Kotaku Gamer Census: 79% of Readers Pirate PC Games

[StingingVelvet]

So, sometimes when you debate the PC piracy problem people act like publishers overreact and the problem is not that big a deal and those people would not buy games anyway, but... here is a large anonymous survey from the biggest gaming blog showing this is not the case.

79% of gamers on that site pirate PC games, which is a staggering number, compared to only 50% on the console, the vast majority of that 50% being in the "only a few times" category.

Reasons for piracy are many, the winner was "other" which I find amusing...

It bears mentioning of course that a survey is not a scientific thing, and this could all be completely inaccurate to the whole, but I doubt it. Next time someone says PC publishers should just accept piracy and focus on the paying customers, I will show them this to have them see just what kind of percentages these publishers are working with.

http://kotaku.com/5500495/kotaku-census-2010-the-results-in-full

[DaFox]

'Only' 25% said they do it all the time. Along with 18% on the console. Its not /that/ much different.

[Dem Pyros]

To begin, that's a small sample (though I don't know if it's large enough to be statistically significant) that's not randomized, made up of people that read a video-gaming blog (meaning they're probably not very casual gamers). One of the best-selling games of all time is The Sims, which is not pandering to that audience. My point is - it makes sense that more computer-literate, gaming-oriented people are pirating games compared to a casual gamer who doesn't know a floppy disk from a flatscreen.

Secondly, the figure doesn't surprise me at all. It would have been nicer if they broke it up to even more categories (week, month, etc.), because downloading a PC game is so incredibly easy these days. All pirate to get the game, but some do it because they don't want to pay for it, and some do it because they just want to "try out" piracy. So while 79% is high, that doesn't mean that 79% pirate every single new game on the market. Personally I'm not averse to the "try before you buy" mentality of certain pirates if a demo doesn't exist for a new game, and that is yet another reason someone may pirate, even if they shell out the cash for the game when the release date hits. But I guarantee you that if pirating a game for a console was half as easy as it was for the PC, that statistic would be much much higher (in part due to the $60 pricetag on console games).

I'm rambling so I'm going to shut up (soon). Piracy is a problem for gaming, yes, but saying that 79% of PC gamers are pirates is a very generic statement that misses the mark. It's like saying that a majority of the population are drug addicts because they have experimented with drugs at some point in their life. Ultimately, anyone who pirates a game without paying for it only takes away the money from the developer if they intended to pay for it in the first place.

Short version: Not surprising.

/rambling

EDIT: ^What he said. :hide

[Soduka]

WHY, who did you open another thread? We get it, you and cranky would open up a slaughter house for pirates if you could, the discussion is over!

o, sometimes when you debate the PC piracy problem people act like publishers overreact and the problem is not that big a deal and those people would not buy games anyway, but... here is a large anonymous survey from the biggest gaming blog showing this is not the case.

79% of gamers on that site pirate PC games, which is a staggering number, compared to only 50% on the console, the vast majority of that 50% being in the "only a few times" category.

Reasons for piracy are many, the winner was "other" which I find amusing...

It bears mentioning of course that a survey is not a scientific thing, and this could all be completely inaccurate to the whole, but I doubt it. Next time someone says PC publishers should just accept piracy and focus on the paying customers, I will show them this to have them see just what kind of percentages these publishers are working with.

http://kotaku.com/5500495/kotaku-census ... ts-in-full

[DaFox]

(in part due to the $60 pricetag on console games)

Lucky.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-xbox-360/10125088.aspx?path=13ea7cbc2b0eef9ac7d91ec51be0f1e2en02
+ 10% tax

60 U.S. dollars = 61.7099836 Canadian dollars

Its just on the games that the big publishers think can get away with such a price tag thankfully.

And yes I agree with Soduka; You two fraking LOVE trollin about piracy.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Well, as soon as I see circular arguments this thread is getting locked, but I thought this was interesting:

http://www.videogamer.com/news/ea_slams_its_c_and_c4_drm.html

One of the EA bosses has a flaky 'net connection, and he rips C&C4's DRM apart because of it! :mrgreen:

[Soduka]

[StingingVelvet]

'Only' 25% said they do it all the time. Along with 18% on the console. Its not /that/ much different.

True, but that includes all consoles.

I don't know anyone who didn't mod their original Xbox to play old console games.

[StingingVelvet]

WHY, who did you open another thread? We get it, you and cranky would open up a slaughter house for pirates if you could, the discussion is over!

I mostly posted this because I thought the percentage was insanely high for a volunteer survey, and the whole article is interesting really.

I guess posting it so soon after that other piracy thread might have been a bad idea, but honestly I forgot it existed. I read the Kotaku article, went "wow" and then posted it on my two main forums, NVNews and here.

[StingingVelvet]

To begin, that's a small sample (though I don't know if it's large enough to be statistically significant) that's not randomized, made up of people that read a video-gaming blog (meaning they're probably not very casual gamers). One of the best-selling games of all time is The Sims, which is not pandering to that audience. My point is - it makes sense that more computer-literate, gaming-oriented people are pirating games compared to a casual gamer who doesn't know a floppy disk from a flatscreen.

