IMO the primary reason to pirate is to try before you buy which turns into why buy if I have it already?
If you made it easy to try before you buy then piracy MIGHT go down. IE if I could down an application on the app store and use it fully function for 2days or 1 week then I can see if it’s a piece of crap or a decent game. If it’s decent then when it asks to buy it I’ll click buy and buy it.
Right now it’s a pain to try games out because you download a free version adn then have to go download another paid version etc.
I was just going to post that. A typical conversion ratio is 1% (which is based on actual data and not hand-waving), and I see no reason why that doesn’t apply in this case as well. 10% is far too high.
That’s very much my observation, too. People get stuck between already ‘possessing’ the game and to much of an effort needed to actually pay for what they’ve consumed so far. So they don’t buy it at all and forget about it.
That doesn’t make it right of course, but it can’t be changed by throwing numbers around, because the gamers that are pirating games wont hear about it or care.
Trying out a game for more then just one level, or whatever a demo contains, is often just not enough or there even is no demo available these days, especially for PC.
The only solutions I see is indeed services like OnLive, but that’s to far out in the future and yes, has to be proven first.
In the short term I think developers could make a big difference through digital distribution but they have to rethink the way they sell their product.
I would welcome new payment models like paying for the percentage of the game that you have played. Something like 5-10 dollars to start the game and then when you’re disappointed or get tired of the game before finishing it, you can simply pay for what you’ve played so far.
This would allow for trying out games for cheap but only buy as much as you can afford and you’re actually going to play.
After all the problem right now is that people often feel like they’re not getting enough for what they payed, imho. And that needs to be addressed specifically.
I think a lot of pirates are simply collectors, pack rats who download everything for the sake of their collection. I doubt they play even 10% of the games they download.
So to assume 10% of them would have bought your game anyway is unrealistic.
True. :roll:
I’m not sure which side between users or devs you’re aiming at, but when you look closely at the appstore app comments, there is a growing entitlement behavior in users.
I’m browsing every kind of apps comments really often, and a lot of them are nothing but “Good but we want X feature, bring us an update”, “When will you give us multiplayer ! give an update quick !”, “Too slow on my 2G, make an update !”, “Add more content in an update”, etc …
These people don’t care if it’s 0.99 $, they want console quality for a buck.
(I’m talking about nice titles here indeed, not crapps)
Even for a correct game that costs less than a slice of bread, they do feel like they’re not getting enough for what they payed.
And I think that it needs to be addressed specifically too, but I don’t know how
Well there’s a difference between a) people wanting more for their money because what they’ve got for it was not what they expected and b) people wanting more of the same (and being ready to pay more).
Honestly, I think the app-store with its in-app purchases is already addressing b), although I’m not yet sure how well it is working. And a) should be addressed by more honest product descriptions and demos.
What I meant to say was that it should also be used (and expanded) for pc/concole titles.
Releasing games as episodes seams to be catching on slowly and could be a solution, too.
That’s also equally possible. That person might have a jailbroken phone on a network that doesn’t supply the iPhone. His friend might have an iPod Touch. There are many permutations, it’s not clear cut. People have cracked versions of software for a multitude of reasons, many excellent reasons have been outlined.
But you haven’t lost anything, except the feeling that the cracker should have paid. The cost of the goods is zero. Cost of manufacture is zero. Cost of distribution is zero. So the net out going of someone using a cracked app is zero cost to the producer and zero income
Somewhere there will be the potential for a sales conversion. If a cracker tells his friend and the friend goes and buys it. If the student using cracked Photoshop gets a job and the company has to buy an extra seat. If the person listening to a MP3 of a band and then buys a ticket to see that band live. And of course in Apple’s case they sell more iPods and iPhones.
For the smaller developer it seems bad. But as long as you sell enough to be profitable, regardless of piracy, additional users are a good thing. A percentage of those will be users rather than collecting for the sake of it. Those users have gained something from your work and therefore there’s a potential for an actual sales conversion or not.
Sorry, but no. I won’t enter an indepth explanation of my opinion once again, because I did it too much in here.
But in short : You’re just supressing one trade in your logic. If A sells a service to B, B has to give money to A. If B wants another service from A, he will have to give him another trade of money.
But in no way A has to provide 2 services for 1 paid.
Digital distribution may have no physical cost, it is still a service. And service has a physical value based on trading.
This is just the number one rule of our actual monetary system.
What you say is true. Except, B does not pay A, that happens with physical goods and with intangible digital goods. The difference with a digital good is the material cost is zero. It cost nothing to copy the file from A to B. If the material cost for A was $1 and it cost A $1 to make that copy then A would have lost $1. As the material cost is zero, A lost nothing in the transaction. Of course, A is associating a value to his service and then is asking B to pay. If B chooses not to pay, A can still make another copy of his service at zero cost to A. That’s the point I was trying to make.
I think the point is that there will always be pirates. Big multi-billion dollar companies spend tons of money trying to fight piracy, and the pirates are still there.
For smaller devs, worrying about piracy is just an exercise is futility.
