What do you think of video game piracy? (or piracy in general)

Just wondering... what's everyone's stance on video game piracy here?

I'll be honest here. I've pirated games from the PS2/GCN/XB1 age and earlier for console and NDS/PSP and earlier for handheld, as well as some PC games. In my opinion, this is not the same as stealing from your local charity shop (generally these games aren't even sold new anymore) as it's just making a copy and no-one is physically losing anything, especially when I'm not exactly going to pay ?20 for Superman 64 just to play it for five minutes on my non-existent Nintendo 64 with a car battery and portable television so I can spend those five minutes of Superman 64 in public.

But with PC, piracy is still a threat for active developers when for those who actually play PC games, it must be really tempting to just find a torrent or even direct download. This paragraph feels too short and the previous feels too long.

You know why I pirate some games? Because there is no way that I'm paying ?20+ for a game 20+ years old when none of the money will go towards anyone who ever worked on the game. That's basically it. These first-party titles such as Crash Bandicoot and Mario XYZ just never really go down in price (and sometimes go up) and that bothers me. I'd rather not go broke playing obsolete games.

In all honesty, I really never pirate games. I like to support the companies since I play a lot. I don't really have the right to judge people either since I get a lot of anime/cartoons off of KissAnime and KissKartoon as well as music from YouTube. I don't think it's as bad when you're doing it for games that aren't available in your country though.

Pirating games is not ok imo. I feel like movies and tv shows are different though.

Wiimas said:

Pirating games is not ok imo. I feel like movies and tv shows are different though.

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But why?

I don't pirate games or tv shows and movies, with very very few exceptions. My partner and I know so many people working in those industries and don't feel comfortable using that content without paying. We did recently watch a pirated copy of the Lego Batman movie since the distributors chose to delay it's release for *48 days* here (it was made in Sydney! And they'd publicly announced that they would not do this again after The Lego Movie lost around $5 million in Australia in 2014 due to the 51 day delay in release!). We did go see it on release day as well, but that's because we wanted to not because we felt we *had* to.

By comparison, pirating 20something year old games is clearly going to have much less impact on the current market than pirating a new release movie will in that market.

My father is a cameraman/PA/sound tech and I grew up helping him on all kinds of jobs. He's worked on everything from dance school concerts to sports matches to commericials to major concerts and events. He's perfectly fine with watching pirated tv shows and movies. He's not the only one in the industry I know who feels that way. I think it comes down to what you feel comfortable with (and can justify).

Me - I don't like it, but if a distribution company wants to **** around with release dates then I have no qualms with piracy. I wish I didn't want to, and hope it doesn't come up again for me. But unfortunately one of the only ways to change poor free market business practices is to affect enough financial repercussions that changing those practices becomes the best decision a business can make.

If you do pirate anything - make sure you know the relevant legal consequences and keep up to date with any changes to the law (or enforcement thereof) that may affect you.

I don't pirate games because I wanna support the developers and also because it gives me much more incentive to enjoy and finish a game if I spent my hard earned money on it. I also don't really like the fact that it gives homebrew a bad name, since 95% of the people who use it only care about pirating games.

All my games are pirated on my laptop, with the exception of The Sims 4 lol. Spent 40 ****ing pounds on that game, stayed up till 3am for it to release and finish downloading too. It was too laggy to play so I got a new ****ing computer to play it on. On my laptop now, I have so much CC that I can't play game mode and I play it on the lowest settings or else it can't run.

So yes, every other game on my laptop is pirated. If I can't buy the game in stores, pirate. If it's too expensive, pirate. If it's brand new and ambitious, pirate.

Most of the time I end up buying a game if I enjoyed playing a part of the pirated version. If not, I don't bother and delete it or keep the pirated version and play it when I'm bored >3

- - - Post Merge - - -

Here in the UK if you pirate something, they'll either send you a letter saying "pls no pirate thank" or EA sues you lol

I own a few emulators/ROMs as well as an R4 card, I think its perfectly ok and I'm not ashamed of it.

I think it's ok. If the game is good I usually end up buying it later anyway.

i think pc game piracy has gone down a lot with the advent of steam sales and humble bundles etc....

forestyne said:

Here in the UK if you pirate something, they'll either send you a letter saying "pls no pirate thank" or EA sues you lol

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I've never had any repercussions, but I do know that, unless using a proxy, your IP address can be collected if using a torrent and reported to your ISP. I saw this video at some point where the guy had received a couple warning phone calls from BT, I think, but no action had been taken and he was torrenting pretty much 24/7. Generally I just use EmuParadise for games, WatchCartoonOnline for any cartoon stuff and YouTube for live-action stuff where ITV can't even be bothered taking the videos down.

amanda1983 said:

I don't like it, but if a distribution company wants to **** around with release dates then I have no qualms with piracy.

