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by mdbauman
1390 days ago
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The friction in buying games these days is so low, I don't understand how this would result in more units shipped for any publisher that chooses to use this. If you're "pirating" a game, I imagine (because this is why I pirated games in the pre-Steam days) it's because you can't afford to buy it or you refuse to give the publisher/developer your money on principle. Either way, you're not a potential customer. So sure, this may result in less emulation but not necessarily higher sales. |
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I have yet to see compelling numbers that show these systems do much of anything.
The markets most heavily served by piracy are either
1. Those completely neglected by normal distribution channels (poor countries)
2. Those who are extremely budget conscious (poor people in any country)
But it's a good sales pitch to execs to show piracy numbers and claim "Think of all the lost revenue!!!!" - when the blunt reality is that most who pirated simply don't have the means to pay for it in the first place.
The right short term answer is to heavily discount digital products for those markets (see: Steam sales) and bring the price back in line with the budget available.
The long term answer is political, and will require restructuring how digital products are made and licensed (it's time to ditch the per-copy-sold costs - they aren't the right answer for goods that have ZERO marginal cost per copy produced).