Hello Legion buddies!
Today I propose an interesting subject that concerns video game players: Piracy
Careful!!! This subject is absolutely not an incitement to piracy
We hear from journalists and video game company bosses that we must fight against piracy. This "infamous" practice that risks destroying the video game industry. (But not because of half-finished games, microtransactions, scandals about rushes and sexism, dematerialization...)
I've been hearing this for more than 30 years!
The main argument is a colossal loss of profit for the studios. There is evidence, but there are also contradictory elements.
I'll give you some figures for sales of pirated PC/console games:
Last example: Cyberpunk. Criticized at the time of release, it sold little. Removed from the PS4 store. The devs do a lot of work and the game ends up with almost 30 million units sold.
Let's look at the games that don't have a pirate version:
Suicide Squad, Dunevo protection : 20 million in sales. Warner Bros. Discovery announced a loss of $200 million.
Starwars Outlaws, Dunevo : 1.5 million sales in 2024: Commercial failure (5 million since the Steam version?)
Dragon Dogma 2 : 3 million copies sold (The previous version, although pirated, had sold 7 million units)
In fact, we can ask ourselves the question: for the big titles, I have the impression that it's more the quality of the game that makes the sales. And not the possibility of having it in a pirate version, what do you think?
Knowing that protection like DENUVO is a bill of at least 100,000 euros for AA headlines. And certainly much, much more for AAA Let
's see what the studies say: I found a meta-analysis that includes 25 studies between 2006 and 2014. The conclusion is that:
I'll give you a personal example : I got a pirated version of Conan Exiles when it was released. (Without meaning to! Yes, yes!) The game very quickly excited me. I ended up buying the game two months later, following a promotion. Then, on a second account, I bought this game again but in a full DLC total pack. In addition, I had at least 10 people buy the game. All this because I was able to try the game in pirate version.
And for its competitor, ARK, which is also totally portable, I've heard a lot of similar speeches, people who started out in a cracked version and the result: 33.6 million copies sold.
So I guess it works on the headlines... It's possible that it's not as positive all the time. You have to realize that the smallest productions, the indie games, suffer from piracy. But I think they suffer above all from the vampirization of subsidies, gigantic advertising and visibility on platforms, by the big studios who have colossal means, which indies don't have. (And I know something about it, at the comic book level for example...)
Fun facts :
The valve boss said "piracy is the result of bad service in video games"
The author of HotLine Miami encouraged piracy of his own game in countries where it was banned, such as Australia
The Slay the Princess studio said that they would rather you hack the game if you can't afford it, rather than watch a streamer play for you. It's a game that you have to discover for yourself, not through the eyes of another. (It's beautiful !!!)
The author of Minecraft had told low-income players to hack the game. That it wasn't going to make them lose money and that, on the contrary, it was going to be advertising.
I'm also going to talk about another topic about piracy:
This is the only way to save old games!
Let me explain:
Old MMOs all have private servers. All console and arcade games are emulated. And even multiplayer games have pirate servers to revive them. Also, games released in a single country can be discovered by fan translations in many other languages.
Piracy acts as a safeguard of cultural heritage.
And in some cases - and I find this worrying - piracy makes it possible to make games that were no longer working with their DRM or bugs. DENUVO had a lot of trouble ... and there are also problems with the latest version of Windows. Hogwarts Legacy has a pirate patch for official versions for example.
At the same time: Fans are so genius that they take old games and adapt them to their new graphics engine! The Elder Sroll Oblivion on the Skyrim engine for example.
Here are some other console sales figures:
Once again, I'm not encouraging piracy, I'm taking stock of the situation.
I buy the games that deserve it, piracy I use as a demo. Because I admit that after being disappointed on games that I paid dearly, I am more and more suspicious. I have the whole Battlefield collection since the first one. But the last 3, I clearly lost money.
Let's also talk about the dangers of hacking:
Yes, downloading is not without risk. It has already happened that there are big viruses (especially in beta versions or fake leaks), but also malware that will be able to access your data, including your means of payment.
And it must be said clearly: it is illegal.
Last point:
Hacking is stealing? Yes, it was. Except that for a few years now, we no longer buy games, but a right to use them, on a store. What if the store closes or decides that you will no longer use the game? What if they lose the license? He gives himself the right to do so despite the fact that we paid full price.
I'll give you a personal example: I bought, on Steam, a Japanese manga layout software, which I paid the ass. The company was bought ... There are no more updates, the developers no longer respond to messages. We were waiting for very important updates, which we will never see. AND above all: one day Steam will remove it from its platform and the software will no longer be able to launch. Despite the hundreds of euros paid for this software package.
Well, without any shame, I found myself a pirate version that I keep warm. Just in case...
So if buying is no longer owning, is piracy still theft?
And I'm not even talking about the games sold half-finished, always more expensive with the odious tendency to want to sell micro-DLCs.
Today I propose an interesting subject that concerns video game players: Piracy
Careful!!! This subject is absolutely not an incitement to piracy
We hear from journalists and video game company bosses that we must fight against piracy. This "infamous" practice that risks destroying the video game industry. (But not because of half-finished games, microtransactions, scandals about rushes and sexism, dematerialization...)
I've been hearing this for more than 30 years!
The main argument is a colossal loss of profit for the studios. There is evidence, but there are also contradictory elements.
I'll give you some figures for sales of pirated PC/console games:
- GTA V: 205 million copies sold in eleven years of existence. Even online can be hacked, and yet it is one of the biggest commercial successes. (405 million if we take all the GTAs)
- SKYRIM: 60 million copies sold, total success.
