PIRATES AHOY
With Increasing Losses How Is Piracy Affecting The Video Game Industry
Posted by onearmedcookie on Nov 7, 2009 08:59 (23 days ago)
Since the dawn of the Internet, we have seen and heard increasing stories of a new wave of piracy, the piracy of video games, movies and music. Users able to download for free the latest blockbusters, games, albums all for the princely sum of nothing, yes the net has helped users grow their collections without paying a penny. With the advent of broadband and increasing speeds at which we can download files, this type of piracy has seen a steady increase of use. Sites gaining popularity, new ways of sharing files and downloading them to our trusty desktops have all added to the increase of Internet traffic as a whole. So how is it really affecting our beloved games industry, what does this all mean, the companies are still making enough money, so what if one person is playing a game for free does it really affect us??
With recent reports on new government legislation and various stories breaking on the net including the most anticipated game of the year being available nine days before launch, yes Modern Warfare 2 was reportedly available nine days ago for free on the net, I have decided to investigate a little further, seek out how this truly affects us the gamers and the industry as a whole. You want the truth then read on..
Piracy in video games has been a problem for the industry for years, yet we never seem to hear a great deal about it unless it’s a new title or new measures being put in place to combat the scene. In fact even though several government’s this year have been discussing new laws, protocols and ways to combat piracy the only industries highlighted in the debates, seem to be the music and movie industries. Yet piracy affects the games industry if not the same even more so, the games industry although large compared to the other two is still in it’s infancy. Roughly through piracy the video game industry is losing around $5,000,000 per year. Considering the cost to make Halo 3 was a reported $15,000,000 and the price of development if to be believed is still rising, this loss not only affects developers and publishers, it affects the whole industry from game shop managers to the gamer themselves.
So how does this affect everyone within the industry, well of course to battle the loss the most obvious is cost to the end user, the developers need to regain some of the money lost, therefore it results in higher prices of the games themselves. Another knock on effect for the end user, choice of places to actually shop for that elusive game. This year alone many independent game shops have bought the shutters down on their shops for the final time. Obviously there are many factors for these closures, however one must contribute the problem of piracy as one of these problems. By downloading free copies, less revenue is generated and less customers to spend money in these shops. Developers see less profits from the games, which means less money to develop other titles and less money for job security. Already this year we have seen quite a few small promising publishers close up, again there are many reasons behind this including the economic climate, however one does wonder whether if their games had sold more, if they hadn’t been available for free download, would it have helped them ride out this global recession. To be fair it might not have made a difference, yet now we will never know for certain.
These are just a few examples of how piracy affects everyone in this industry, the list could go on for ever, spiraling across the world, affecting everyone. So if it’s a known problem across the globe what are the manufacturers doing to try and stop this how is the industry working together?
Microsoft have always been very anti-piracy and the biggest threat to Xbox users is being banned from Live. If you try to play any copied game while logged into Live, they detect you, expect to have your account banned no more multi-player action for you. In fact over Halloween hundreds of Xbox users awoke to find a present from Microsoft, they had all been banned for using chipped Xbox’s to play copied games. However even now the same people are devising ways to circumvent this, to stay invisible to the eyes of Microsoft, this seems to be the biggest problem, the industry creates a way to protect their games and then someone cracks the system, finds a way past it.
Nintendo on the other hand along with various publishers/developers including Square have taken the fight not to the user but to the people creating the hardware to crack their systems. In the last few months several law suits have been filed against the creators of the notorious R4 card. These law suits are still in the early stages, so unfortunately a little too early to see whether it will help the industry in combating the piracy, one can only hope. Although again the cost’s involved could force prices for games and hardware to once again rise in price, thus affecting the end user once again.
So why do people decide to download copied games, what’s their motives what do they hope to gain, I’ve been doing some research on various sites and the most common reason is not surprisingly, price. People do not like the idea of spending up to £60 per game just so they can play out their fantasies in game, become their favourite hero’s. Another big factor is disappointment so many have found themselves rushing out to buy titles that they think will be worthy of their hard earned cash, only to find the game to be, too short, finished after only a few hours, or simply the game has been rushed through development, bugs galore, poor story, poor graphics. A perfect example has to be Transformers so much could have been done to make it a must own. Unfortunately it turned out to be poorly designed, flaws at every turn, a typical movie tie-in which just left fans wanting so much more. Another big factor at present is the economic climate in various countries, with so many people finding the recession hard hitting, money is not so much of a commodity as it was say three – four years ago, jobs are difficult to find, everything from food to energy bills are on the increase yet many people have found themselves earning less money. The price point of games for some is just to much to even consider.
With the price being the most focal point of why people are prepared to pirate games, I wonder whether or not in fact the best way for the industry to go forward is to acknowledge this and meet users half way, find a price point which deters people from pirating. It is a phenomenon which we will probably never see the end of. What is true and proven though, is for every great leap in copyright protection someone, somewhere, will eventually crack the systems and start the whole process anew. Therefore the industry needs to convert these people to buyers, entice them to go out and buy a game, feel the need to unwrap the polythene wrapper from the game and really enjoy the whole process. For even though the industry is losing, the biggest losers from all this are us, the end users who do invest our hard earned money into the industry.
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