Ubisoft: PC has Piracy Rate of 93-95%, F2P the Future

[Jesus_Phish]

Fortunately, with the magic of digital distribution and online retailers like Amazon, that doesn't happen.

Shh, don't point out massive flaws in his argument like that :p We need everyone to think that games are still as rare as a nintendo wii at christmas the year it launched for his point to be valid.

[Kadayi]

What if they were sold out of the game everywhere? Would you wait? Why can't you wait for TV shows then?

A game is either available or it isn't. If it isn't available then the subject is frankly moot.

[gundato]

I guess one could argue that every so often (during a mega sale for a game that flopped) Steam will run out of serial keys. Or how GMG ran out of prepurchase keys for GW2.

But even then, you usually get the serial within a week (for the former) and you can increase your odds of avoiding this by keeping an eye out and making sure the first thing you do after a purchase on Steam is to look at the serial (same with Steam Keys from Humble Bundles).

[Jesus_Phish]

And lets not forget if Steam run out of keys (which is generally just during a sale), you can probably get a key from amazon, gmg, gamersgate, etc etc. It would be a very rare and I'd wager almost impossible scenario for every digital retailer to run out of keys for a game at the same time.

[gundato]

I could see it happen with an indie game that uses steamworks.

Valve allocates them a comparatively small number of keys. it is an indie game from a new dev, nobody cares.
Simultaneous (possibly launch) sales on the Dev's site, Steam, and Amazon (nobody else stocks it)
All three sources run out of keys because said game is the next MineBall Z

But even then, Steam would just allocate more keys, and it would be a week or two delay, at most.

[Hypernetic]

A game is either available or it isn't. If it isn't available then the subject is frankly moot.

That's not true at all.

[Shenanigans]

Who says I don't support the shows producers? I buy the shows on DVD when they become available. Breaking bad just isn't shown over here (not even on Sky bizarrely) and Season 4 isn't released on DVD until October 1st (presently on pre-order). TV and games have entirely distinct revenue streams.

So basically, if a European pirates a game to get to play if early(since delayed releases are common), it'/s a-ok as long as it's bought later? Or am I doing it wrong?

[NathanH]

So basically, if a European pirates a game to get to play if early(since delayed releases are common), it'/s a-ok as long as it's bought later? Or am I doing it wrong?

If you buy the game on release, I'd say this is not really a problem. If you're going to give them the maximum amount of money they are ever going to ask for the game as soon as you can, who cares if you play it a few days earlier?

[Hypernetic]

So basically, it's ok to steal so long as you have good intentions of paying them back later. I wonder how well that would hold up in court. For that matter I wonder how well Kadayi's "but I am going to buy the DVD when it comes out" argument would hold up in court. NOT WELL I THINK, not well.

[Shenanigans]

If you buy the game on release, I'd say this is not really a problem. If you're going to give them the maximum amount of money they are ever going to ask for the game as soon as you can, who cares if you play it a few days earlier?

So, pirates who pirate for demo purposes are ok?

[Drayk]

So basically, it's ok to steal so long as you have good intentions of paying them back later. I wonder how well that would hold up in court. For that matter I wonder how well Kadayi's "but I am going to buy the DVD when it comes out" argument would hold up in court. NOT WELL I THINK, not well.

In court ? Where do you live, wonderland ? How many cases of piracy are in courts around the globe ? Have you ever looked at how many legal cases are waiting years to be trialed ? You're right that those arguments don't hold in court, but speaking of legal action against a single pirate seems irrelevant.

Sure, from time to time a poor sod has some trouble.

Piracy is impossible to stop by any legal means. It's so widespread. I don't know a single person around me who hasn't download a TV show, a DVD, a game, a music album. And I know cops, lawyers, politicians, ...

I don't mean it's not a crime, I mean it's such a minor nuisance that courts don't have the manpower, time and resources to really stand against it.

