Piracy and videogames (Opinion + Study)

It has always existed, since the first printed copy there were people who either for their own profit or for wanting to share the information for free with all has copied or distributed material without the consent of its author.

Piracy, that great evil that affects the big industries of entertainment, in this article I will focus only on piracy in the videogame industry, what I will expose here is my personal opinion, if you have any criticism, suggestion or want to share your experience write a comment, because let's face it the vast majority have ever resorted to piracy.

"The one who is guilt-free throw the first stone"

Piracy has always been a sensitive issue when it comes to talking about the video game industry (in general, about any entertainment industry). For obvious reasons, companies seek to you get their products, buy a console, buy the games available for this and help the industry grow, if you consume piracy you do not benefit and this in this great industrialized world where the customer is a statistic its not profitable, rather it is a giant problem according to the words of the developers.
The fight against piracy comes from the beginning of this industry being established since the launch of the legendary NES, rivers of ink have rained on the subject and there have been hundreds of maneuvers by developers to avoid it, a special chip in the cartridges, unique formats (like the GameCube discs), some ingenious ones like the one used by Konami in Metal Gear Solid (when we have to contact Meryl, for that we must look for the frequency of the codec on the back of the original game box), until the current attempts with systems like DRM (forces to be online always) or those used by Ubisoft or Electronic Arts, like the constant pixelation of the Sims 4 screen that ends up completely covering the game area or the distortion of Far Cry's scenarios 4 to make it unplayable.

The pixelated Sim4

"History has shown us that there is no anti-piracy method that is 100% safe," says Andy Maxwell, Torrent Freak.

Since I remember, here in my country (Venezuela) consume pirated products is normal, then with the internet there have been no limits to get what you want, well if there is one, the bandwidth (here in Venezuela is disgusting ) and I know that this same story has been repeated in many Latin American countries.

How are those who practice the buy of piracy justified? Everything is for money. In Latin America, the local production of video games is almost null, as well as its official distribution: Almost all copies of original video games, as well as consoles, are imported from the United States or Europe, adding a value of around 30% to the high original cost, we should also add the factor of ignorance of an industry with total ignorance of how it works.

But I cannot judge piracy, it would be hypocritical on my part since that it fulfilled the primary function of reaching audiences that could not access the products from this large companies, not to mention that it contributed to the success of much of these products here is worth mentioning the example of the PlayStation 2 the most sold console so far with one of the most extensive catalogs to date, in addition piracy allowed me to find games that are not for sale in our region or that are so old that there is no other way to get them,

"Piracy is a terrible thing, but it's a bad sign when the pirates ignore you: it means you do not matter" Jose Manuel Lara Bosch president of Grupo Planeta.

Times are changing thanks to digital downloads, much cheaper indie games and the facilities to create and sell your own content, the success of platforms such as steam, adding to the growing difficulty to pirate a game or system, the continuous release of patches and updates, factors that have caused the decline of piracy at least in the video game industry. The future is in the streaming they announce and with the success of platforms such as Spotify or Netflix platforms that are very accessible and have a lot of content, it is not difficult to see why these statements.

I grew up surrounded by piracy, my first console was a pirate NES and thanks to it I knew this industry, I do not seek to justify its practice, but developers would gain more if they understood an important aspect: motivation and communication between developers, distributors and the consumer, the lack of these factors ends up affecting the quality and reception of their products; It is not a matter of complying with every whim of the gamer, but so understanding them and respecting.

Finally I want to share a recent study on piracy that says there is no evidence that piracy affects game sales. The report made by Ecorys for the European Commission, in which he examined in depth how piracy affects movies, television, books and videogames. This in countries like Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Sweden and various regions of the United Kingdom.
The results say that 51% of adults surveyed illegally download or send content. Of this group, 18% claimed to do so with video games. Despite these results, the final report ensures that there is "no solid statistical evidence of sales displacement due to online copyright infringement".
Immediately, the study clarifies that this "does not necessarily mean that piracy has no effect, but that statistical analysis does not prove with enough reliability that it exists."
Also, Ecorys states that, on occasion, illegal consumption increases the legal sales of some products. The results say that the research firm only found evidence about the damage in the film industry.
Here is the link to the report for those who want to take a look:

https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf