The "it's not fair we pay for these games for them to then be pirated" says it all, it's not about the company becoming bankrupt because of piracy, it's because they don't want to feel bad once they have been scammed with a half made game that others have gotten for free. Because a half made game should be worthless
If you ride a bus without a ticket, other passengers will have to pay more because upkeep and salaries are more or less a fixed cost. That is if you can afford the ticket, it's irrelevant otherwise. Also depends on profit margins but I think it explains the point.
As well as Denuvo please also make it rely on Windows-only bugs so that we can be extra sure that those dirty Linux users are kept away, and it's not fair that foreigners get to enjoy things in their own language so make sure there's no localization for other countries. And I'd rather not have to know that disabled people can also play so make sure there's none of that "accessibility" crap in there slowing things down. And I heard that telemetry makes everything better so please make sure it records everything we do and reports it all back to headquarters, that really makes games better. Also it'd be nice if there were more ads to keep us entertained while it loads. Okay thanks. You guys are doing a great job. — Signed, a perfectly normal user
Gabe Newell: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
Had to look up whatever 'Legends online' was and it turns out its a tacked on multiplayer mode for Ghost of Tsushima. Who the fuck plays garbage multiplayer like that and who in their right minds pays for PS plus to play that?
What a strange mentality. When I pay for things I want, I'm generally happy to support the creator. If others can't, why would I be upset if they get the product for free? It means more people can also enjoy the thing I like.
It's such a crab bucket mentality, I couldn't imagine living life being constantly bitter
I've met plenty of idiots. Some days, I'm probably one of them. But I don't think I've ever come across someone who's pro anti-piracy. Usually people are just neutral about it. Even the most law-abiding people I know, when I've told them I can download movies for free, are like "Oh, are you able to get this movie for me? Thanks!"
If no-one pirated any Sony game do you think they would.
A) Lower the price of the game to maintain their existing profit margin.
B) Set a lower price that increases their margin.
C) Keep the higher price and just make a fuck ton more money.
I love this anology so much. It's something everyone can relate to. It's something so incredibly low and despised that you can't understand why it exists, but it's also so very common.
Not necessarily. The bus will still operate, if you ride on it or not. The cost is the same.
If say 20% of passengers don't pay and you have to get more buses and drivers because of that. Then it'll affect prices.
Just as pirating Netflix movies without ever having the intention of paying for them is the same outcome as not watching them.
Maybe worse for Netflix since you won't tell your friends about it. There are studies that prove this effect.
Wrong, I was that kid and I hate denuvo just like everybody else.
Also I don't think it works as an analogy, the kid reminding the teacher about homework does it because he likes school, and learning, he does it for himself and everybody else, he never imagine other kids would not like it. This guy doesn't do this for himself or others, he does this out of spite of others, to punish people, he doesn't gain anything.
Back when I was maybe seven years old I went to this kids birthday party. I got him an ant farm with tubes.
Later on when all the kids were playing together in his room without adults, he pulled the roll of clear plastic tubing out of ant farm box, he shoved one end up his ass and then started sucking on the other end.
It's nice to know that he is still alive and tweeting.
I'm having a hard time envisioning the flexibility required to make that work. It couldn't have been both at the ends at the same time? Also, did this kid just get naked in front of everyone at their party? To each their own, I guess.
In case anyone actually wants to know a couple of reasons
A) It's not fair that some people pay and some don't. (Of course it's also not fair that some can afford $70 on a video game and some struggle to buy food)
B) If everyone would pay then we'd all only have to pay $50 each, lowering the price for those that are paying $70 at the moment. (Whether developers would lower prices or just make more money is another question)
They'll literally never lower prices. Look at what prices for everything are right now. Their excuse was that covid was driving up prices, now that covid is over they realized they could charge more so here we are.
I beg to differ. We made pretty sure that kid had absolutely no doubt that we did not want homework. If it was different for you, there must have been something huge at that school keeping you from getting a whooping every other day.
Some people are really weird when it comes to things being "fair." I forget the details but I remember a study where given the option of getting $100 and a stranger getting $200, a good chunk of people would rather neither of them get anything.
Naïveté. Its not devs that set the price. Publishers do not have your best interests in mind. They will always choose to make more money. They don't give a fuck about literally anything else.
The prices will never be lower. Purchasing no longer grants ownership. This is why piracy is justified in a lot of cases.
Support devs that respect the community. Steal from those that don't. Or even better, don't play games whose publishers treat the community like shit.
