Developers not only need to drop prices if they are to compete with pirates, but they also need to provide a better service then the pirated one. World of Goo isn't expensive, but it's not worth more then ten bucks either. Furthermore, the majority of people pirating stuff can't afford any price at all. If you don't believe me, just make a trip to Eastern Europe and if you encounter a eastern European ready to pay 20% for a digital download, I'll give you my original copy of Mass Effect along with Bioshock.

DRM isn't what's needed, they need to stop treating all their customers as potential pirates and start treating pirates and potential customers.

@kosmodiah : Being able to afford something has nothing to do with this argument. If you cannot afford it, no matter what you "think" the price should be, you should not get to play it.

stop treating customers as potential pirates and start treating pirates as potential customers.*** fixed from my above post.

So... what? Nine people stole it?

@Kasmodiah : Whiny-bitch pirate confirmed. And I, as well as developers (most-likely) could care less of Eastern Europeans could afford the games. Just because you cannot afford it does not give you the right to steal it. Games are a luxury, not a necessity.

I just came in here to say the phrase is "couldn't care less". Couldn't.

That is all.

"Whiny-bitch pirate confirmed. And I, as well as developers (most-likely) could care less of Eastern Europeans could afford the games. Just because you cannot afford it does not give you the right to steal it. Games are a luxury, not a necessity."

I know that you and the developers don't give a shit about Eastern European market, but if you don't want to get involved in fresh and emerging business models and markets, you can at least stop making fools of yourselves on internet forums while we rape your IP. Because we can and don't care who supports the game industry. Too many chromosomes confirmed. Enjoy your Syndrome of a Down and continue your reveling in your weak arguments as I go now to play the games I didn't pay for.

Kasmodiah is a cock-ass. Confirmed.

People don't pirate for any reason besides they can do it for free with zero consequence. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. It has nothing to do with DRM, nothing to do with pricing, and nothing to do with how "the industry treats it's customers".

Absolutely nothing.

@ Magesx
i am in full agreement!

I really believe that the only way to slow down piracy [lets face it, stopping it is not an option] is to put it on a format that costs too much for the average user to copy. Now, im not promoting Blu-ray, but, it seems that a blu-ray burner costs a fortune and to download the amount of data on the .iso [or what ever compression] yourself would take too long. On my PC or NDS it is... *ahem* i would presume.... be too easy to pirate the software. but, i cant be fucked to go through the hassle of chipping & burning disks for my PS3. It won't last forever.... oh, fuck it... i cant be arsed with this now, haha.

yaaay for roms & torrents

"piracy rates" are bullshit, DRM does not prevent piracy
"piracy rates" are bullshit, DRM does not prevent piracy
"piracy rates" are bullshit, DRM does not prevent piracy

it's a fact that there are many pirates that actually buy the games they download if they are worth the retail price. sadly, most are not.

if CM really has been pirated more than it has been purchased, then BGS should (and possibly does) realise that a small fraction of people think the game is worth the RRP, and the rest think it's worth what they paid: nothing.

Wow Kasmodiah i'm impressed by how idiotic your 'arguments' are. While I can apreciate that some people cannot afford games at their current prices, it doesn't override the fact that games are a LUXURY item! You don't have to play them, you just want to. If you can't afford a game it doesn't give you the right to steal it. The same goes for people who justify piracy by saying they wouldn't have bought the game anyway. The fact is that a lot of people work hard to make these games and they deserve to be compensated for their efforts. If we as consumers want to continue to see quality titles being developed, we need to support companies by buying their software. If rampant piracy like this contuinues, it won't just hurt developers but it will also affect the end-users.

"it's a fact that there are many pirates that actually buy the games they download if they are worth the retail price. sadly, most are not."

haha what a load of shite. Even if was true, that isn't how it works - you can't take a book back just because you don't like it -but considering World of Goo has a 90% pirate rate and a 94% score on metacritic, your theory is clearly total bullshit.

I don't care about piracy, people can do whatever they want, but its irritating when people try to excuse it - the reasons people pirate is because they don't want to pay, pure and simple. Be a cheapskate if you want but don't pretend there's any decent reason for it.

Copyright will perish, period.
It's not valid anymore. You don't have to pay a small fortune to print/ship/sell 1000 books. You can duplicate information for marginal prices, and every product that is in fact information - won't make it under copyright. It's outdated now and calling piracy stealing won't do much for the next generation. Some inertia still exists but it's vanishing as time passes.

Most ppl wouldn't mind if I duplicated their chairs and lamps as long as they still had originals. It's not stealing, period.
Well ... now it's also illegal without a doubt too.

I believe that art and entertainment products will still thrive after copyright is dead, as they did before it was introduced. Simply - pricing models will have to shift. Musicians will have to live off live gigs and merchandise (who wants pirated t-shirt of fav band? "originality" and "supporting the band" are the reason, not the product in itself). Writers will probably move to micropayments (paypal info on the last site, "printing this book is 15$ would you like to donate 2$ directly to the writer?" at the future xero shop counter, link at the end of e-ink reader to paypal acc). Multiplayer games will get money from accounts not copies. And singleplayer games ... well they will have to depend on responsibility of consumers, if they decide to support them after copyright goes down or not, it might be a reneissance or almost complete shift to multiplayer.

However, these are important for ppl that live off these products not anyone else, becouse copyright will die regardless of their opinion. In a few decades it will be completely artifical legislation like prohibition with hardly any support. Charging for essentially free copies? War on drugs has popular support and it's impossible to win, what about this one?

If there is an option to get something for free then people will always try to do that before paying for something they want.

Why don't game companies just require that you play the game constantly online, such as WoW? (I'm talking about single player games) Almost everyone has the internet... it seems like the only thing to do...