[mehlmao]

On the subject of piracy / DRM, I always think back to Lar's Doucet's piece Piracy and the Four Currencies: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/piracy-and-the-four-c...

Lars argues that when people make the decision to buy or pirate something, they're spending four 'currencies' which each person values differently:

* Money-dollars

* Time-dollars

* Pain-in-the-butt-dollars

* Integrity-dollars

As a teenager, I had near-infinite time dollars, and very few money dollars. That reversed when I got a real job. Implementing Denuvo (or other DRM malware) increases a product's cost in Pain-in-the-butt dollars significantly because the pirated version without it is better.

I own a Switch, have purchased several games for it, and most of my playtime is on my PC in an emulator now. I can use a better controller, run games at higher framerates and resolution, and use mods. The Switch is still nice on the go, but anything beyond casual games using an anti-emulation solution become less appealing to me.

[causi]

I'd call "elitism-dollars" or "user-preference dollars" a fifth currency. I don't emulate because I don't want to pay for games I could get on ebay for five dollars; I emulate because I don't want Ocarina of Time 3D stuck behind a 400x240 screen door or Breath of the Wild locked at 30fps.