Thanks for trying to bring an alternative perspective to the table.
Neither argument is very compelling. A) is like "if I can't have nice things, no one can", and think about those arguments against loan forgiveness or healthcare. B) is wishful thinking game companies will charge what people are willing to pay no matter how many copies are sold. And unlike physical goods, the cost per digital license doesn't really much if more copies are sold so expected sales volume doesn't affect costs much in that sense. Piracy itself also doesn't incur any cost (other than mythical lost sales), while Denuvo and other anti circumvention technology does.
The clear plastic tubing was packaged in a roll, to be cut at whatever length the ant farmer wanted, so it was long enough to do standing up.
He didn't get naked, just put his hand down his pants. It was evident that he placed it either on his butthole, or up it, based on the effort he was taking.
Except that's not even how most bus systems work because most of them are majority funded by taxes with fares originally meant to serve as a stopgap but then slowly converted into a profit engine (usually after privitization). Fares are a way to gatekeep a service which your taxes already pay for, which I would argue, is by itself a form of theft.
As an example check out the latest MTA report only 26% of funding comes from fares, and that ones a bit in the higher end from what I've seen (NYC public transit, picked as the example a it's recently been in the news for issues with fare evasion)
All that aside, it's also worth noting that fare increases are extremely unpopular and it's not that easy to increase them without potential serious backlash (ie the mass protests in Chile a few years back that were in part set off by the fare hikes.)
Steam pulled regional pricing from my country not so long ago. You bet your ass sales went way down and people who were buying games because it was easier just went back to pirating them at that point.
Like you expect someone in south America who makes a tenth of what someone in the US makes to pay the same prices (actually more than the same since this country has like 70% tax on "imported" digital services), get real
15 games for $70 are enough to save $1000, which is definitely enough for a good gaming PC. After buying a PS5 and the cheapest PS Plus subscription, paid yearly (cause that's the cheapest option per month) for a little more than 8 years, you're also at $1000. With the most expensive PS Plus option it would only take a little more than 4 years.
Why would they ? I was that kid and I still upvoted his comment, I don't use downvote as a disagree/punish button, I only use it for agressive/uninteresting comment. I think we should upvote any comment that create interesting discussion, even if we disagree with the core message.
I wonder if they would still hold that opinion if they were locked out of a game they paid $70 for, while the ones that got it for "free" can play it without any restrictions. Piracy is just as much a service issue as it is a money issue.
There is a famous experiment , where a person gets 100$, and have to offer an arbitrary percentage of that to a stranger. If the stranger declines, both get nothing.
From the strangers perspective, getting offered even 1$ is a win, but the vast majority rejected anything below 30%
Imagine simping for a billion-dollar corporation. I mean, I love Sony games, Uncharted, Horizon, Spider-Man, but I am not going to defend them. Their lives must be really awesome, if they stoop to simping to a corporation.
They already are throwing punches because they noticed people being less gullible than them. I'm guessing this would result in a "double down", like "The developers wouldn't have to kill this game if the pirates would have bought it."
I was merely explaining how one comes to this line of thinking which is what OP was asking about. I also mentioned some holes in this logic so I think it's clear it's not an opinion I actually hold.
This comment was calling out the person I replied to for being ableist, thanks for removing it because I was slightly rude about standing up for myself
I wasn't referring to games being shut down. I was referring to how denuvo stops you from playing the game if it has issues phoning home for whatever reason. My hatred for denuvo began when it locked me out of monster hunter for 24 hours the one time I wanted to come back to playing it.
Development of games requires resources. More resources trends with better games (coin flip). If every player pays, the game development gets the best possible quality. And artists get to keep their electricity bill paid for the week.
Denuvo argues that their product guarantees the most resource extraction possible. This is debatable, and I personally lean on the side that it’s not as effective for revenue collection as advertised.
That's what the commentor thinks too, he imagines all the good people who want a fair and sane world will cheer him on and the nasty criminals to slink off Into the night mubling how they'd have got away with it if it weren't for that nobel hero saving the day for the good capitalist folk and their billionaire corporations.
I certainly don't care if others get the game other ways (except unauthorized key stores). I am just happy that good games get their recognition and give people joy. I am in the fortunate situation that I am able to just buy all games I want. Heck, I even bought games for friends who were unsure or even dismissive "if it would be worth it". I also buy/bought games that I never played or won't play but watched streamers play it.
