I just wonder if piracy would go down if games cost more around $30 instead of $60. And if so, by how much? Would those numbers be cut in half or remain the same?

It sucks that games are pirated this much, but there's really nothing they can do about. Pirates will always find a way to pirate. Although EA would probably see me as a thrifty for purchasing their games used.

Here comes the pirate rhetoric. "ITS NOT STEALING DERP DE HERP". Shit never gets old.

@Rakue:

I think piracy would go down if prices were decreased. I'm sure most pirates do it because they can't afford the games.

Why did people pirate Kinect Sports?

*thief, not thrifty. Damn phone.

While pirating this much is atrocious, I do find this news pretty delightful with all the people blasting some publishers for jumping ship on the PC it by saying you can do it on consoles. Clearly the numbers are much greater on the PC, not to mention the console of choice for the argument is the 360 which has less pirated games than the Wii.

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

People demand Xenoblade, say there is a demand.

People pirate Xenoblade, lowering demand.

Logic!

Interestingly, The Witcher 2 doesn't have the 4.5 mil estimated amount that was being reported by them.

Piracy is FUuUUUuUnnnNNAH

I hate myself

Mario Sports Mix........really?

It's funny. I used to pirate games like crazy back when I was a PC Gamer circa 2001. Now that I've gone back to PC gaming after almost a decade of consoleness™ I can't justify pirating in an industry that has sales for games as low as $2.50 for full retail releases and as low as $0.25 for DLC. Steam has spoiled me for the better.

That and I feel more empathy for game developers than I did back then, I understand the industry more and want to see a developer properly compensated for their hard work. Which includes fucking used game sales in the ass. Fuck GameStop and long live Online Passes.

Also, a lot of those games are major&new releases. I'm surprised The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was not anywhere near the top 3 of that list. It seems like the other lists that include MW3 and BF3 might have been hardcore fans of one game, 'trying' the other to see how it holds up.

Also, also:

4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (870,000)

*trollface*

And then Xenoblade gets pirated.

I wonder if those Xenoblade pirates could have been actual sales, had Nintendo got their fucking head out of their anus.

"It's funny. I used to pirate games like crazy back when I was a PC Gamer circa 2001. Now that I've gone back to PC gaming after almost a decade of consoleness™ I can't justify pirating in an industry that has sales for games as low as $2.50 for full retail releases and as low as $0.25 for DLC. Steam has spoiled me for the better."

this is me to a fucking tee. or is it "t"?

@Raukue

So it goes from $60 or free to $30 of free?!

Imo it looks like that ain't gonna have to much of a noticeable impact if any at all....

People pirate Xenoblade TO PLAY IT IN AMERICA. Also, I'm going to be "pirating" plenty of wii games I own to play them in HD with dolphin

@tekbunny: Highfive! ^5

People pirated Crysis 2? I'd rather download a virus.

Huh. The Console numbers are pretty insignificant, aren't they?

Xenoblade Chronicles (950,000)

half of those 950,000 were whining in operation rainfall, I'm sure of that.

Suprised that The Witcher 2 isn't top of the list.

@piracyincreasessales

Internal numbers are no doubt exaggerated but also keep in mind that this list is for one particular site for one particular medium of piracy, of which there are many different kinds of both.

@TheNephilym:

The disparity between console and pc numbers is pretty drastic, the used that piracy is harder on consoles obviously has its merits.

Also I'm interested in the reason for the lack of ps3 numbers. Are they harder to obtain or track? Is there not a "significant" number of downloads? What?

*idea

I wonder how this compares to last year's numbers.

That sort of directly disproves CD Projekt's "4.5 million pirates!" claim...

"hurr hurr we want xenoblade pandora's tower and the last story to pirate it almost as much as mario games"

@zyk

right? didnt they say like 3 billion copies of their game got pirated or something like that?

The better question is, does it matter?

crysis is a pretty power hungry game.
I would wager that a good portion of the people pirating that game were mainly doing it to check if it would run on their system and save potentially wasting their money.

Salnax:

People asked for Xenoblade, and Nintendo of America kept refusing to release it. Nintendo of Europe decided to release it, and Nintendo of America still refused to release it. People demanded Xenoblade see US release, and Nintendo of America continued to deny any plans to release it.

Nintendo of Europe released Xenoblade, and people wanting to play it either imported it or pirated it. (Piracy was honestly the easier route, and softmodding to play imports is no easier than softmodding to play copies.)

Then Nintendo of America said they'd release Xenoblade. With a release date half a year after the European date, and almost two full years after the original Japanese release date. After people had already given up on NOA. After some swore off supporting NOA in the future. After people had already decided to pirate the game. (And it supposedly took Gamestop stepping in to get even than grudging response from NOA.)

I pirated Crysis 2 to try to see if it would run on my PC and hated it so I didn't end up buying it. I also pirated Xenoblade because I didn't think it was coming to the US but then it was announced and I preordered it. I'm surprised Zelda isn't on there for Wii. I bought that but I also pirated it so I could play it in HD with Dolphin.

@quantumriian

I don't know a lot, but since PS3 uses blu-ray, I guess it would be significantly more expansive to pirate.

@Everyday Legend - YOu mean those people that pirated Xenoblade because they convinced themselves Nintendo said it was never coming here, which they never said?

People decided Nintendo said "never" as the rationale to pirate it. Nintendo of America - not as a whole - had no reason not to publish it, true, but piracy is never justified.

I mean, just look at Portal 2 up there. Made by one of the most amazing and generous developers out there and it still got pirated over 3 million times. There's no winning with the people that just steal by nature.

Of course, they don't consider it stealing, now do they? They object to it being called that.

Those are interesting figures for the Wii. I hope many of the people supported the developers in the end if they liked the games.

In all likelihood majority of these downloads take place in countries that don't have the income or the ability to purchase these games. Thats not to s say a significant amount of piracy doesn't take place in the US or UK but I believe it's more prominent in other places, like Korea, the Mid East and such.

/popcorn

I'd like to see DVD an d Bluray pirating numbers. And how about cam downloads, or droid/iphone apps? Where do other media compare to those listed?

I know it takes zero effort to pirate and not everyone plays the games all the way through, but it surprises me there are that many people that went out and pirated Xenoblade (950,000). At least that shows people are interested in the game, even in the worst way possible. Lets hope a portion of those people give the game a shot at retail.

According to TorrentFreak:

"As can be seen from the three lists below, PC games are by far the most downloaded titles, with on average more than three times the number of downloads compared to Xbox 360 and Wii releases. Overall, the number of downloads of the top titles in each category is slightly lower than last year. The platforms that are not mentioned, such as the PS3, get considerably less downloads and are excluded for that reason."

Translation: A) Piracy has gone down overall from last year and B) LOL who has a PS3? ALMOST NO ONE. LOL

@Rammstein

about 50 million people have a ps3

Mario Sports Mix number 2?

Da hell?

jmoschmo: "Lets hope a portion of those people give the game a shot at retail."

They won't. Not even 10 percent.

So pretty much all of those games sold incredibly well despite being pirated so much. Piracy is killing the industry guys.

Well of coarse xenoblade would be on the list

only game i actually paid for on that list was portal 2. screw EA and Activision