What is video game piracy? When did it start, and what are the reasons behind it?
What is piracy?
In simple terms, “piracy” is acquiring software through the internet or other methods without a legitimate/purchased license. The original software is “cracked” (hacked) in order to be functional without a serial code or online activation. Hence, anyone who resorts to such practices, will save himself a considerable amount of money, but potentially face legal charges or infection of his computer with malware.
More than often, I come across threads and boards of people proving to me that they don’t understand the fundamental reasons why certain individuals might exclusively indulge in piracy. For starters, software piracy is nothing new. It’s been happening from the early days of P2P sharing and is still going strong despite the efforts of companies and governments actively taking action against it. The law also varies from country to country, so the outcome will remain unclear. On the other hand, computers (PC) have also grown into almost a complementary accessory in everyone’s home. Ever since the performance was accompanied by a decent price, PCs became accessible to almost everybody, hence making computer software a subject of piracy.
However, in this article, I will solely focus on video-games piracy and avoid expanding on the moral and ethical dilemmas behind this act. Instead, I am going to address the most important and practical reasons for the presence of piracy in PC gaming.
The reasons behind video-games piracy
1. Price tag
Apart from the fact that the price of every new game is sharply increasing, there’s also the fact that the majority of people living outside developed countries can barely afford to buy a proper PC, let alone, keep up with the prices of the current gaming titles.
The basic salary in Balkan countries, for example, is about $250 per month. Having that in mind, how could you even contemplate buying a game that costs half as much or sometimes more than your whole monthly income. I can guarantee you that there is no chance a parent would ever give up family food for a video game. To top that, I’ve even seen games that cost as high as $350 for their Deluxe/ Founders editions, which could be inaccessible to the wealthier as well. Yes, get a load of that…
Hence, the first and most logical thought that comes to mind for circumventing this obstacle, is piracy. Although you can frequently find significant discounts on games during sales, price still remains a major reason.
2. The notorious DLCs and in-game transactions
Have you ever purchased AAA titles by spending a good chunk of your money and then finding out that your game is incomplete? Yeah, me too.
The most common trend nowadays is for publishers to indirectly compel you to buy DLCs (Downloadable Content) that either add extra content or, even worse, part of the main game. Being supplementary components, DLCs still fail from having decent prices compared to the content they offer most of the time. This means that in order to have the complete experience of your beloved title, you’ll have to “assemble” all the parts together, which results in doubling or tripling its initial cost, and nobody wants that.
As if that was not enough, “micro-transactions” or in-game purchases make their debut too. Now, you can buy colored shoe laces for your character that absolutely no one will ever notice or care about, for just $13, launching the total cost of the game to astronomical levels. Young gamers and parents are the main culprits of this perpetual trend. Simply put, kids should not be given credit cards without parental supervision. The publishers know that and expect this trend to continue in an increasing manner. After all, without their customers’ support, they wouldn’t be able to do it and get away with it.
No matter what we say, this has become the norm now and some people might want to rightfully hold a strong stance against it by pirating those games along with their DLCs.
3. Unavailable demos
I cannot emphasize this enough. It might look like a shady way of doing things, but piracy saves you a handful of money if used for game testing before an important purchase.
Most of the time, you won’t find a demo of the game you like, and the only way of familiarizing yourself with its content and gameplay is through: written reviews, gameplay videos, forums, comment sections, and ratings on popular boards. Given the amount of buggy and glitchy titles released in a rush, it has caused the gamers to be extra cautious. We are all familiarized with the initial release of Cyberpunk 2077 and the lawsuits taken against the publishers.
Half-baked games are one thing, but sometimes you just want to know content-wise if the game is actually worth it. I become very skeptical when I see prices north of $200 or $300 for those Deluxe/ Founder editions, as we saw earlier. Sometimes you just buy a game, and you feel that the quality does not justify the money spent, and some people don’t take that well, hence they pirate it.
4. Unavailable abandonware
Another reason for indulging in piracy is to get games that are no longer available on online stores due to their classification as “abandonware” (no longer supported or distributed by their publisher). There are websites dedicated to providing those titles, but sometimes you might still not find what you are looking for. This is somewhat a rare category, but whom are you going to call when nostalgia kicks in?
5. Conflict of interest
This is connected to the first two points, but generally speaking, it boils down to the simple question: “Why should I buy something that I can find for free?!”
To enlighten you, assume there are two identical cars in front of you. The car on the left costs $39,000 and the one on the right $0. Which one are you going to pick?
Objectively speaking, and regardless of any financial background, a person has absolutely no reason to buy a product if he/she can get it for free assuming that there are no legal repercussions in doing so. At the end of the day, everybody’s going to do what’s in his/her best interest. The main argument here is that by doing so, gamers may hurt sales and chop the revenue of the developer, resulting in the possible termination of support or the development of any future titles altogether. How much this behavior impacts the developer is up for debate, but for the time being, I will try to address this another time.
What other reasons for video-game piracy can you think of?
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