A Portrait of the UK Game Pirate

Next Generation has a report up on a British study that indicates something like 84 percent of 15 to 18 year olds pirate video games in Britain. 72 percent of those folks pirate games because they can't wait for the UK releases. From the article: "This study shows very clearly the drivers behind videogame piracy...Most respondents who have and will continue to illegally download games are young males, between 15 and 19 years old. They feel videogames are too expensive and resent the long wait for many games released in the US or in Asia before the UK. With a high level of computer literacy, it's easy for them to find a game online and download it. Their friends all do it and why shouldn't they?"

Comments

News Flash!

[brkello]

Piracy is easy. Kids do it. Game publishers are on streets selling crack to feed their family. Film at 11.

Not surprising

[Linus Torvaalds]

72 percent of those folks pirate games because they can't wait for the UK releases.

If this was a tangible product, then it would be expressed as "they get it on the black market because it isn't commercially available".

There's really no good reason for a game to be released in the USA, and then wait months before releasing it in the UK. It's marketing gone wrong.

They feel videogames are too expensive and resent the long wait for many games released in the US or in Asia before the UK.

Imagine that - something is overpriced, so they get it from illegitimate channels instead. Is there any market where this isn't true?

The main difference between video games and physical products is that copyright gives the publishers a monopoly. It's not a free market.

Re:Not surprising

[cpt kangarooski]

There's really no good reason for a game to be released in the USA, and then wait months before releasing it in the UK.

Oh, I'm sure that localizing software from the US to the UK is a time-intensive process, requiring careful attention by the translators.

Re:Not surprising

[Bios_Hakr]

They have to remove the guns and replace them with sticks and whistles.

Plays havoc with most strategies.

Re:Not surprising

[guaigean]

Actually, it can have more to do with laws. IIRC, when Fallout/Fallout 2 were released, the US version was allowed to have children NPC's (which, by your choice you could kill). The UK, I believe, had laws against children in video games like that, and therefore all the killable child NPC's had to be removed and replaced. It's a small example, but enough minor variations in law can add up to months of delays.

Re:Not surprising

[Seumas]

Consumer: I don't want to spend $70 for a videogame or $30 for a DVD. That's very over-priced. I'm going to copy this game from someone else, instead.

Corporation: I don't want to spend $80,000 for a developer. That's very over-priced. I'm going to open up shop in the third world and hire one for less than a burger-flipper makes in my town.

Re:Not surprising

[hackwrench]

A perfectly free market has low barriers to entry, so tell me:
How are you going to afford making a game that someone would rather buy?
How are you going to distribute the game effectively?
How are you going to communicate to that someone that this is, in fact, a game they would rather buy and not some barely working piece of trash?

Re:Not surprising

[Linus Torvaalds]

Last time I checked, I can't copy a physical product outright and sell it either.

Check again. Unless there's government coercion (e.g. patents), yes, you can copy a physical product and sell it.

The Original Post is still perfectly wrong about games being a monopoly.

The *whole point* of copyright is that it creates an artificial monopoly. If it didn't do that, it wouldn't work.

Digital media like video games have no cost to reproduce. The supply is essentially infinite. When the government grants copyright, it interferes with the law of supply and demand that is present in a free market by artificially reducing the supply to whatever the copyright holder deems appropriate.

A free market is a market without coercion. Copyright is a coercive monopoly, and therefore incompatible with a free market.

I can see the release date thing as a driver...

[Atrax]

... but I do think that cost is a major cause. The target market is in the late teens and while this segment has a lot of purchasing power, they're also a hotly metketed-to segment.

This inevitably results in fierce competition for the teen dollar, and hey, "if I can get this game for free, I can afford to spend the money on that neat pair of sneakers everyone says are so cool" and so on...

Now, for me, as an adult with a bit more of a budget than the average 18 year-old, the release date thing really annoys me. In Australia we usually have a long wait for product 'x', but I can buy online if I so choose and bypass the release date problem (except where a PAL version of a console game isn't available until long after the NTSC version)

So yeah, I think cost is the biggest factor.

Re:I can see the release date thing as a driver...

[superpulpsicle]

But this is lame statistics.

Let's say GTA comes out in the U.S. You live in the UK, but your aunt lives in the U.S. She buys the game for $50 for you as a gift. You rip it into UK's PAL format so your PS2 can play it.

In the eye of the industry, that aunt is a fucking pirate deserving to burn in hell. To me, she's a good customer.

Re:I can see the release date thing as a driver...

[Svenheim]

I think a more logical reason for why cost is an issue is because games are usually priced somewhat equally, even though the content is vastly different. GTA: San Andreas, Disgaea, or Guild Wars might give you 100+ hours of gameplay for $50, whereas Star Wars: Republic Commando, Prince of Persia 2, or God of War might give you 10 or 20. After you spend $50 each for three great games that last 100+ hours, and then spend another $50 each on three lesser games that are much, much shorter, you start to think, "Maybe it's safer to pirate the next one... that way I can't get burned."

