How Console Piracy Affects Gaming

Thanks to GameSpy for posting a three-part article discussing the problems of pirated console games, and the steps being taken to combat the problem. The article talks to IDSA boss Doug Lowenstein, and suggests that "..console piracy is a worldwide industry, as multi-national as wireless telephones or McDonalds hamburgers.", also contrasting the piracy problems of the major manufacturers: "Nintendo's piracy problems are more localized than those of Sony and Microsoft. While GameCube piracy has not been a problem, Game Boy piracy, on the other hand, has proliferated."

Comments

Lik-Sang

[jnguy]

When Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo banded together to make Lik-Sang stop selling its "back-up" products, I think it stopped piracy only to a certain extent. Now people just go else where. There will always be pirates and people that buy and make illegal games. Piracy affects the ability for certain game makers to make good games, because if they don't recieve income from games in the past, they will be unable to create games in the future.

Re:Lik-Sang

[PainKilleR-CE]

And you can be damn sure that if you went around trying to duplicate and sell those figurines, you would hear from the company.

They key is in the 'and sell' part. Only a small number of people would bother to justify selling copies of games (though more would try to justify buying those copies). Backing up copyrighted material is covered under fair use in the US.

Some PC game publishers do have a policy of sending replacement CDs for a small fee if you return a scratched or otherwise damaged disc to them directly. As long as software publishers continue to 'license' software instead of selling it, they should be obligated to replace licensed copies at a moderate fee to cover the cost of replacement.

Of course, in some cases, depending on how long you've had the game before it the media was broken, it may be easier to go pick up another copy, and may even cost the same amount (though in my experience console games stay at a higher price longer than PC games).

Re:Lik-Sang

[Creepy Crawler]

With the statuette, you may for the making of the statuette. With games, you pay for the DATA. The disc/cart is just a way to transport the data.

And if we're paying for that 1 copy of the data, we should be able to, for a fair price, send the remains of the broken media and get a new disc/cart.

Since MANY game manufacturers do not allow that, we're forced to use "semi-legal" means where you cannot tell if it's backup or copyright violation. And now add in zone-based game plays where a Japanaes game wont work in the use (GameCube exempt as a switch inside which does this). You need a modchip to play a LEGIT game.

And with the statue, it prevents making them in mass quantities. If you were to use pictures from artist XYZ, you can use them for private displays. But you had better not sell them publically without written consent. And would you want to make a cast of that statuette, and prepare it, and make it? Dont think so. It's a wee bit easier copying data, which is the issue. Not some ditzy statuette statement.

Come on...

[greg987123]

Wee all know that most people wouldn't pirate a game that they would want to buy in the first place.
We really need to worry about more serious things.

is this really a problem?

[pb]

I think the vast majority of people just go to the store and buy their games--either when they come out, when they get cheaper, used, whatever--and the actual percentage of people who mod their conosles is relatively small. Obviously you'd have to study this, but like the interview says, they aren't hurting.

However, what about the people who do mod their consoles and download games? I knew a guy who had tons of Playstation games and almost every Dreamcast game period. He had more games than he could ever buy, and he was a college student. He still spent what money he had on Playstation and Dreamcast peripherals and whatnot.

So how much money did the big video game companies lose on him personally? Probably the price of a few games, at most. And how much did they make? Well, I don't know, but I had the opportunity to try out just about any game I wanted to for the Playstation and the Dreamcast, without having to buy it. Now I have a Playstation, and I have quite a few games for it, all legal.

So I guess the question here is, does the price of the one or two games the average modder would otherwise end up having to pay for outweigh the incredible amount of free advertising they do?

Personally, I'd say their time would be better spent going after the professional pirates, who can produce professional-looking games at base manufacturing costs. And I'd say the same thing to the RIAA and the MPAA. Just as long as you aren't actively screwing over the vast majority of law-abiding customers, you have nothing to fear; this is probably why the RIAA is so scared right now. :)

What I'd like to see...

[Creepy Crawler]

Is the console 'backup' makers open chip firmware and tracings so that anybody can make those devices.

Lets see how Console makers like them apples.

I think before

[Apreche]

I think I talked about this before, but now I get to post early so more people will see it!

Pretty much piracy is a double edged sword. If your system is pirateable like MS or Sony you get increased market share. But at the same time if your system is unpirateable you get more profit per sale.

Check this. Playstation games are pirateable, probably the most pirated games ever. The PS1 is a cheap and easily obtainable and moddable piece of hardware. Low income people (most of the world) can afford to get the Playstation because they can get the hardware cheap and can pirate games. I know a lot of people who have PSOnes. Sometimes I think I'm the only person without one. But all of them that I know have both legitimate and pirated/imported games. Because games are pirateable more people buy the system, and those who own the system are highly likely to buy a few legitimate games. However, because of piracy you will have a few people who would have and could have bought the game, but pirate instead. And of course if your system is pirateable there is the extra revenue you get by winning lawsuits against pirates.

Then you look at an unpirateable system like the cube. Everyone who owns a cube paid for it. They paid for every game they own and every accesory for the system. So on every sale Nintendo makes profit. The only people who own a cube are people who want it and can afford it. Nobody else has one, so Nintendo's market share is low. But when a game comes out for the cube that is awesome, like wind waker, it is instantly a million seller. Everyone who has the system buys the game.

So, piracy good and bad at the same time. Market share or profit margin? I don't see Nintendo going out of business any time soon, but I don't see sony going out either. But I do see XboX turning a loss despite higher market share in the US over the cube. Hmmmm.

Companies sometimes encourage piracy.

[AtariAmarok]

When the companies refuse to make available where there is a demand games which are available in other regions, this of course encourages piracy.

This is very similar to the region system in DVD's, which does nothing but encourage piracy, DeCSS, and region-free hacks of players because the companies often never make certain material available in certain regions.

In situations like this, the problem is not piracy: piracy is a symptom and result of the companies inexplicably refusing to take money for games (or movies) that the public wants to buy.

How much in North America/Europe?

[Mantrid]

I wonder how many console games are actually copied in North America? Especially the "current generation" of consoles - I don't think I know anyone with pirated versions of X-Box, GC, or PS2 software.

I think PC Piracy is a much bigger problem - I do know more than one person who will d/l software. And even large than that, is the borrowing/cracking of games between friends. I'm sure most purchased PC games make it onto more than one machine.

Piracy Vs. Success

[lordfoul]

Gameboy / GBA - Piracy High - Success High
Play Station - Piracy High - Success High
N64 - Piracy low - Success Low
Play Station 2 - Piracy High - Success High
GameCube - Piracy none - Success Low

That may not say Everything, But it sure says Something.