- 24,120
- Midlantic Area
- GTP_Duke
No, I'm not. But it is a contributing factor. The sooner a game pays off its development costs, the sooner the price comes down. That obviously takes more time that revenue is lost to piracy.Originally posted by slip2rock
Are you all so niaive as to think that prices for games are high because of piracy?
Personally, I don't have a problem with that. Does that mean I'm made of money? No. It means that I think I should reward the people who make games I like. That's incentive for them to make more.Prices are high because demand is high.
Look at it this way: economy cars have a razor-thin profit margin, if they have one at all. In fact, the original Escort never directly made a profit for Ford (I can explain that if you wish). And exactly how often do we see cutting edge technology in economy cars? Almost never - except when it is trickled down from more expensive products that paid for its development.
The same is true with games. You want 1000 cars and 100 tracks in GT4? That ain't free. A lot of what pays for that kind of development is the profit from previous games.
...if they're lucky. That is the "little guys" dream - to come up with an idea good enough that you get an opportunity to sell out. But what if you can't afford to develop your band/game/whatever enough to sell it? Then a good idea is lost, or a good band dissolves, or whatever.And while your all screaming about this bit of piracy..... just dl a few more tunes on kazaa and chill out a bit. Then go browse for the company accounts of these software giants. And don't bleat on about the little guys being put out of business, they just get bought by their competitors or squeezed out of the market by the big guys.
I've got no problem with game companies making as much money as they can. It benefits me in the long run as I've demonstrated.
But all of that is missing the point entirely. The fact remains that it's not ethical to pirate intellectual property. If I'm not willing to pay for it, then I don't get to play it. Simple as that.