Yes, a game that takes 100 hours to get through is obviously worth 10 times as much as a game that takes 10 hours to play through!

Similarly, a 3 hour movie is so much better than a 2 hour movie, and a 500 page book can beat any 300 page book!

Those aren't the REAL reason.

[defkkon]

I'm sure the late release dates is one reason. I mean, I live in Canada, so I don't have to worry about that. I'm sure the late release dates are annoying as hell.

I can also believe that the high prices are a factor. ONE factor.

The real reason. The BASE reason is because its free and easy. You could charge $15 for every game. You know what? The people would still pirate. I can buy CDs for $9.99 off of iTunes now. Do I? Well... I'll leave that up to your imagination. The key here is that FREE is always better that having to pay something. I don't care if the release dates are pushed back and the price is sky-high - free is always best.

Re:Those aren't the REAL reason.

[jensen404]

I just bought a couple of used Gamecube games on Ebay, because I think $50 is too much.

What I did was legal, but Nintendo didn't make any money from me.

That is one of the things driving DRM... making media non-transferable.

Re:Those aren't the REAL reason.

[GigsVT]

I can buy CDs for $9.99 off of iTunes now. Do I?

I can buy CDs from allofmp3 for $3. Do I? Yes. Close to $100 worth in the last year. Would I do it if it were $9.99 and DRMed? No.

Same with CDs.. I'm not going to pay $15-$20 for a CD.

Just as the open source attckers often say "only if your time is free" the same applies to piracy.

There's an opportunity cost involved, and if someone wants to sell me a product cheaper than my opportunity cost, then I'll buy it. If they don't then that's their loss. I'll find some other way to get what I want or just do without it.

This is what copy protection has always tried to do, raise the opportunity cost for piracy. It hasn't been very successful, ever. The content producers should give up on trying to raise the opportunity cost and just sell below it. They would see their profits soar (especially the music industry that has literally hundreds of thousands of songs locked away).

So the path is simple. Release your entire library of music online. No DRM. And keep the price very low, 10 cents a song is reasonable. You'll see the music industry become one of the largest industries in the US overnight.

Or keep the blinders on and keep suing your customers. We'll see how that works out.

Re:Those aren't the REAL reason.

[Anonymous Coward]

The real reason. The BASE reason is because its free and easy. You could charge $15 for every game. You know what? The people would still pirate.
No! They wouldn't! You fail to grasp the problem. Who'd want to spend 24-72 hours downloading an iso off bittorrent, burn it to DVD and end up with a crappy black marker denoted copy that you can only play on a chipped console, when you could just roll down to the store and buy it for $15 dollars and get a shiny case and booklet as well.

Market rules still apply. I will "purchase" the cheapest product. Most people would value $15 as less than a three day wait and a crappy disc. You don't think so? Talk to Steve Jobs. Ask him how many mp3s he's sold lately, and then wonder why, oh why the fact people could download crappy id3less versions off p2p networks, didn't disusade them from forking over cash.

What's that? Ohh yes! It's the old TCO argument cropping up again. Turns out, time and effort is money too! The cost may be $0, but how come Linux has a higher TCO? The cost may be $0.99 but iTunes mp3's often have a lower TCO than the alternative.

Segmented markets are no longer feasible

[infernow]

It seems that part of this problem could be resolved rather easily by just releasing the game to the UK when it's released elsewhere. If they can release the game in Asia at the same time as in the US, I see no reason why some English-language versions of the game can't be shipped over to the UK for sale. It's not like it has to be translated or anything.

This is all rather similar to the DVD region-coding tactic. Splitting the world into isolated markets where you can charge more or less for the same product just doesn't work any more. People will just get on the internet and, for example, order their Futurama DVDs from Europe earlier or for less than they can in the US, or they'll just pirate them. Companies know that piracy equals lost sales, so why don't they just release as widely as possible so people can just get what they want?

I used to play video games...

[tom8658]

They feel videogames are too expensive and resent the long wait for many games released in the US or in Asia before the UK.

... and that would be why I stopped. My job doesn't pay me near enough that I can afford to buy a USD40-50 game more than once or twice a year, and no game (except Alpha Centauri and Halo) can keep me entertained for more than a few weeks... I just can't replay the damn things. If I want to play something, my options are:

1. Don't buy the game
2. Pirate the game via bittorrent
3. Pirate the game via my friend and a DVD-R drive

Re:I used to play video games...

[Gothic_Walrus]

You forgot the fourth option: spend less.

Stores like Best Buy and Target have games in their sales circulars every week.

Coupons (like Best Buy's Gamer Gift Card or the $5 off any PS2 title that they're offering now) and discount cards help to save a little bit of money. Coupons are free, and the cards are cheap - I got my EB Edge card for $5.

