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Game Piracy Culture in your area

Attack You said:
So, is there anything the console manufacturers can do short of hiring a private army and declaring war on these people?
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It doesnt matter because this people will not buy games anyways.

Back in the C-64 era the spanish companies started tu publish regular games for about 5€ in hopes of increasing sales, lots of them went broke.

All this pirates wont even spend a euro on an original game,
 
I don't know if I consider chipping as piracy since its legal in Sweden but many stores offer that. Illegal copies of games is not to be found thou... It's expensive here also >_>
 
Saitou said:
In Argentina, piracy is the rule and not the exception.

My friends always look at me funny cause I buy original games. Even game shop clerks look at me funny when I order original games.

Then again, the PS3 costs ~2000USD and the Wii ~1333USD. Yeah, I know..
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Compras original que gil yo me bajo todo de gatos negros. :D

What he said.
 
It's rampant in Canada. Like...ridiculously so. There are people selling burned games and mod-chip installs at the local "flea-market" on the weekends. Trying to explain to people that it's against the law gets me a great deal of slack-jawed looks and empty-headed blinking.

It's insane up here.
 
Attack You said:
So, is there anything the console manufacturers can do short of hiring a private army and declaring war on these people?
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Their sure is, cheaper games for the system €30-€40 quid for most DS games is a little much. Most DS games should be €10, with the odd higher productions ones being €20.

Console games should be €30. Release old games (1.5yrs)/emulations/collections for cheap cheap prices.

Downloadables, lots and lots of them (all three consoles have them now, so this is covered).

Fold in the the tech, upgrades and enhancements that the mod community comes up with and dont charge an arm and leg for it e.g. a legit downloadable card for the DS to store multiple titles, full media centre for the Wii with an extensible sdk for devs to release other software enhancements.

However some people will never ever buy games, if it comes to it and they cannot mod/copy them they will go without and find a different hobby. I dont even thing it is about money. Since the companys are never going to see any money from them, just forget them and do not punish your real customers.
 
Kaervas said:
Compras original que gil yo me bajo todo de gatos negros. :D

What he said.
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Exactly the kind of cocky tripe that makes me want to punch pirates in the face till they're toothless.



PS: I know where you live.

EDIT: Regarding PS3 piracy, I don't think we'll see anything soon due to the prohibitive costs of Blu-Ray burners and virgin discs.

On the subject of pirates per se, I don't think it's lost marketshare since most are of the mentality that they will simply not, for whatever reason, buy anything original. I don't really understand why.
 
Insane Metal said:
Exactly what they say here... lol :lol :lol :lol

ps: brazil :D
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I have a friend living in brazil, and he always tell me how the authorities are quite harsh regarding piracy, like, you cant have a shop selling pirate copies in the street.

Here in argentina is harder to fing a place that sells original games than one that sells pirate copies.

Saitou said:
Exactly the kind of cocky tripe that makes me want to punch pirates in the face till they're toothless.



PS: I know where you live.
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I know where i live too! You can come home any time, to have un fernet coca, con una picada y un winning.
 
Obaid said:
does the mafia run the piracy business? :lol
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:lol :lol :lol


Yes.
Basically mafia(half the local mafia,half the chinese mafia)has the control over the illegal immigration,and on most of the case these poor people are forced to be on the streetsides selling this shit 24/7.So yes,mafia runs the piracy business,and prostitution too.

4898b8acfab83800e81059d30ad30f99.gif
 
Piracy on new consoles isn't that common. That said, I do know a few people who had modded Xbox systems. They just weren't hardcore gaming nerds, one is a second string football player at a D1 school. They didn't give a fuck about playing online because even with Halo 2's release, Halo was the de facto multiplayer game of the generation.

Emulation is a lot more common. It is interesting to see people that you'd never suspect doing it who have a folder of 200 SNES roms.
 
I'm in Australia. Game shops do okay, with a couple of really great indepedent game shops thriving due to their customer-first approach. Dungeon Crawl in Melbourne is great, and a number in the outer suburbs are fantastic.

However, piracy is more than commonplace. The PS2 was successful because you could pirate it. The Xbox was succesful because you could pirate it and add a hard drive and watch your videos off it. The same applies. The Wii is succesful because you can pirate it.

The legal situation in Australia is that our national laws allow for people to open their own property and do things do them, and buy discs and put them in the things they own. It allows for other people to fiddle around with the things you own to allow them to play these discs. However, Australia signed whats called a Free Trade Agreement (BOHICA everybody who doesn't run with corporate money) and so a massive legal question mark has opened up. Its illegal to produce mod chips in some circumstances under American law, by which Australians could be prosecuted. If you are anti-piracy, you may think this a good thing, but the legal challenge that this could trigger would concievably under the power of legal transference and make mod-chipping totally legal again, as it was from 1999-2003.

Right now you can look in the local paper, see ads for people to come out, 'repair' your system, and leave a big wallet of DVD-Rs in your house accidentally.

I happen to be militantly pro-piracy, with a total and absolutely zero tolerance approach to corporate control of the affairs of private people. If you're wondering what the shit, my position is this - I believe that selling pirated goods for a profit is a crime. I believe making and installing modchips for money is not, and I believe pirating culture for your personal use, is not. That includes widespread distribution of your pirated culture, as long as no money is made.

(Disclosure: I also happen to be an academic who studies game piracy, amongst other things. The above is not an admission that I have ever pirated a game; far from it.)
 
As others have said, here in Brazil the piracy is dominant. The main factor for this is the outrageous import taxes that the government imposes to the official market.

