Quote:
Originally Posted by 8bit  This has been shown to be false experimentally. People pirate for a variety of reasons, though most people pirate because they can not afford to purchase the information in question. Of the people who pirate despite being able to afford the product, and who do not go on to purchase the product after pirating, their impacted is negated by the advertising generated by piracy. Ultimately, you end up with a much larger user-base, but an equivalent number of sales to what you could expect without piracy. |
If that is factually true, then my opinion has slanted. Would it not make sense to give the game developers themselves the choice whether or not to make their products legally able to be pirated or not? That is, if what you said has been proven. Or does the very nature of piracy being illegal somehow enable it to ultimately benefit developers, as you say (in the form of a larger consumer base, with a solid profit)?
I think it's reasonable that some companies would feel like piracy would detract attention from their own sales. Sort of like having competition that is using their own products, you know? Others, however might see it as some sort of investment, (as your description made it sound like).