- SUPER MARIO: 430 million cartridges, yet all Nintendo consoles have been hacked.
- Les call of Duty : 500 million
- Pokémon : 480 millions
- Assassin Creed : 200 million
Last example: Cyberpunk. Criticized at the time of release, it sold little. Removed from the PS4 store. The devs do a lot of work and the game ends up with almost 30 million units sold.
Let's look at the games that don't have a pirate version:
Suicide Squad, Dunevo protection : 20 million in sales. Warner Bros. Discovery announced a loss of $200 million.
Starwars Outlaws, Dunevo : 1.5 million sales in 2024: Commercial failure (5 million since the Steam version?)
Dragon Dogma 2 : 3 million copies sold (The previous version, although pirated, had sold 7 million units)
In fact, we can ask ourselves the question: for the big titles, I have the impression that it's more the quality of the game that makes the sales. And not the possibility of having it in a pirate version, what do you think?
Knowing that protection like DENUVO is a bill of at least 100,000 euros for AA headlines. And certainly much, much more for AAA Let
's see what the studies say: I found a meta-analysis that includes 25 studies between 2006 and 2014. The conclusion is that:
- If we take into account the piracy of music and movies, piracy has a negative impact. (But not in all cases)
- If we look only at the figures for video games, we discover that there is no link between piracy and sales.
I'll give you a personal example : I got a pirated version of Conan Exiles when it was released. (Without meaning to! Yes, yes!) The game very quickly excited me. I ended up buying the game two months later, following a promotion. Then, on a second account, I bought this game again but in a full DLC total pack. In addition, I had at least 10 people buy the game. All this because I was able to try the game in pirate version.
And for its competitor, ARK, which is also totally portable, I've heard a lot of similar speeches, people who started out in a cracked version and the result: 33.6 million copies sold.
So I guess it works on the headlines... It's possible that it's not as positive all the time. You have to realize that the smallest productions, the indie games, suffer from piracy. But I think they suffer above all from the vampirization of subsidies, gigantic advertising and visibility on platforms, by the big studios who have colossal means, which indies don't have. (And I know something about it, at the comic book level for example...)
Fun facts :
The valve boss said "piracy is the result of bad service in video games"
The author of HotLine Miami encouraged piracy of his own game in countries where it was banned, such as Australia
The Slay the Princess studio said that they would rather you hack the game if you can't afford it, rather than watch a streamer play for you. It's a game that you have to discover for yourself, not through the eyes of another. (It's beautiful !!!)
The author of Minecraft had told low-income players to hack the game. That it wasn't going to make them lose money and that, on the contrary, it was going to be advertising.
I'm also going to talk about another topic about piracy:
This is the only way to save old games!
Let me explain:
- Some MMORPGs have disappeared and the official servers are closed.
- Old cartridges and consoles wear out and break
- Arcade machine games that are no longer in the gym are lost forever
- Untranslated, little-sold or too old games fall into oblivion
- Games, even though they are almost single-player gameplay, need servers to be launched. And therefore disappear with the closure of the servers.
- Multiplayer games like Battlefield also end up having no server anymore (BF2 was exceptional in multiplayer, with bots to play in co-op)
Old MMOs all have private servers. All console and arcade games are emulated. And even multiplayer games have pirate servers to revive them. Also, games released in a single country can be discovered by fan translations in many other languages.
Piracy acts as a safeguard of cultural heritage.
And in some cases - and I find this worrying - piracy makes it possible to make games that were no longer working with their DRM or bugs. DENUVO had a lot of trouble ... and there are also problems with the latest version of Windows. Hogwarts Legacy has a pirate patch for official versions for example.
At the same time: Fans are so genius that they take old games and adapt them to their new graphics engine! The Elder Sroll Oblivion on the Skyrim engine for example.
Here are some other console sales figures:
- Fully hackable PS2: 160 million units.
- Switch can also be hacked: 146 million
- PS4 first hackable version: 117 million
- 100% hackable Wii: 101 million
- PS3 and Xbox can be hacked just as much: a little more than 80 million each
- XBOX One NOT pirated: 58 million.
Once again, I'm not encouraging piracy, I'm taking stock of the situation.
I buy the games that deserve it, piracy I use as a demo. Because I admit that after being disappointed on games that I paid dearly, I am more and more suspicious. I have the whole Battlefield collection since the first one. But the last 3, I clearly lost money.
Let's also talk about the dangers of hacking:
Yes, downloading is not without risk. It has already happened that there are big viruses (especially in beta versions or fake leaks), but also malware that will be able to access your data, including your means of payment.
And it must be said clearly: it is illegal.
Last point:
Hacking is stealing? Yes, it was. Except that for a few years now, we no longer buy games, but a right to use them, on a store. What if the store closes or decides that you will no longer use the game? What if they lose the license? He gives himself the right to do so despite the fact that we paid full price.
I'll give you a personal example: I bought, on Steam, a Japanese manga layout software, which I paid the ass. The company was bought ... There are no more updates, the developers no longer respond to messages. We were waiting for very important updates, which we will never see. AND above all: one day Steam will remove it from its platform and the software will no longer be able to launch. Despite the hundreds of euros paid for this software package.
Well, without any shame, I found myself a pirate version that I keep warm. Just in case...
So if buying is no longer owning, is piracy still theft?
And I'm not even talking about the games sold half-finished, always more expensive with the odious tendency to want to sell micro-DLCs.