This is true, but hardcore gamers are the ones publishers rely on to sell the games most of us here likely enjoy. No one is worried for the future of popcap or indie games on the PC, we are worried about the AAA big production hardcore games from EA, Ubisoft, 2K and the rest.

[DaFox]

[quote]'Only' 25% said they do it all the time. Along with 18% on the console. Its not /that/ much different.

True, but that includes all consoles.

I don't know anyone who didn't mod their original Xbox to play old console games.

Why does it matter what era they are pirating from?

Are you saying that its okay If I pirate say Dues Ex?

[StingingVelvet]

[quote][quote]'Only' 25% said they do it all the time. Along with 18% on the console. Its not /that/ much different.

True, but that includes all consoles.

I don't know anyone who didn't mod their original Xbox to play old console games.

Why does it matter what era they are pirating from?

Are you saying that its okay If I pirate say Dues Ex?

Where did I say it was okay?

You said the rates were not drastically different, I said it includes old consoles which were easier to pirate with.

?

And, since you mentioned it, I do not have a problem with "pirating" games you cannot buy new anywhere, no, so in that sense age matters. Whether I pay $100 for System Shock 2 on ebay or not the old publisher and developers get nothing from it. If they rerelease it, I will gladly buy it, but in the interim it doesn't really matter. Deus Ex is still sold though, so it does not fall under this category.

And that comes from a huuuuuge piracy hater.

[DaFox]

I said it includes old consoles which were easier to pirate with.

I disagree, the Wii is easily the easiest console to pirate with.

The original Xbox was decently easy, it still required additional hardware that 99% of people didn't have. (Those pieces being a Memory card and a method to connect it to the computer, via AR or a USB xbox controller converter.)

[Tanuki]

Internet Poll.

[BRPunk]

Things like this are the reason that I still bought Assassin's Creed 2 despite the DRM. Ubisoft has reached oppressive, draconian methods at this point to control our gaming, but they've done so because pc gamers as a community won't fork out the cash to save the very industry that they love so much.

[StingingVelvet]

[quote]I said it includes old consoles which were easier to pirate with.

I disagree, the Wii is easily the easiest console to pirate with.

The original Xbox was decently easy, it still required additional hardware that 99% of people didn't have. (Those pieces being a Memory card and a method to connect it to the computer, via AR or a USB xbox controller converter.)

I don't really know how they compare, all I have is friends to go on and I know most of them modded their Xbox to play old 2D console games, which at the time I thought was no big deal because those games could no longer be bought anywhere. Now we have WiiWare and collections and other such things.

[Dem Pyros]

The original Xbox was decently easy, it still required additional hardware that 99% of people didn't have. (Those pieces being a Memory card and a method to connect it to the computer, via AR or a USB xbox controller converter.)

Didn't have, but were still incredibly easy to get.

AR was twenty bucks at any Gamestop, and then you only needed Splinter Cell, Mechassault, or Agent Under Fire. It's not like you had to rip open the console and flash the firmware.

I, for one, totally disagree about "supporting the industry you love" by giving into Ubisoft's draconian DRM. Vote with your dollar - DRM only hinders paying customers. If you're so desperate to play it, find a friend who has it, just pirate it (not that I'm endorsing such an action), or go without playing that game. If you keep buying games with horrible DRM attached to them the issue is only going to get worse.

[BRPunk]

[quote]The original Xbox was decently easy, it still required additional hardware that 99% of people didn't have. (Those pieces being a Memory card and a method to connect it to the computer, via AR or a USB xbox controller converter.)

Didn't have, but were still incredibly easy to get.

AR was twenty bucks at any Gamestop, and then you only needed Splinter Cell, Mechassault, or Agent Under Fire. It's not like you had to rip open the console and flash the firmware.

I, for one, totally disagree about "supporting the industry you love" by giving into Ubisoft's draconian DRM. Vote with your dollar - DRM only hinders paying customers. If you're so desperate to play it, find a friend who has it, just pirate it (not that I'm endorsing such an action), or go without playing that game. If you keep buying games with horrible DRM attached to them the issue is only going to get worse.

Well, that wasn't really my argument. I was arguing that although I find DRM to be a flaw, I still bought AC2 because I think that we've caused companies to reach this level. I think that our community has driven Ubisoft to this so I can't blame them for it. Since I have a really stable internet connection, I've actually yet to have a single instance of DRM-trouble while playing, so it's worked out quite well thusfar.

[The_cranky_hermit]

If you keep buying games with horrible DRM attached to them the issue is only going to get worse.

How would that make it worse? *Pirating* games with DRM, a strategy which you actually suggested, would make the issue worse, for what should be obvious reasons. But if games with DRM sell, and therefore it worked, why would they invest in even more DRM?

[DaFox]

I don't really know how they compare

Pretty much this:

Didn't have, but were still incredibly easy to get.

AR was twenty bucks at any Gamestop, and then you only needed Splinter Cell, Mechassault, or Agent Under Fire. It's not like you had to rip open the console and flash the firmware.

Yes but compared to hacking a Wii, the only thing that you need is an SD Card which most people have already for their digital cameras or phones.