Instead, find a way to work with what is happening. See if there’s a way you could convert those pirates into buyers. Or at least have them sing the praises of your game so that their non-pirate friends end up buying it.
You’re right too, but what makes my opinion different starts here :
→ B doesn’t have the right to choose not to pay, according to the initial contract between A and B.
This is precisely that limit pirates are constantly forgetting for their own benefit.
Which is comparable to B refusing to pay A for lending his car, if we want to talk old school economy
This is what angers most devs about piracy : pirates just don’t respect the rules.
It’s as annoying as a cheater in your game. He won’t break your business, but hell he is so breaking the equilibrium you initially planned that you finally want to get rid of him. And you got all the rights to do that, just because this is your game.
Cheaters may break the rules, but we, definitely are bending them as well.
We’re providing a good which is in unlimited quantities. If we had a physical game, with a board and pieces, we would not have to deal with pirates. We would be using a traditional cycle of manufacturing, in which we would be creating a limited quantity of physical goods. The only way to deprive you of your games would be to actually steal them.
We have the ability to sell our goods world wide, without shipping limitations or costs, without being limited to a storefront and therefore can only entice people who actually enter the store.
Piracy results in someone using your game, without giving you compensation. This sounds terrible. However, them using it doesn’t cost you anything either. Piracy doesn’t cause lost profits, it instead is a reduction in potential profits, because that’s one less person who could potentially buy your game.
Not necessarily though. I have Friends Cough, that pirate all the time just to test out a program and see if it is there likings. If it is good, then they will buy it, if not then they don’t use it. This is simply because demos and trials are sometimes not enough to satisfy.
(opinions obviously differ): I don’t mind piracy that much whether it be games or other types of software. It is usually people who can’t afford the product, someone who wants to try before they buy, or someone who will buy in the future but can’t right now. If you are scared or very angry about piracy, there are pretty much only 2 things you can do about it. 1.) Invent a super-uber awesome piracy prevention mechanism, or 2.) don’t be a software/game developer.
I think some people do pirate because of a lack of demos. It seems less and less games nowadays don’t provide demos, and I know of people who pirate because there is no way to test a game.
The problem with this is that once they have the game, they don’t decide “Okay, now I’ll give someone money for an exact copy of what I already have.”
The other thing that I think developers don’t factor in whenever they look at these piracy numbers is that if piracy was 100% eliminated, your sales wouldn’t increase that much, if at all.
Pirates are pirates. Whatever their motivation, whether it be to collect, or for the thrill of downloading, or simply because they cannot afford it, aren’t going to be paying customers of yours just because they can’t get your game for free. Some of them, who want your game and can afford it, will, but I think developers believe that if piracy was eliminated developers would earn millions more (as per the original post, about “lost” income). If piracy was 100% eliminated, there is nothing to prove that there would be 400+ mil to 4 billion dollars flowing into the industry (just from iphone apps).
Actually, a few of my friends all pirated xbox games simply because they get to play them a week or two earlier.
They buy the game the moment it hits a shelf, however. Sometimes out of respect, sometimes so they can play it online.
Keep in mind, I’m in a country that can be a little late to the party from time to time
But that’s ultimately irrelevant, there are people out there who’s sole purpose in life is to pirate. If there was absolutely NO piracy at all, they’d probably buy things, but if they can’t get what they want pirated, they can get something else instead. These people do not buy anything, ever… Normally
10%? Statistical farce. Ultimately, piracy costs money, that’s a given. But it’s pointless to try put a figure on it… It doesn’t need to be grey anyway, if there is piracy at all, it’s a bad thing.
Saying it ‘costs’ is pointless, that money never existed in the first place. It’s money they failed to take from other people, it’s not like its direct out-of-pocket expense.
If a friend has $20 he may or may not give you, then chooses not to, did it cost you $20? No.
Thanks, it is very interesting that such a site reacts about this news.
The more reaction there will be, the more seriously subject will be taken, which would lead to what would make everyone converge : more and more accurate stats.
In the end that’s all I want, personally : accurate stats.
Personally I think people should pay for stuff. I do. If I like a game or think I’ll like it, I buy it. I don’t pirate.
However, one thing to look at is lost sales BECAUSE of anti-piracy measures. Nothing burns my butt more than companies thinking they can and should charge me multiple times for the same product, or making me jump through hoops to use a product, or setting up the potential that I somehow “lose my rights” to use a product I paid for. Every time I buy a digital product now, I look at the terms and how it’s protected, if there is any way that it is limited to a certain number of installs, requires a consistent and regular internet connection for “verification” (unless it’s an online game/MMO), or in the case of something like digital movie downloads the product is not “guaranteed” to be available after I purchase it.
I simply don’t buy it.
There’s a lost sale for you.
I haven’t purchased or played an EA game for the PC in years. Case in point, Spore looked cool to me, I was excited about that game before it was released, when I saw the way it was “protected”, I didn’t buy it. Was the time and money they spent creating their anti-piracy measures to keep people who probably wouldn’t buy the game anyway from pirating it worth it if they lost sales to 1000 people like me? How about 100K like me? 1 Million? Where is the line drawn? Is there a cracked version of Spore out anyway? I bet there is.
