It's vastly becoming a recurrence within the video game industry; the contentious blame against pirates for "major" losses in profit. Of course, why wouldn't the industry blame people who pirate their titles instead of purchasing them legally. That said, recently, a major study has developed which supports pirates, stating that they're the video game industries "largest consumers" -- instead of a plague.
After a study done on Dutch file-sharers, Prof. Nico van Eijk of the University of Amsterdam concludes that: "These figures show that there is no sharp divide between file sharers and others in their buying behavior. On the contrary, when it comes to attending concerts, and expenses on DVDs and games, file sharers are the industry's largest customers... There does not appear to be a clear relationship between the decline in sales and file sharing."
It seems that, rather than these file-sharers stealing more and buying less, they are buying more games than the average consumer.
Comments
Thats it? Thats all youre giving us? This could have been a great article if it wasnt a simple copy paste with little thought put into he resolution or expansion of the information you took from (probably) a gaming site.
Why not take this information and expand it to, i dont know why the data presented is the way it is?
Nevermind, this is tripe and should be stricken from the record for being flimsy and taken from another source and just regurgitated and really not adding anything to the discussion at all.
Very interesting point, Dude!
Lou Woods
Somecrappywebsite.com
Kids don't buy them because they have no money, but they are future customers, let them pirate.
Average people don't play video games at $60 / pop, they buy them used.
Uber-geeks buy new games, and sometimes share them with people because they LOVE the game! They are your biggest fan, they are the people this article is talking about. They are just giving the games to the kids in point one.
Average guy is going to always buy the games used and IF his ubergeek friend tells him the game is really worth playing, OR his little brother or child tells him to buy the game.
So really, focus on making great games. Give away demos, some people will pirate, that's ok it's free advertising because the people that will buy your game won't impulse do it until it's a button on the TV remote and costs less than $10. Like pay-per-view.
If developers used Steam's content distribution and delivery platform combined with better deals, (IE: Not charging 50.00USD for CoD2 after its been out a damn long time) they would increase their sales.
Its not that a majority of file sharers are trying to rip off companies, they are just sick of being overcharged. 50.00USD for Xbox game, another 50.00 for the PC version, etc etc.
If you look at sales charts during Steam's promotional events, the option is clear.
These companies need to stop whining about their 'losses' and move with the flow of the technology. Provide us with better means of accessing your content, and throw deals out there such as "buy this on xbox and get it 50% off on steam" etc.
What a short article. First, cite your source. You've provided no links anywhere on your article, and I've seen enough people distort the facts on the internet to know not believe what people say when they cite someone else. Second, people who love music/games/movies are more likely to pirate. Even if piracy caused a decline in their purchases, it might not be enough to lower their purchases below the non-pirating population (who are also less likely to care about the products in the first place). Finding higher purchasing among pirates does not actually allow you to conclude that piracy increased their purchases. Third, if pirates decided to not identify themselves as pirates - even though they're downloading everything for free and never paying, it would skew the results of the non-pirate population - artificially lowing the purchase rates of non-pirates, which makes pirates look better. Fourth, if you're going to copy and paste from the May3rd ArsTechnica article, mention it.
The original May 3rd ArsTechnica article (from which Connor got his information and his images for this article) is here:
Google it:
File-sharers are content industry's "largest customers"
By Nate Anderson | Last updated May 3, 2010
Of course, what piracy advocates never ask every time a study like this comes up is: how much money would file-sharers be spending were they not getting a substantial amount of their product for free? They want to pretend that file-sharers are average consumers and not super-consumers who spend more, and likely would spend A LOT more were they not able to steal much of their content of choice.
Yeah well, i think something important for anyone trying to talk ill of pirating as if it's some detriment to a consumer market should look at the facts. Games, music, movies, art, etc are all forms of objective art entertainment. Just because Best Buy puts a label of 15.99 on a Britney spears album and 15 thousand people pirate the album the day of it's release does not = 239,850 dollars in lost sales. There's nothing to say those people would have ever purchased the album, nor anything saying the album is even worth 15 dollars. In fact the album is only worth and should only be worth what the consumer market is willing to purchase it for. The End.
Oh wow, who would have thunk it??
Lou
www.anonymous-web-surfing.cz.tc
Massawyrm - If pirates can't get the product for free then they're less likely to buy it. Seems strange, I know, but there is logic to it.
By pirating a product one can get a good look at it to examine the quality. If it's good quality and likely to be played again and again, then buying it through Steam is a hell of a lot more convenient than having to constantly patch it.
Convenience is a powerful force. It's why iTunes is so popular in a world where music can be had for free at a moment's notice.
BIGGGEST reason why prople pirate PC games? They make the games so when you buy it you are stuck with it no matter what. Even if your machine can't run it or its a junk game, you are stuck with it. and when most these games are 50-60$ its kinda hard to justify spending it on a questionable game if you can't play it or it sucks.
Could someone send a copy of this to the guys developing DRM for Ubisoft and EA?
(I am surprized no one mentioned Ubisoft)
I would also point that some pirates are form Third World countries and the exchange rates are such that they can barely afford a high-end PC or Console. They usually combine used and new parts for PCs to be able to play games at lower resolutions and smaller monitors,even CRTs. But when their countries fortunes improve they would gladly pay for original merchandise. For them pirated games act as advertisements.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!