The State of Play in Game Piracy
July 14, 2009 – 1:20 pmEvery now and then we get a nudge from our readers bemoaning the fixation of piracy commentators on the music and movie industries. In light of our commitment to all things piracy in digital media, it would be remiss of us to pass comment on the state of play in entertainment software (or what most of us call gaming) piracy.
A few months ago we stumbled across a brilliant article from TweakGuide’s Koroush Ghazi titled PC Game Piracy Examined which to this day remains one of the best opinion pieces available regarding game piracy.
It may be a daunting read for some but is surely worth the effort. We’ve taken the liberty of providing a synopsis here which does not do it justice – by all means take the time to visit TweakGuide for more (and maybe visit their sponsors too while you’re at it 
).
Leaving aside the introductory chapters on piracy and copyright and the economics of piracy, Ghazi makes a strong arguments that bring into question some of the greatest arguments typically used by pro-piracy campaigners and highlights that PC game developers are much more vulnerable than their console brothers.
Firstly, game piracy is not because games are too expensive – some of the highest trafficked games on bittorrent such as Crysis Warhead are also among the cheapest to purchase outright.
Secondly, the argument that users turn to game piracy because of excessively restrictive DRM also falls flat as even the most non-intrusive titles such as Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty 4 rank highly in the bittorrent stats.
One of the article’s less robust arguments concerns the hidden cost incurred by game developers in providing online/phone support for illegitimate users of their games. The reality being that if they know enough to know that they are supporting users with pirated copies of their games, they should be able to screen them out with relative ease. As such, the incremental cost argument here falls flat.
As with other forms of piracy, games are looking to combat piracy by adopting their business models. This includes experimentation with online and subscription-based revenue models (a natural development as demonstrated by the enormous popularity of titles such as World of Warcraft). Where users are not willing to pay a regular fee for their games, episodic content is an alternative to provide a sense of ownership (albeit for a smaller piece of the puzzle).
Ghazi concludes with a number of poignant observations regarding practical solutions for game piracy … but we’ll let you read those for yourself!