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Game Piracy Results in Lower Prices?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the behind-the-great-wall dept.

meejahor writes "The BBC reports that Sony will soon launch the PlayStation 2 in China, following Nintendo's lead with the GameCube. Most interesting about the story is the news that, because of widespread piracy in China, PS2 games 'will cost far less than they do in the US or the UK, but still be slightly more than pirated discs.' We've always been told that pirate games push prices up, but doesn't this news suggest that piracy in China has in fact pushed prices down? The story also notes that 'only two or three games will be available at launch' which seems crazy considering the likelihood that people will pirate imported games instead of waiting for them to be released officially." While the Chinese launch of PS2 has been known for a while, the pricing of Chinese games is pretty interesting, given their long history of piracy. I imagine this sort of thing would be considered in the U.S. and other countries were pirated games as widespread as they are in China.

3 of 453 comments (clear)

  1. lower prices by tuggy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i think that piracy will actually help to sell more. i prefer to have a original boxed game with manuals and stuff than a pirated cd... only if the price is too high.. i'll get the pirated version.

  2. not only China, Eastern Europe too by incal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    pirated games (and other software) are widely spread here. even with punishments from fines to 5years of jail, pirates continue to support us in cheap copies. typical prices in poland:

    1 cd (game, productivity, OS - no difference): 2-3 euro.
    1 cd (movies, mp3) - 1 euro.

    licensed copy of windows XP - 100 euro.
    licensed, localised, new PC game from upper shelf - 30 euro.
    licensed game from bottom shelf - 12-15 euro.

    ticket to the new hollywood movie - 3 euro.
    new SF book - 8 euro
    cost of hiring a room for student - 60 euro.

    most people earn here about 250 euro monthly. (like math teacher, policemen, nurse...); best untergraduates can get 80-100 euro.

    I suppose reality in China is much closer to ours, than yours :). dont judge people who live in much poorer parts of the world, ok? maybe at the end of century China will be richest part of the world, and we'll be pirating from them :).

    [sorry for my bad english]

  3. Price comparisons direct from China by ThesQuid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live in China. If you go to the electronics market, people practically drag you into their stores to buy DVDs and VCDs. All software you can possibly imagine, and movies usually 3 days out of the theater. Average price: USD$1 for a movie, up to $10 for a really big software set. And the chinese only sell things when they make money on them, of course. Don't give me that "communist" nonsense. Sure, the substructure of the country is commie, but at the street level and more it's free-wheeling capitalism. The reason it's so cheap is they are paying production costs ONLY, obviously. That's what pirates do. And absolutely NO-ONE in China will buy legit games if they are not only marginally more expensive than copies (like 10-15%)

    Not sure where I'm going with this, but thought it might be interesting.