[versk]

Comparing freemium game conversion to Triple AAA piracy is ludicrous, and the argument that a freemium game should convert more because its designed to convert people is the most textbook definition of a specious argument I've ever seen.

Successful Free-to-Play games like League of legends are suspected to convert greater than 10 percent of players to paying customers. Of the millions of players who pirated Bioshock infinite, I seriously doubt that only 1 percent could have afforded to pay for it and had a desire to play it.

[lelandbatey]

In all honesty, I gave the %1 number based purely on my own experience. When I was a kid/teenager, I didn't have much money and I certainly didn't have a way to buy things digitally (debit or credit card). So I pirated games that I wanted because that was the only way I could get access to them. And so did the people I knew and interacted with.

If we couldn't pirate something, we just didn't ever end up playing. It seems like the amount of money any one person will spend on games/gaming is very stable. So what game devs are really trying to do is to be a part of each of their customers game-spending pie. I know that's how it is for me and the people I interact with.

[robryan]

You also have to take into account those that are pirating anything in sight and might only have a slight interest in playing if they every get around to it or might play for half an hour.

These people count towards the piracy number on hundreds of games yet would only ever buy a small fraction.