Hotline Miami Developer Embraces Pirates

[Danceofmasks]

Here's the thing about pirates. When I was younger, and I used to download Nintendo Roms and songs I heard on the radio, I'd always say to myself, "I'll buy it if I like it" but I almost never would. Rationalize it all I like, I was stealing media. There wIll always be something more important to spend ones money on (like the games/music I couldn't steal) and for every single thing I bought after the fact, that I waved around as some false badge of honor there were dozens of other things I stole and enjoyed completely that no one ever saw money for.

I was younger, and dumb, and I was lying to myself. Maybe not every pirate out there is living my experience, but I find it hard to imagine it any other way but worse. (Not counting the guys out there in heavily restricted regions, those guys have legit reasons)

If the creators wanted you to try before you buy they'd put out a demo. Piracy only makes the industry stale as developers become more gun shy to take any risks on things that may not be bankable. I hope Hotline Miami's patch has a big F you hidden in it for pirates.

Here's the thing about money.
You spend it on things you like.

I pirated games in 1981, at a time when I was also a whiz kid at everything from martial arts to playing a violin.
Nowadays, I choose to spend my (>$3000 per year entertainment budget) money on games instead of concerts, or skiing trips, or going to the movies.
'cos that's the medium I grew up to love.
Yes, I have a few musical instruments. Yes, I have exercise equipment. I spend pocket change on those things by comparison.

The notion that someone off the street would spend over $100 on games every week is ridiculous if they haven't already played hundreds of games.
I'm willing to wager you know people who download hundreds of TV shows and movies. Sure, some of them are just freeloaders, but how many of them also have hundreds of DVDs on their shelves?

Let me ask you this ... if you didn't play as many games as you did when you were younger, would you have bought as many games today?
Your retrospective guilt aside, would you have even become a gamer at all?

There is, after all, a reason a lot of people have Grateful Dead albums in their collections, even though that band has been giving their music away for free for almost half a decade.

Now, I don't pirate anything anymore. 'cos I have a lot of disposable income.
When companies such as EA or Ubisoft are being dicks, I just don't buy their stuff - I'm not one of those monogamers who "need" to have that one game, I have thousands of other games to play.
However, I would, without reservation, say "If piracy never existed, video games would never have got out of that Atari hole."

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Let me ask you this ... if you didn't play as many games as you did when you were younger, would you have bought as many games today?
Your retrospective guilt aside, would you have even become a gamer at all?
"

I can say 100% without a doubt I would be every bit the gamer I am today without pirating Nintendo games 15 years after I started playing games. Games cost 50 for a nintendo cartridge back then and to suggest gaming is a $100 a week expense is ridiculous. The only reason I even bothered with piracy was because the games were no longer available.

Even if your rationale on having to play games to love games were true (it isn't) there is no excuse to steal games in this day and age when so many games are available for free or at massive discounts. Hotline Miami is a 10 dollar game. A PSN plus account will cost you 50 a year and give you about 2-4 free games a month. If pirating $100 of games a week is the average, then I'd say stealing $5200 a year is doing serious damage to the industry and for NO REASON AT ALL. Anyone who has time to play that many games needs to get a job, or go to class because they are living an unhealthy lifestyle.

That means a lot coming from me if you knew how much I game.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Wow... this guy actually knows that not everyone has sacks of money like the publishers that use DRM assume everyone has!

When I can afford it: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! I probably won't even play the game but I HAVE to support this guy!

$9 is 'sacks of money'?

 

[JoshuaMadoc]

What angers me about this isn't the fact that he's being realistic about the whole piracy situation.

But rather that bunch of fuckwads who are shitting on him for "SUPPORTING ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES OF THEFT OF PROPERTY". Yes, I don't have that much of a grip on reality myself, but these people are arguably have even less of a grip on reality. Where the hell do those idiots think they are, Sunday School and Bible Studies?

 

[Denamic]

Rather than force people to pay you, make them want to pay you.
Humble bundle has done this since the beginning, and it's been doing absurdly well, and every new bundle does better than the last.
Why don't more people do this? Positive relations improve trade relations. War does not.