You know what they say about liars and statistics… but this is a pretty interesting read nonetheless:
Recent Macrovision survey sees more than 50 percent of PC gamers admitting to software piracy.
Copy protection experts Macrovision have recently conducted a software piracy survey across a number of popular gaming Web sites. Of the 2,219 PC gamers who responded, 52 percent admitted to having obtained cracked software, and 33 percent of those had acquired “ISO” files–essentially full CD images with the copy protection hacked out. A worrying 15 percent of the respondents owned up to having acquired 15 or more pirated games within the last two years.
The Electronic Software Association (ESA) currently estimates the impact of packaged software piracy on the games industry to be around $3 billion worldwide. Taking into account the rise in high-speed Internet file sharing, though, Macrovision believes that figure is actually much higher.
Based on its survey results, Macrovision estimates that for every four weeks a highly desired game’s copy protection remains effective, significant revenue could be generated at retail as users get fed up of waiting for a “free” version of the game and buy a legitimate copy. Approximately two-thirds of the PC gamers who admitted to using pirated software conceded that they wouldn’t have the patience to wait six weeks after a game’s release before buying a legitimate version.
“The results of this survey highlight the economic impact of slowing hackers down by even a day,” said Martin Brooker, director of sales at Macrovision Europe. “As the world’s leading copy protection experts, we want to draw attention to the benefits of integrating security measures into game code–something which is both easy and efficient using our SafeDisc technology. And when you can generate significant additional revenues by investing a small amount of developer time to protect code properly, we think it’s important that publishers choose the most robust and flexible security available.”
A survey by a copy protection company comes up with the conclusion that most PC users are pirates and that delaying those criminals makes the publishers money?
I see a very thinly-veiled piece of promotional material for Macrovision copy protection software. It is interesting that they effectively admit their schemes don’t work, though.
Oh, and:
“As the world’s leading copy protection experts, we want to draw attention to the benefits of integrating security measures into game code–something which is both easy and efficient using our SafeDisc technology.”
Thanks for breaking the legitimate versions of software I bought, you dorks.
Mysteriously, I don’t see “X percentage of gamers say that didn’t buy the game after pirating it; Y percentage of gamers say they didn’t buy the game because they pirated it” in there. Which are, you know, the only numbers that matter.
No gaming site worth a shit should have run that article/press release without a big disclaimer stating that Safedisc routinely prevents games from being played by legitimate customers.
52 percent admitted to having obtained cracked software
Couldn’t that also be read as “Safedisc causes problems with approximately 52% of customer’s systems, causing them to seek out cracked software in order to use a product they have rightfully purchased”?
Ignoring all the implied correlative evidence that they’ve based their numbers off of, the release’s internal logic is horribly put together.
2/3 of gamers wouldn’t wait 6 weeks for a pirated version (again, ignoring the fact that this has not happened for ANY major game within modern times), therefore the ESA estimates that for every four weeks of non-pirated versions “significant revenue” could be gained, which shows that even 1 day affects sales. Wha? Why don’t you show me the percentage of gamers that say they won’t wait 1 day for a pirated version then?
There was a guy in my dorm who had EVERY Commodore 64 ever published. And that’s where I saw my first “stolen beta” too – a cracked copy of whatever the C64 game was that inspired Arctic Fox on the Amiga, before it was released.
The ESA would add the value of every one of his 200+ floppies together to come up with a figure of how much his piracy was costing. With about 300 total programs, they’d mark him down for about $12,000 in losses.
Yet, had pirated software not been available, this guy might have purchased maybe 3 to 5 games that he had stolen – not the hundreds he had on those floppies. The actual “loss” would be closer to $120.
And despite the amazing warez collection, this guy bought the games he really liked, because in those days they came with good manuals, pack-in maps, and other things you’d want. Used to be there was stuff in the package you’d miss if you stole the game. (Remember Infocom games?)
Anyway, I have no doubt that piracy is a costly thing. But I’d divide the ESA’s figures by something between 10 and 100 to get the real numbers.
It’s not nearly as widespread. Console piracy (with the possible exception of Xbox…which it seems everyone and their brother got modded) used to be worse. This gen it’s been largely a non-event, especially due to the DVD format, a hard to get into machine preventing swapping (PS2) and a machine that uses non-standard discs (Gamecube).
I think the Xbox has a wore problem with piracy than the PC does. i mean, pretty much all the pc gamers I know just buy their games. However everyone of the Xbox games I know have a modded xbox filled with copied games they get via Netflix rental.
Agreeing with you and going further: the article didn’t even state if the pirated software is games. By their rationale, my cracked copy of WinZIP makes me a game stealing pirate. Arrr!
Beyond divinity still hasn’t been cracked, as of right now. It’s been like two months.[/quote]I’m pretty sure BD was cracked right on schedule. There was very little fanfare for it because, well, no one liked the game.
I bet they believe that used copies of games are just as evil. ;)
After all, with the mindset that they lose the total dollar amount of every potential copy not bought, used copies of games are the same as warez in that the developer doesn’t get the money you would have spent had you bought the game new.
Dumb arguments based on potential sales are fun to make.
