Planetarion Forums

1-X · 30 Nov 2003, 04:14

I was just reading PlayStation braves Chinese waters

Basically, Sony avoided China in the past because their piracy is so bad, but now they (and Nintendo) are launching their consoles there. Then the line that caught my eye...

Quote:

They (the games) will cost far less than they do in the US or the UK, but still be slightly more than pirated discs.

It occurs to me, having seen the "piracy harms consumers as well as developers" notice for years while loading games, that it does nothing of the sort. The reality is that they sell games for as much as they can get away with, and widespread piracy will make them drop their prices to compete.

Maybe.

Tactitus · 30 Nov 2003, 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1-X

The reality is that they sell games for as much as they can get away with,

The technical term is "what the market will bear", and it applies to everything that's sold in an open market.

Quote:

and widespread piracy will make them drop their prices to compete.

Maybe.

Doubtful.

Bunga · 30 Nov 2003, 18:49

Well, the prices will drop, but on the other hand so will the number of titles released.

Ragnarak · 30 Nov 2003, 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunga

Well, the prices will drop, but on the other hand so will the number of titles released.

only titles WORTH making will be released

Bunga · 30 Nov 2003, 19:14

Only titles worth SELLING will be released you mean.

"Pretty Princess Dressup" will still have a market, while "Max Payne 5" probably won't. Which one would you rather see?

Dante Hicks · 30 Nov 2003, 19:15

Unless software price went down _dramatically_ there's lots of people who would still pirate.

As with all these things, the best bet for dealing with piracy is reducing prices to an affordable level, and then give unique services which you can only get by buying (e.g. a decent box, manual, etc - on-line play, support, etc)

And the amount of software produced will continue to grow dramatically irrespective of market conditions - since most work is carried out by amateurs/semi-professionals (freeware, shareware, etc).

Dante Hicks · 30 Nov 2003, 19:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunga

"Pretty Princess Dressup" will still have a market, while "Max Payne 5" probably won't. Which one would you rather see?

Neither, tbh. But if you can't find enough people to support Max Payne 5 then why the hell does it "deserve" to get released?

I pretty much pirate all the intellectual property I consume, yet with products I like I'll support by buying. So with computer games, I've owned about 6 copies of Monkey Island (different formats, versions, etc), 4 of Elite, and god knows how many Civ encarnations.

And don't underestimate the amount of family software that's pirated. I used to work in a tech support helpdesk (with about 100 employees) where piracy (CD's swapping, etc) was rampant. Pretty much everyone with families used to obtain all the family movies, games, etc. Since we're at a point where quite a lot of "hardcore" computer users have kids, I'd imagine this will grow.

Bunga · 30 Nov 2003, 19:25

Of course, I can't underestimate piracy, since I think about 99% of people do it. I know I do. And I too buy games I support, Monkey Island and Elite and Civ I among them. Not that I like Max Payne, but I'd prefer playing that to some Pretty Princess Dressup game. Not all good games are marketable. Look at Wolfenstein 3D for example. The best game released that year, it pioneered a whole genre. But they couldn't get any backing for it, so it was released as freeware.

Zar · 1 Dec 2003, 06:19

tbh the only reason i won't pirate a game is if its for my GC (obviously), and on the PC, if a legitimate CD key is required for online gaming.

I think makers like Blizzard have got it spot on with not allowing duplicate cd keys to go online (on their servers --> although alternative servers exist, they usually suck and are polish). It forces many people who love the game to buy it even if they previously pirated it. I'm an example of this.

Zar

Intrepid00 · 2 Dec 2003, 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1-X

I was just reading PlayStation braves Chinese waters

Basically, Sony avoided China in the past because their piracy is so bad, but now they (and Nintendo) are launching their consoles there. Then the line that caught my eye...

It occurs to me, having seen the "piracy harms consumers as well as developers" notice for years while loading games, that it does nothing of the sort. The reality is that they sell games for as much as they can get away with, and widespread piracy will make them drop their prices to compete.

Maybe.

I also read its going to be the old shitty consoles and titles.