You don't fight piracy. You try to maximize your paying customers. Or you take actions to put taxes on Hard drives, or a tax on the internet connections to give some money back to programmers, artists, publishers... That's just damage control.

[Nalano]

In court ? Where do you live, wonderland ? How many cases of piracy are in courts around the globe ? Have you ever looked at how many legal cases are waiting years to be trialed ? You're right that those arguments don't hold in court, but speaking of legal action against a single pirate seems irrelevant.

He was being facetious. You, on the other hand...

[Phantoon]

So what about if you've bought the game, but can't find the discs? Or if you've prebought it, but it's not available yet (COUGH DARKSIDERS TWO COUGH not that I had this issue, I live in America)

[Nalano]

So what about if you've bought the game, but can't find the discs? Or if you've prebought it, but it's not available yet (COUGH DARKSIDERS TWO COUGH not that I had this issue, I live in America)

Or it doesn't matter if you paid for it or didn't pay for it, as everybody under the title of project lead was laid off a week before launch anyway?

[Drayk]

He was being facetious. You, on the other hand...

Really ? I did not mean to sound harsh. I don't always get some subtlety in English...

[Phantoon]

Indeed. I like how there can be rationalized special circumstances, unless it's something the person disagrees with. Piracy is either wrong or acceptable and you do not set the terms for if it is piracy or not. No amount of rationalizing will make your torrenting of episodes of a show any less piracy no matter how much you push the keys on the keyboard with your opinion on them. The argument is if it's morally wrong or not, not how your specific mitigating circumstances mean you're right where everyone else is wrong.

And I'm a terrible judge of it because I believe communism is the natural next social step for humanity (Star Trek, not Bolshevik style).

[NathanH]

So basically, it's ok to steal so long as you have good intentions of paying them back later. I wonder how well that would hold up in court.

If for every game you were caught illegally downloading you could prove that on day-of-release you purchased the game, you'd have a decent defence I should think; it'd be hard for them to squeeze much money out of you. In the case of games that haven't been released yet, you could even have paid for them before you pirated the game. So it can even be stronger than "good intentions".

So, pirates who pirate for demo purposes are ok?

I was responding only to the question of pirating games that haven't been released yet in your region that you will purchase with probability 1 (regardless of your experience with the pirated version) when they are released. Pirating for demo purposes is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[Hypernetic]

Indeed. I like how there can be rationalized special circumstances, unless it's something the person disagrees with. Piracy is either wrong or acceptable and you do not set the terms for if it is piracy or not. No amount of rationalizing will make your torrenting of episodes of a show any less piracy no matter how much you push the keys on the keyboard with your opinion on them. The argument is if it's morally wrong or not, not how your specific mitigating circumstances mean you're right where everyone else is wrong.

And I'm a terrible judge of it because I believe communism is the natural next social step for humanity (Star Trek, not Bolshevik style).

Don't be so direct about it, you will scare them away and what fun is that?

[Hypernetic]

If for every game you were caught illegally downloading you could prove that on day-of-release you purchased the game, you'd have a decent defence I should think; it'd be hard for them to squeeze much money out of you. In the case of games that haven't been released yet, you could even have paid for them before you pirated the game. So it can even be stronger than "good intentions".



I was responding only to the question of pirating games that haven't been released yet in your region that you will purchase with probability 1 (regardless of your experience with the pirated version) when they are released. Pirating for demo purposes is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Copyright infringement is illegal, it doesn't matter what your intentions were or if you paid for it later.

[Shenanigans]

If for every game you were caught illegally downloading you could prove that on day-of-release you purchased the game, you'd have a decent defence I should think; it'd be hard for them to squeeze much money out of you. In the case of games that haven't been released yet, you could even have paid for them before you pirated the game. So it can even be stronger than "good intentions".
.

So I can go and burn a rip off of the artists original recording before release, as long as I intend to buy the recording at a later date when they decide to release it. Gotcha.