Nintendo Doesn't Blame Piracy for Poor Software Sales
- Thread starter John Funk
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He talks a good talk. But every dollar spent on anti-piracy measures is a dollar that isn't being spent in game development.
You see what Iwata said? That is so true. Piracy is a problem that will never go away no matter how much they try to solve the problem and if the game is truly good, people will by it anyway. If companies want less piracy they should make better games and maybe even drop the damn price! Piracy is embrassed due to the cost of games so how about dropping the price on some off the game? You want proof that it's the costs fault? Look at the sales on XBLA! They sell tonnes of games there every month and it's because they're cheap.
If you give people a reason to buy, they will buy. Most people are willing to pay for good games. I also think a lot of the games that get pirated are games people wouldn't have paid money for and therefore would never have played anyways. Of course there are some that pirate everything, but I don't believe that piracy that as wide spread of a problem some company's and groups try to make it out to be.
Piracy isn't all bad. Especially when it enables:
1. Try before you buy
2. Backup of games
You could argue that renting is the same as trying before you buy, but in my mind renting is just as bad as piracy. Only a fragment of the income earned on rented games ever goes to the content maker. Afterwards, the game is sold as used.
The backup argument stands for itself. You're allowed to make backups of your own games, but content makers make it extremely hard. Pirates to the rescue, helping the little guy.
Sure, some people pirate and never buy. But most these people were never buyers in the first place. It's a minority who would buy a game, if they couldn't pirate it. Most who cannot pirate something, to avoid paying for it, simply won't bother with it at all.
Thus it makes sense for companies to focus on their actual CUSTOMERS, instead of this crazy idea that piracy somehow matters in any significant way.
People only have a certain amount of disposable income. It would be insanity to assume that eliminating the ability to pirate suddenly would turn the Asian pirate customers into paying customers. Most people who pirate simply cannot afford it. The same goes for a lot of western pirates too, maybe with the exception of kids living at home, mooching off their parents, who pirate because it's "cool"
1. Try before you buy
2. Backup of games
You could argue that renting is the same as trying before you buy, but in my mind renting is just as bad as piracy. Only a fragment of the income earned on rented games ever goes to the content maker. Afterwards, the game is sold as used.
The backup argument stands for itself. You're allowed to make backups of your own games, but content makers make it extremely hard. Pirates to the rescue, helping the little guy.
Sure, some people pirate and never buy. But most these people were never buyers in the first place. It's a minority who would buy a game, if they couldn't pirate it. Most who cannot pirate something, to avoid paying for it, simply won't bother with it at all.
Thus it makes sense for companies to focus on their actual CUSTOMERS, instead of this crazy idea that piracy somehow matters in any significant way.
People only have a certain amount of disposable income. It would be insanity to assume that eliminating the ability to pirate suddenly would turn the Asian pirate customers into paying customers. Most people who pirate simply cannot afford it. The same goes for a lot of western pirates too, maybe with the exception of kids living at home, mooching off their parents, who pirate because it's "cool"
A quality game is like anything people are drawn to: They are more inclined to support it. There will always be pirates and those who attempt to cheat the system, but there are not always games and other media that more and more people can justify buying full-price. I find that I am often more compelled to simply buy more games/movies used or rent them instead of purchasing for retail. But if I know that a game will provide an experience that is long lasting and well-made, I consider its value to be higher and would rather support more of that.
Given all of the shovelware thrown out for game systems, it is harder to sway the masses with those titles as they hold them in low regard or value.
Given all of the shovelware thrown out for game systems, it is harder to sway the masses with those titles as they hold them in low regard or value.
Even if it didn't diminish, sales would be higher and there would be little need to worry. So either way, it's a winner.Dioxide20 said:
Finally, someone who gets it! It pisses me off how many people think pirates are to blame for every time they get low sales. I mean sure, sales will drop a little due to piracy, because the pirates aren't going to buy the thing if they don't like it, but most of them will buy it if they do like it, so it won't be too bad as long as the game is good. And really, if you made a crappy enough game that you're counting on sales from people who buy it only to find out they hate it, you don't deserve that money in the first place.
To be perfectly fair, that is a very... eastern take on the whole piracy issue. The idea quality will essentially shame or make a person feel good enough about the product to lay down legal tender for a legal copy is very naive.
In possession of a pirated copy of an absolutely fantastic game, most "western" people will not think, "damn, I should pay money for this. The people who made this truly deserve it!" Conversely, these people wouldn't be customers anyway. They'd never buy a game. They may get one or two as gifts, but they'll typically be angered by this, as they'll feel they've been given something worthless.
But its not like a proverbial instantaneous and recursive end to piracy would turn these people into consumers either.
So... go nintendo. I guess.
In possession of a pirated copy of an absolutely fantastic game, most "western" people will not think, "damn, I should pay money for this. The people who made this truly deserve it!" Conversely, these people wouldn't be customers anyway. They'd never buy a game. They may get one or two as gifts, but they'll typically be angered by this, as they'll feel they've been given something worthless.
But its not like a proverbial instantaneous and recursive end to piracy would turn these people into consumers either.
So... go nintendo. I guess.
Once again, Nintendo shows their long-standing wisdom. Acknowledging that piracy is a problem without saying "and this is the sole reason why game X didn't sell well" is a surprisingly rare and mature understanding of the issue.
It's interesting to know how he thinks. I suppose making a game really good does negate the piracy issue. Still, I think I'll hunt pirates with ruthless prejudiced still anyways.
It's all a lie.hittite said:
They're a children company in disguise.
Just like Activision is actually full of little kittens to manage it instead of adults.
Figures range from 40 billion a year on the DS alone to basically a negative number because of word of mouth advertisement and stuff.GothmogII said:
Most whining about PC pirates is the result of Sony going "hey, you get a discount here if you promise to not release that on two Microsoft platforms at the same time" and publishers prefer the guaranteed money from the bribe over trying to directly porting a game to an audience with much higher quality standards.
They don't blame piracy for poor sales because Nintendo doesn't make games for the PC.
That and the majority of Nintendo's target audience aren't exactly the kind of tech-savy people who'll take to mod chipping their consoles or flashing the bios to install your own firmware to run pirated or emulated games.
I wouldn't trust either one of these guys to make a sandwich, let alone solder a mod chip
That's a look of guilt if ever I saw one...
These people don't have time for fancy doo dads like illegal downloading, they've got games to play!
Do these people LOOK like pirates to you?
Now compare to the competition...
He's so technical he engineered the controller so he can play WITH HIS FEET
This guy's so good he's torrenting games while on the crapper!
With our epic new DRM we will stomp out pir... oh god damnit not again
That and the majority of Nintendo's target audience aren't exactly the kind of tech-savy people who'll take to mod chipping their consoles or flashing the bios to install your own firmware to run pirated or emulated games.
I wouldn't trust either one of these guys to make a sandwich, let alone solder a mod chip
That's a look of guilt if ever I saw one...
These people don't have time for fancy doo dads like illegal downloading, they've got games to play!
Now compare to the competition...
He's so technical he engineered the controller so he can play WITH HIS FEET
This guy's so good he's torrenting games while on the crapper!
With our epic new DRM we will stomp out pir... oh god damnit not again
Piracy also may not be that big of a problem on the DS because most of it's user base isn't old enough to know how to pirate games...