Nside
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2011
- Messages
- 400
There is no hard data, only anecdotal evidence like "I know someone who buys games when cracks aren't available..."
or leaps in logic like "If they can't pirate it, they have to buy a copy."
All of those can be countered with "The pirates I know don't buy games" which I would argue is true for most.
For the few would-be-pirates that might buy a game that they couldn't find cracked, I would guess there's an equal amount of would-be-legit-customers that won't buy a game that has intrusive DRM. (Me being one of them)
I don't play cracked games, though I used to (as one poster said) as a demo. Since you can't really trust game reviews these days, it makes sense. I had always bought games I ended up liking, and uninstalled those I didn't. I just can't be assed to do it anymore though, or I use the 2-hour Steam return policy.
Again, there's no actual data on any of this, but there is proof that pirates don't make a company go broke. CD Projekt Red being an example, making enough off of DRM-free Witcher games to make one of the most highly anticipated games this year (unless it gets delayed again)... I'm hoping they get to Rockstar status after Cyberpunk, GTA needs competition.
One thing is for certain though, all legit customers that buy a game with intrusive and buggy DRM have to deal with intrusive and buggy DRM. I would suspect that the cost of the DRM and everything discussed above in this post probably equals out financially for publishers, and DRM just punishes legit customers.
or leaps in logic like "If they can't pirate it, they have to buy a copy."
All of those can be countered with "The pirates I know don't buy games" which I would argue is true for most.
For the few would-be-pirates that might buy a game that they couldn't find cracked, I would guess there's an equal amount of would-be-legit-customers that won't buy a game that has intrusive DRM. (Me being one of them)
I don't play cracked games, though I used to (as one poster said) as a demo. Since you can't really trust game reviews these days, it makes sense. I had always bought games I ended up liking, and uninstalled those I didn't. I just can't be assed to do it anymore though, or I use the 2-hour Steam return policy.
Again, there's no actual data on any of this, but there is proof that pirates don't make a company go broke. CD Projekt Red being an example, making enough off of DRM-free Witcher games to make one of the most highly anticipated games this year (unless it gets delayed again)... I'm hoping they get to Rockstar status after Cyberpunk, GTA needs competition.
One thing is for certain though, all legit customers that buy a game with intrusive and buggy DRM have to deal with intrusive and buggy DRM. I would suspect that the cost of the DRM and everything discussed above in this post probably equals out financially for publishers, and DRM just punishes legit customers.