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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAlkaizer" data-source="post: 9649030" data-attributes="member: 7024893">Piracy is a complicated topics. But it's an issue of economics of accessibility (or user experience).I don't have any researched numbers, but I know that a vast majority of pirates pirate video games because they either can't afford them, can't access them or the user experience of pirating it is just better. In two of these three cases, it has no effects on the livelihood of the companies producing the content.I pirated an incredible number of video games when I was a kid. I had like 10$ in my account and couldn't afford the games. Pirating or not, I would never have bought the games because we were too poor.I regularly pirate shows or movies that are just not accessible on any platforms in my country. I will gladly pay to rent a movie (and do so), make it accessible.Lastly, I haven't done it, but I know that in video games, the pirated version of games without DRM will often have better performance, less intrusive ads, requirement for connection, etc. You get a worse experience if you buy the product. It's like that with Adobe product, I have no shame in saying that I pirated Photoshop a while back. And the difference in performance between the ever-online legal version and the pirated version was night and day. I haven't used Photoshop in a while, but if I had to, I would not buy it. Or I would buy it, but use the pirated version on the side.There's a reason why piracy of movies went down after the rise of Netflix, but that it's going up now that the content is split between a dozen steaming services, with different tiers, ads, limited access, restrictions, etc.Steam is a great example. It has made the experience of buying games, downloading them, managing your library, conversion between currency and all of that that it has drastically reduced piracy in video games.Just to be clear, I'm not advocating for piracy (or even against it). But as someone that makes products that are subject to piracy, I understand some of the dynamics behind it.So, it's clear that piracy affects the value (lost revenue, etc) but maybe not as much as we'd think.</blockquote>

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