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Console Players Are Pirates

Posted by Zonk on from the yo-ho-ho dept.

According to a study by Macrovision one in five console gamers is a pirate, or uses pirated software. Interestingly the study, detailed on GamesIndustry.biz, also found that "three quarters of them would have paid for the games if they hadn't been available for free." Coverage also available on IGN.

8 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Don't believe... by turtled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't believe this for a second. A survey of 6000 people does not represent the millions of gamers in North America. Also... the main bias of this survey is that Macrovision is trying to peddle their copy protection services to MS and Sony.

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    "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
    1. Re:Don't believe... by oliana · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually a survey of 6000 people with a 20% affirmative rate with a confidence level of 99% has a margin of error of 1.33% for a population of infinite size. At the same level of confidence, the number of people who'd buy instead of "borrow" has a margin of error of 3.22%.

      6000 is a lot of surveys. The approx. 1200 "piraters" is still a large basis for a survey. Unless the survey was biased, the selection of the surveyed was biased or something of the like, the numbers are probably fairly accurate.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, asses suck this joke.
  2. What? by CMGaretJax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I may have missed something, but they go from talking about software to games... software is not the same as a game, and that stat seems wildly out of whack. There are a handful (at least) of hurdles that one has to overcome before being able to priate a game, and it doesn't seem like the average gamer would neccesarily also be tech savvy enough to have, and keep the motivation in order to actually pirate the material.

  3. I some how doubt by Stop+Error · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That people who only have a passing interest or curiosity in a game would pay money for it. (outside of a rental)

    Now if they could download and burn the same game they may be more willing to give it a wirl.

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  4. Hm.. by revmoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't suppose Macrovision would have the slightest bit of bias in this sort of a study? Seeing as they sell copy-protection technology...

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    I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
  5. A BS Survey by savagexp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For a number of reasons, including who conducted it (Macrovision), their sample target (Techno-savvy gamers), and their sample size (6,000). Not to mention that we haven't yet seen the actual survey that they (presumably) e-mailed these people. There's also the issue of multiple responses from the same person. I assume they tried to prevent this with IP logging, but it is certainly still feasible. Also unknown are they type of "gaming" sites. If they attached a survery to GameCopyWorld.com, that just might skew the results a tad bit. I will take this article and with it, a giant-sized cube of salt.

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    Doer of bad deeds, screenwriter-wannabe
    savagexp
  6. Re:Well.. by evil-osm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But you are supporting consoles, you bought the unit didn't you? That is all that MS needs to know that they sold X units, which gives them bragging rights, plus it gives them sway with games developers as to what platform games should be ported to first. Remember the good old days when GTA was on the PC only? when Halo was originally developed for the PC?

    You are playing the games, albeit they are pirated (so you say). However have you played these games in absolute silence? or did you tell friends about how cool game X is?

    So unfortunatly your still supporting them...

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    E.

    Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
  7. Same with crippled shareware vs the "honor system" by mc6809e · · Score: 5, Interesting


    In the article here, shareware author Colin Messit discovered that less than 20% of the people using his software would pay for it voluntarily.

    He wrote his software in such a way that a user installing it would have a 50/50 chance of getting a crippled version or a non-crippled version at time of installation. When people registered, they sent their serial numbers which encoded whether or not they had the crippled version or the "honor system" version.

    He discovered that the crippled version was registered (people sent money) 5 times as often as the "honor system" version.

    Conclusion? Most people only pay if they have to.