US Government Told Piracy Losses Are Exaggerated

[mindcycle]

Math fail.

20% of the MARKET, not 20% of their sales, each game is maybe purchased by 5% of the market, which could easily be a 400% improvement in sales.

Not debating the original point, most pirates will never install the game, generally only using it for 'trading' purposes, and from those that do, if the download is decent a significant percentage will actually purchase the game, if it sucks why should they.

You're right, that was a pretty good math fail. lol

What I was attempting to point out is how these, "90% piracy rate!", claims only tell half the story. When the 90% is coming from only a small percentage of the actual user base it's actually easy to see why that's happening. The people who make up that 20% (again, high estimate) are getting games for free so they'll just download anything and everything as it's all the same to them.

Whats questionable to me is that the industry is so worried about a group of people who have no intention on actually buying anything. It reads to me that most of these "piracy is killing our business" claims are from publishers/devs who are putting out products no one is buying. They use piracy as an excuse instead of admitting it was a shit game, poorly marketed, etc..

 

[smackababy]

You're right, that was a pretty good math fail. lol

What I was attempting to point out is how these, "90% piracy rate!", claims only tell half the story. When the 90% is coming from only a small percentage of the actual user base it's actually easy to see why that's happening. The people who make up that 20% (again, high estimate) are getting games for free so they'll just download anything and everything as it's all the same to them.

Whats questionable to me is that the industry is so worried about a group of people who have no intention on actually buying anything. It reads to me that most of these "piracy is killing our business" claims are from publishers/devs who are putting out products no one is buying. They use piracy as an excuse instead of admitting it was a shit game, poorly marketed, etc..

That is simply because it is an easy scapegoat for investors to believe. If you can "show" this, it is not your fault nobody bought your game. They love to sidestep the issue of normally paying customers simply not buying the games and point at a group who doesn't buy the games regardless of price or quality. The majority of pirates will always be pirates so long as there is something free.

 

[aigomorla]

Any specific examples? I have never had a game where DRM works on XP and not on Windows 7/Vista for example.

Also, If a company rips you off are you going to buy from them again?

It sounds like you are really streatching for an answer here. Do you work for Securom?

Mass effect original had a HORRIBLE DRM on it.
And it was a single player game.

I have a copy, infact i even got it from EA for free because a friend there works there.

After a week BS with the DRM, i just got the crack and i played it like that.


You would actually be suprised at how many people pirate the game, and then buy it if it works perfectly on the system for the addons and DLC content.

Ive been burned many times in buying a game at launch only to have it constantly BSOD.

I swore to myself never again am i buying something @ launch.
Demo possibly... never buy.

 

[wanderer27]

I dunno.
In the 70's the government commissioned a report saying pornography had no detrimental effect on the human brain or American society.
The next day Nixon brought the hammer down on porn.

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-v...to-combat-online-piracy-and-counterfeit-goods


Not exact, but pretty darn close . . . and in less than a week's time no less.

 

[shortylickens]

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-v...to-combat-online-piracy-and-counterfeit-goods


Not exact, but pretty darn close . . . and in less than a week's time no less.

“I have a warning to you, we’re committed to putting you out of business,” Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, also known as the “copyright czar,” said, as if she were addressing software pirates and other makers of counterfeit items.

Thats nice, except most pirates arent "in business". The Reactor and those other guys do it for free. And most pirates are kids and grownups who act like kids stealing shit for their own personal use.
A LOT of rights are gonna get trampled in the quest to prosecute a handful pf 15 year old cheapskates. I think I shall post this in P&N.


OK, I just made a thread in P&N. I'd be grateful if you guys took all the political rants over there. At least the flaming and personal attacks.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2084863&highlight=

 

[Slew Foot]

What I don't understand is if Piracy isn't keeping down profits on computer games, what is the major culprit? I am sure there are many, but I always figured that Piracy was the big fish. Poor integrated graphics hurts as well, but not every game requires detailed 3D graphics.

It doesn't make a bit of sense to me that games on consoles sell better than those on computers. The market for consumers with computers is an order of magnitude (probably multiple orders of magnitude) larger than the market for consumers with consoles. I mean there are probably around a billion computers in the world being used, but I can't imagine there even being close to 100 million consoles.

Nintendo Wii itself has sold over 70 million consoles

 

[smackababy]

Nintendo Wii itself has sold over 70 million consoles

Plus the like 60million Xbox360 + PS3 consoles that have been sold. Not to mention the fact that 50% of computers are laptops.

 

[mindcycle]

“I have a warning to you, we’re committed to putting you out of business,” Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, also known as the “copyright czar,” said, as if she were addressing software pirates and other makers of counterfeit items.

Thats nice, except most pirates arent "in business". The Reactor and those other guys do it for free. And most pirates are kids and grownups who act like kids stealing shit for their own personal use.
A LOT of rights are gonna get trampled in the quest to prosecute a handful pf 15 year old cheapskates. I think I shall post this in P&N.

It sounds like government is more out of touch with the actual "issue" than these game publishers are. Doesn't surprise me though.

You're absolutely right however, the majority of pirates are made up of 15 year old kids wanting something for free and people distributing software for competition, not profit. If the government actually has a plan to target pirates who are in it for profit then that's great, but I doubt that's the case. It more likely that they have a very shallow understanding of how the majority of piracy actually happens in a real world scenario.

 

[smackababy]

It sounds like government is more out of touch with the actual "issue" than these game publishers are. Doesn't surprise me though..

You're absolutely right though, the majority of pirates are made up of 15 year old kids wanting something for free and people distributing software for competition, not profit. If the government actually has a plan to target pirates who are in it for profit then that's great, but I doubt that's the case. It more likely that they have a very shallow understanding of how piracy actually works.

They may be targeting pirating outfits that make and distribute software in other countries. IIRC like 90% of Windows users in China are using pirated copies. I think those are the ones the government should be going after. Small scale piracy is a drop in the bucket to what some counterfeiters are doing, turning huge profits bootlegging movies and software.