[p1necone]

There have been periods of my life where I pirated almost every game I played. If it wasn't for piracy... I wouldn't have bought any games, because I didn't have any money to spend on them.

Then Steam and Actually Having a Job happened and I didn't do that any more.

I still pirate games, but it's only ones that aren't being sold any more, so I don't see who's missing out there.

[indrora]

Gabe Newell was absolutely right when he made it clear that piracy was a demand being unmet.

I suspect part of the Steam Summer Sales being as deep as they are is to give a chance for people who can't afford AAA games normally to have a way to snag them at 80-90% off. A big AAA title makes the majority of its money in the first few months of sale, then fucks off for the rest of its lifetime, so doing deep cuts in the summer makes it profitable through volume.

[johnwalkr]

I like to buy them at about 50% off, and forget about them until I try to buy them again at 90% and remember that I already own it and haven’t even downloaded it yet.

[RajT88]

I will say, I knew many who were similar.

If they pirated 100 games, maybe they would have bought a handful at retail price, even given unlimited funds. A few more on discount.

Anecdata, sure. But it speaks to the point that game pirates don't really play the vast majority of what they pirate, they try them out a bit and move on mainly because the time cost is virtually nil.