I never thought that piracy was really an issue in the game industry. However, After reading a few articles stating that huge games like Fallout 3, Fable II, and now even Gears of War 2 have been leaked onto torrent sites and are being downloaded by thousands of people, I realized that maybe the issue is a little bigger than I once suspected.
Its scary to think that piracy is beginning to take hold of the game industry, just look at the lasting damage it has had on movies and music. I really hope it doesn't get out of hand because I don't want to see the quality of games plummet. Bottom line is, the more money they make, the more money they have to invest on their next game. If they don't have the needed funds to create a game properly then its going to be half assed and sell even less the next go around. And from there you're going to see companies going out of business.
If a games bad, then I just outright boycott it and call it a day. However, if a games good then I have no problem pay the sixty dollar price tag. Perhaps a little steep but for sixty bucks some of these games have given me literally hundreds of hours of entertainment. I don't buy the argument that piracy is not stealing. It is. You are cheating someone out of money that they deserve for letting you own their product. Bottom line.
Obviously piracy is a reality thats not going away anytime soon. I'm not too worried about it at the moment because the gaming world is still booming. Once the quality of games start to suffer, thats when I'll be getting annoyed. Hopefully it wont get to this point.
Its scary to think that piracy is beginning to take hold of the game industry, just look at the lasting damage it has had on movies and music. I really hope it doesn't get out of hand because I don't want to see the quality of games plummet. Bottom line is, the more money they make, the more money they have to invest on their next game. If they don't have the needed funds to create a game properly then its going to be half assed and sell even less the next go around. And from there you're going to see companies going out of business.
If a games bad, then I just outright boycott it and call it a day. However, if a games good then I have no problem pay the sixty dollar price tag. Perhaps a little steep but for sixty bucks some of these games have given me literally hundreds of hours of entertainment. I don't buy the argument that piracy is not stealing. It is. You are cheating someone out of money that they deserve for letting you own their product. Bottom line.
Obviously piracy is a reality thats not going away anytime soon. I'm not too worried about it at the moment because the gaming world is still booming. Once the quality of games start to suffer, thats when I'll be getting annoyed. Hopefully it wont get to this point.
Computer games got me interested in computers, and before long I learned about game cracks and pirated software. It was tempting, but I decided it would be more productive to put my skills on the market, make some legitimate money, and then buy the game or software myself.
Since then, both piracy and privacy prevention have come a long way, but for the better of the industry or the consumer? I'm not so sure.
Some people are saying that the cracked version of Spore is better than the version you can buy, because you can move your install to any computer you own, whereas the legitimate version limits how many times you can install it.
I don't know the solution, but I recognize its a serious problem for the entire entertainment industry.