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Another thing for me is when something is only available in certain countries. For example, in the US, there are various ways of legally watching The Simpsons. In the UK, you can either get lucky with what's airing on Channel 4 or buy seasons 1 - 17 and 20 on DVD. In fact, I don't know if Channel 4 even has the rights to anything that hasn't been released on DVD here. That's great and all, except from when you consider that they're currently on season 28 and there are no plans for future DVD releases. But hey, at least this means I'll never accidentally give them money for "Lisa Goes Gaga", generally considered the worst episode of all time.

My life is piracy, honestly. Literally everything I've used to make my art has come illegally (Photoshop, ZBrush, Substance Painter, etc.), and it's thanks to that that I've learnt all of my skills and been able to do everything I've wanted to do. I remember a post on Reddit once about how somebody had just had some huge success in graphic design, and he was thanking her pirated copy of Photoshop from years ago.

I think it depends on the company, for sure. One person stealing Photoshop isn't going to make Photoshop go bust, you know what I mean? And the same with TV shows. I watch live streams online of shows that aren't broadcasted in my country, and I don't see what's wrong with that either.

I agree with Bowie on the Photoshop thing. I bought 2 versions of Photoshop before I decided to pirate it mainly because it got ridiculously expensive with CC. I work mainly freelance and I was pretty bummed out when they introduced subscriptions because it made my practice kinda unsustainable with my current financial situation. However, I accept that because I've pirated my version of photoshop, I wont be able to enjoy any patches or updates made to it, but honestly I'm fine with that. I've been using the same version for 5 years now and it hasn't let me down. As for TV shows, there's really no other way for me to watch them other than streaming since 80% of it isn't available in my country.

But back to the topic of game piracy, I've never pirated a game and I don't think I would. There's few games I play and the ones I do I fully support and have been a fan of for a long time. Computer games are more tempting to pirate but in the end I just buy the damn thing because usually it's a one time commitment unless there's micro-purchases or other bells and whistles that I can make a decision on later.

Coming from someone who's pirated his ps vita, psp in the past, ds and ps2, it's safe to say i'm ok with it. I think it adds to the console tbh. As long as people are still putting money into the company in one way or another then it's fine. Like i'll pirate something, if I like it, i'll buy the actual copy to have in my library. If not I leave it, kinda like i'm trialing everything lol Most stuff i've pirated i've either played it before or am thinking of buying it

If it's possible, I'll support the developers. I'd rather get a game on Virtual Console for whatever price rather then getting it for free. If the game I want is years old and there's no way I can get the game used for a good price or support the developers, I'll settle for an emulator.

I know it's bad but I love getting games for free!

Bowie said:

My life is piracy, honestly. Literally everything I've used to make my art has come illegally (Photoshop, ZBrush, Substance Painter, etc.), and it's thanks to that that I've learnt all of my skills and been able to do everything I've wanted to do. I remember a post on Reddit once about how somebody had just had some huge success in graphic design, and he was thanking her pirated copy of Photoshop from years ago.

I think it depends on the company, for sure. One person stealing Photoshop isn't going to make Photoshop go bust, you know what I mean? And the same with TV shows. I watch live streams online of shows that aren't broadcasted in my country, and I don't see what's wrong with that either.

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I always felt like Photoshop itself was piracy with that insane price tag. People who make all those really cool gifs and stuff wouldn't be able to without it. I learned a ton of cool things from using it and have actually gotten pretty good with Photoshop over the years. The fact that the latest Photoshop has a monthly membership fee is ridiculous to me. I'm fine with using just CS5 for things.

DarkDesertFox said:

I always felt like Photoshop itself was piracy with that insane price tag. People who make all those really cool gifs and stuff wouldn't be able to without it. I learned a ton of cool things from using it and have actually gotten pretty good with Photoshop over the years. The fact that the latest Photoshop has a monthly membership fee is ridiculous to me. I'm fine with using just CS5 for things.

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Exactly my point. I know we disagree on a lot of stuff, but you make good stuff, and I think you're a good example of how piracy can be used for good.

DarkDesertFox said:

I always felt like Photoshop itself was piracy with that insane price tag. People who make all those really cool gifs and stuff wouldn't be able to without it. I learned a ton of cool things from using it and have actually gotten pretty good with Photoshop over the years. The fact that the latest Photoshop has a monthly membership fee is ridiculous to me. I'm fine with using just CS5 for things.

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My first version of Photoshop was CS3 and I got it from my friend's media arts teacher who pirated it for all the students.

My bf pirated the 2014 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign for me so I use those now with no intentions of buying them for real. Waaaay too much money, especially with the new ripoff subscription service. Seriously, screw that service.

i steal shows, music, movies, games, food, idc