I can't imagine ever seeing a general consensus when it comes to software piracy. Consumers, developers, publishers and the media all approach the situation from different angles and have different motivations and investments in the software. Unity Technologies, developers of the Unity game engine and editor, have added some more gray to the piracy canvass. John Goodale believes that China's culture of piracy allowed his company to make waves in the East.
I was an original DOS, Lotus 123 user. Then I heard of this thing called Excel, but I couldn't imagine going away from Lotus 123 -- it's what I knew. Then somebody gave me an illegal copy of Excel, and I loved it, and I've purchased it ever since... Piracy can be a way to seed a market. Nobody will ever fully conquer the piracy problem, but we can certainly turn it to our advantage, and I think that's what we've done in China.
Despite not being a big player in the Asian markets, the four cities with the most Unity sessions per month are Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Nei Hu. By getting this foothold Unity was able to secure $12 million in funding to expand their operations in Asia in July.
I'm always impressed when developers come across something that could be considered a major problem, yet turn it to their advantage. Major publishers like EA and Activision are more than happy to make their consumers' experiences less than satisfactory. They even attempt to cripple markets which allow less financially stable consumers to still experience their products, such as used games. By "going to war" with pirates they have made them even less likely to ever spend money on their new foes' products, while also harming their legitimate customers.
I think it's safe to say we'd all rather see companies innovate in the face of piracy, rather than just attacking consumers. I doubt we'll see that from larger developers or publishers, but we are already seeing it with indie titles. No Time To Explain even got a special pirate themed edition for pirates to enjoy. Pirates are still potential customers, but they probably won't change their habits if being an actual consumer means having to put up with DRM or multiplayer passes.
Piracy helped Unity's expansion into China [GamesIndustry.biz]
Contest:
9:00 PM on 10.02.2011 | 
I'm always impressed when developers come across something that could be considered a major problem, yet turn it to their advantage."
Piracy as 'free exposure' in an undeveloped-market has always been a potential 'good thing'. Venture capital/funding pours in as interest/brand awareness suddenly grows in a market nobody was looking at. Nothing has been invested or shipped into that region yet, so one can split hairs and say nothings been 'lost' in that piracy build up.
The issue is piracy kinda, sorta stops working in a company's favor the second they actually start producing/developing in said market. Nobody has solved that little trick yet, no matter how glibly the issue is broached. John Goodale is loving life when a surprise market emerged and funding landed on his desk. When investors want that money recouped at a premium.....let's see what song the canary sings about piracy then.
I completely agree, piracy has a different impact depending on the company and what stage they are at in their development. I don't think anyone would suggest that piracy has a positive impact in every case, or even most of them.
@Tristrix
It's not in the least bit close. I said DRM isn't going to turn them into potential customers. I never even mentioned the reason that they pirate. I'm not condoning it or condemning it, merely suggesting that innovation is a better way to deal with it than punishing legitimate consumers. My argument is more DRM harms everyone, stop it. I imagine that most consumers would agree with me.
I get that, please don't misunderstand. I wasn't accusing you of defending piracy or anything. I mostly agree with you. I just don't like DRM being brought up at all in a piracy discussion because that's so commonly used as an excuse for it.
I feel like when we bitch about DRM, we're giving the goddamn criminals that caused it to exist in the first place a free pass to continue fucking all of us over because we don't like the solution publishers came up with to stop them. Yes, DRM sucks but lets put the blame squarely where it belongs... on the motherfuckers stealing games. No more excuses. That's all I'm saying.
It's actually gotten to the point where pirates get better game use experiences BECAUSE they pirated and got around the annoying DRM such as for Ubisoft's games.
The entire point of DRM is just to be a barbed wire fence keeping the less technical people from pirating. The problem is that DRM has turned the area outside of the fence has turned into a mosquito infested swamp and the lands on the other side a pristine oasis. Being a good customer means wading through crap being eaten by mosquitos as they buzz around your ears and up your nose. Pirating is just far more appealing when that's what your DRM does to your actual customers.
I don't mean to defend DRM... it sucks. I'll be the first to admit. It treats paying customers like criminals. I just don't think we do anyone any favors with hyperbole. It's a nuisance. It's not thermonuclear disaster.
This happens to far more than .1% of computer owners. This is why I do not support constant connection drm's.
In the case of games, I just don't think there is a side that is more wrong than the other. Gamers have less and less control over how they experience their games, and the initiatives the industry has taken to snuff out piracy are, for the most part, short sighted and counter productive. The gamers who pirate games do so at someone's expense, regardless of justification. Neither side can prove anything, but both sides quote conjecture as fact. I think that the arguments for and against are mostly surface scratching, as neither side seems particularly willing to address the environment that spawned the situation in the first place. Its also my opinion that neither side wants to, because no one would come out smelling like roses, and when you engage in a battle of hyperbole, your image is all that matters.
Frankly, I think it is about time the industry that we turned into the most money making form of entertainment in history makes concessions for us. You want to mitigate piracy? Then treat me like I matter as a customer, even if it means taking a hit to your bottom line. In the long term, emboldening your customers will do more to make them want to support you than treating everyone like a criminal. You'll have to excuse me if I don't feel bad for a hugely profitable industry doing its best to control my consuming habits when their heavy handed tactics aren't enough to satisfy their need to protect their IP. As a consumer, I come first.
I don't pirate games, more or less because these days I only buy the scant few games that still appeal to me on a year to year basis. I do, however, watch movies on JTV a lot, and this has rekindled my long dim love of film. I went from buying almost nothing by way of movies, to purchasing at least a movie a month. I see it on JTV, and want more, so I go out and buy the special edition. I would never have seen Bridemaids without "piracy", and I am happy to say that the DVD now sits on a shelf full of movies I would never have seen as well. Its wrong, whatever, no amount of shaming is going to convince me that the new found power over my movie consuming habits is hurting anyone more than it is helping. Hell, I even went out and got a debit card for my checking account just so I could start using Redbox. All I'm saying is that we're all just people, and none of us on either side can be easily categorized under any blanket assumptions.
The more human both sides treat the other, the better off we'll be. Arguing over who is and isnt an "asshole" gets no one anywhere, what will is an effort to better understand what drives individuals to act as they do, be they gamer or CEO. One of the most potent drivers of change is understanding.
ahh crap I'm too late :(
I am a reformed pirate.
When i was young and poor i had a PS2, with HD Loader software and a HDD - I set up an unlimited, one game at a time, game rental by post account, every time i got a game i would rip it to my HDD, send it back as quickly as posisble in order to get another game in 3 days.
Every 3 days i ripped a rented game to my HDD - if there was ever a game i wanted urgently, or a game not available in this Country i would just torrent it and load it onto my PS2's HDD.
Now as an adult, and an adult with a fair bit of disposable income i buy SO MANY GAMES and most of them I buy because I loved the stolen version of a previous game in the series.
Piracy sold so many games to me. Sure i stole LOADS of games, but it made me BUY even more games down the line.
Piracy is the friend of sales in the long run.
and i honestly mean no offense to the dog shit.
Seriously, piracy is not as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. Remember when Microsoft used to curb stomp companies for using pirated copies of Windows? Yeahhhh...