When games hit the clearance racks, they drop in price amazingly quickly. Toys R Us had a very nice selection of games in a clearance sale that, over the course of a few months, increased from 30% off to a whopping 90% off. Walking into the store, spending $15, and waslking out with five or six new games is a very nice feeling.

Buy used. You'll save a lot of money, the games are usually in good shape, and you should be able to return or exchange if the disc is damaged.

Rent. Some games aren't worth the $50, or even $20.

Wait. Sony releases a new batch of Greatest Hits titles every few months or so, and Microsoft and Nintendo have their own lines (albiet ones that aren't updated as often). Every game will drop in price eventually; what was once rare and expensive for the N64 can now be had for $15-$20. PC games hit the jewel case racks within a year or so of release. If you're patient, you'll be able to play it.

Say you buy two $50 games a year. I've spent less than that this year, and I've got a giant pile of quality unplayed games waiting for me. Hell, I've got more than I can play right now because I keep jumping on sales.

You, my friend, don't have a clue in hell as to what you're talking about.

Re:I used to play video games...

[tom8658]

you're all exactly right! I have no moral standards! I have no ability to distinguish between right and wrong! I eat babies with ranch dressing!!!!!!

honestly...if it were that easy to "reevaluate my expenses" and magically make more money appear, wouldn't I have done it already? It's not like I smoke two packs a day or something.

The problem is the French and Germans!

[rishistar]

One of the reasons for the long delay in a game making it to England is sometimes the fact that the UK is treated as part of the Europe market in terms of release. The wait is then for the translations to happen for the major continental European languages.

I guess as voice becomes more and more popular as a replacement for text for explaining things/moving plots along etc this process gets more complicated.

If its only a couple of weeks between release dates I don't mind - it gives me a chance to check out reviews and change my mind on buying it if it appears to suck.

Re:The problem is the French and Germans!

[Dachannien]

The problem isn't the French and Germans. The problem is with the game publishers who evidently don't "get" that Brits speak essentially the same language as Yanks, ignoring loos, lorries, lifts, and bobbies.

If people are ripping you off and they say the reason is because they don't want to wait for the product to be released locally, then there's an easy solution: release the product locally! Start considering the US and UK to be part of the same market. If piracy is such a problem in the UK because of this, then addressing the customer's complaints will result in a far greater boost in revenue than any cost savings for releasing the game in the UK along with the rest of Europe.

In other words: duh!

Education is key

[satanami69]

Just teach them kids right and don't copy that floppy

sounds like an untapped market to me

[Naikrovek]

whenever you see people breaking the law with intellectual property, you are looking into the eyes of an untapped market. Apple saw this and created iTunes.

A surprisingly large portion of illegal downloaders download songs, movies, and games because they want to download them, not because they want to steal. So sell it to them electronically.

Problem: Teen blokes in the UK download US games before their native release?
Solution: Release the US version in the UK and the US on the same day. Make it available for download in the UK and take $10 off the price because the words are all spelled wrong and the voice overs have that horrible American accent. Also, you don't need to package the box, press the CDs, and ship it to the UK. Give the online purchaser in the UK the same price you give to the chain stores here in the US.

I think you'd see the percentage of illegal downloads go down.

Buy used, dumbass

[77Punker]

How about you could buy 4 games a year if you bought $20 used copies? They're just as good and cost less and you can usually find anything you want used at local game shops with the right amount of time.

It really is easy

[GrassMunk]

The kids pirate because its easyer than asking mommy and daddy for 30 - 70 USD. I mean who really thinks that a teenager discusses the social ramification about piratings games. They do it cause its cheap and its easyer than asking the 'rents for cash. Then when they get to univ. its more about saving money for school than paying for games. Then once you've graduated and have a job your saving for a house or a car or rent. In all honesty i dont understand how game companies make any money?

Re:Console barrier to entry

[alan_dershowitz]

Copying the bootloader for interoperability purposes (as opposed to piracy) has been legal for years. Please read the decision on Sega vs. Accolade.

I'm pretty sure that every video game console still does this (I know for a fact the GBA does), but legally it's a lame threat in the USA.

Thats not a portrait of a UK game pirate

[FidelCatsro]

http://www.acemurdermystery.com.nyud.net:8090/imag es/pirate/Bluebeard_2.jpg
That's a picture of a UK game(Legged) Pirate , Blue beard

Re:Of course there is

[Linus Torvaalds]

Imagine that - something is overpriced, so they get it from illegitimate channels instead. Is there any market where this isn't true?

Nobody pirates newspapers, magazines and books.

Does anybody think newspapers, magazines and books are overpriced?

Piracy only starts to spring up when people are dissatisfied with the leggitimate option

And one form of dissatisfaction is considering something to be overpriced.