of how good it is in the first place will not buy it. So, instead of throwing resources into the disc protection, how about putting some of that money into development?

That's my view on piracy.

I don't see a Freeloader as a threat, I would never of bought several games on my Gamecube if the Freeloader didn't exist.

Ok.. So by your “policy” (and I won’t give names here) if you don’t intend to buy a Ferrari you are free to steal one, right? In fact you could buy a Corolla and steal all the other cars, since the Corolla is the only one you are really "interested" in. Now that is a very interesting "policy"...
Piracy is crime, you are stealing someone else property and there is no excuse for that. My suggestion is that user openly promoting and stimulating piracy should be banned from this website, which is maintained and visited by videogame enthusiasts, people who could never accept their beloved hobby being destroyed by criminals.

Stealing and Video Game piracy isn't the same thing so your analogue is incorrect.

By stealing you are actually taking something away, depriving someone of something they have. By Video Game piracy, you are taking a POTENTIAL sale away, so a more correct analogue would be to buy or make your own Ferrari kit car clone than to buy an actual Ferrari.

Ferrari has lost the potential sale and you have a /similar/ product.

Its not perfect, but its more correct than yours.

The recent Wii update actually broke a freeloader.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/rant/wii-update-breaking-freeloaders-287086.php

And they're unlikely to fix it.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/boooo-hiss/nintendo-unlikely-to-fix-freeloader-issue-287169.php

There is a flaw in your example though. If I take your Ferrari, you not longer have it, therefore you can actually claim a loss. If I pirate your product however, you only have a potential loss. Piracy is not the same as stealing. It is copyright infringement and is consider a civil offense in most countries unlike stealing which is a criminal offence. Civil offenses generally do not have jail time as a penalty but are required to pay for damages. Those who do serve jail time generally do for other offenses, for example, those selling pirated copy are actually selling a counterfiet produce which is classifed as fraud.

Not that I'm advocating piracy, but I'm sick and tired of people equating piracy to stealing (and it is even worse that the RIAA and MPAA promote it as one in the same).

 Edit: Was beaten by Morgyn.

Modchips should be unnecessary because making consoles region-free (and games PAL+NTSC compatible at launch) increases sales anyway and gives for example British gamers the same experience as American ones because they both speak English.

I don't want to have to wait for the game to be translated into Hungarian and then marked up 50% before I can buy it.

You're actually stealing, stealing profit from developers and publishers for working their asses off for months or even years to get a game done well. I find bootleg DS and PSP games all the time and it really gives me the creeps. These sellers make profits and publishers don't get to see a single Buck, Euro or Yen from it. Worst part of it as well... most people don't even know they're buying crap and think they've got an original game in hand.