For example:

Xbox 360

Official Xbox 360 Premium (with 2 free games) = 2499,00 Reais (~ U$ 1.428,00)
Imported Xbox 360 Premium = 1.100,00 reais (~ U$ 628,00)

Software:
Releases = R$ 150,00 (~ U$ 85,00)
Old catalog = R$ 99,00 (~ U$ 56,00)

Actually, the Xbox 360 is, after the PS2, the most popular console here mainly because of beeing easy to play pirate games. It's just not so popular as it could because a lot of people are afraid of the 3RL.

The Wii is growing in demand too as it is cheaper and also play pirated games.

PS3 almost nobody cares because of the price (~ U$ 1.100 for a 20GB version) and the lack of piracy.
 
There's a couple guys in my town (Ottawa) that mod Wii units, will flash 360s, etc.. Usually they operate via websites, no store fronts.

My friend bought a pre-modded Wii, but that was through a private seller I think. I don't think a "store" doing that would last too long in my parts at all.
 
Wolves Evolve said:
I believe that selling pirated goods for a profit is a crime. I believe making and installing modchips for money is not, and I believe pirating culture for your personal use, is not. That includes widespread distribution of your pirated culture, as long as no money is made.
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You, sir; are part of the problem.
 
Saitou said:
In Argentina, piracy is the rule and not the exception.

My friends always look at me funny cause I buy original games. Even game shop clerks look at me funny when I order original games.

Then again, the PS3 costs ~2000USD and the Wii ~1333USD. Yeah, I know..
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Yep, here in argentina we all look like jack sparrow... that is to say, the only people who have original games are those who have bought a ps3:lol

all the shops sell backups at low prices, but if you wanna buy an original one, you have to ask em to import it, wait for it and pay it (like 85u$s for each ps3 game)...
 
I happen to be militantly pro-piracy, with a total and absolutely zero tolerance approach to corporate control of the affairs of private people. If you're wondering what the shit, my position is this - I believe that selling pirated goods for a profit is a crime. I believe making and installing modchips for money is not, and I believe pirating culture for your personal use, is not. That includes widespread distribution of your pirated culture, as long as no money is made.

(Disclosure: I also happen to be an academic who studies game piracy, amongst other things. The above is not an admission that I have ever pirated a game; far from it.)
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To be fair, I guess this argument works more for copyright laws in general. For games, though? Developers not getting money means developers not making games.

Yep, here in argentina we all look like jack sparrow... that is to say, the only people who have original games are those who have bought a ps3

all the shops sell backups at low prices, but if you wanna buy an original one, you have to ask em to import it, wait for it and pay it (like 85u$s for each ps3 game)...
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I have a Wii and DS with original games :(

Also, PS3 games for 85 turkeys? Do they ahve cheap Wii games as well there? Pray tell.
 
Taiwan:

Most game shops survive by selling pirated discs. There are folders full of the latest release titles. You just write down the number on a piece of paper, hand it to the shop keeper and come back in an hour or so.

It was the same in Thailand, with some roadside merchants offering the same kind of deal.

PS3 is dead in the water here, simply because you cant modify it (yet) and even if you could, the blu ray burners and discs are too expensive.

When I bought my Wii here (Jap version) it came already modded with a wiikey modchip.
 
Look at www.kijiji.com for your local pirates!!

In my city there are people looking for borken 360s and Wiis to fix and mod them. Modding hardware isn't too bad but some of them are actually selling burned software.

One guy from my city was actually using this website to sell Halo 3 BEFORE Sept 25th. I think he may have been caught too...
 
For the places that have tons of pirates, and is pretty lax on enforcing the law, if I were a company such as Nintendo, I would just not sell my product there. Simple as that.
 
This is weird for me, seeing all these posts.

There is zero culture of piracy around me for gaming. (In Texas, USA) I don't even know anyone with a modded PS2. I once had a fliptop modded PS2 a few years ago just to play retail JP PS2 games, and my friends looked at me like "WTF? What a geek." That was just too hardcore for my circle of friends. :lol Nobody mods anything, even PSP. Nobody owns anything modded, even the old Dreamcast, which I know is probably the most common.

Everyone I know actually buys games at retail. New, or, rarely but sometimes used. I know it does happen here, but I don't know anyone who actually does it.
 
Saitou said:
Also, PS3 games for 85 turkeys? Do they ahve cheap Wii games as well there? Pray tell.
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85u$s if you buy it from someone who imports without paying taxes :P

but 85u$s is like a fixed price for original games when you do not want to have the receipt
 
Everybody here in the Netherlands buys those M4 (?) carts and then downloads all DS games, people even come into the store I work asking for them. Even my gamer buddies who have big libraries of games bought them :/

I don't do it though, I don't think I'd enjoy the game as much if it's a pirated copy.
 
bigdaddygamebot said:
You, sir; are part of the problem.
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I doff my chapeau to you, sir. I intend to not be a part, but a fulcrum of the problem. An engine of the problem. The problemforge. Terra Problematica. I have defended pirates before our esteemed lawmakers and promise to do so again, and again.
 
People have already talked about Canada. I'll add that while pirated stuff is fairly easy to come by, it's generally not blatantly displayed (except in cities like Toronto or Vancouver). This, from what I gather, is different from the US, where piracy is less easy outside of the major cities. So my question is, why are Canadian sales proportionally the same as US sales? Does piracy really have much of an impact here?

Based on personal anecdotal evidence, it doesn't. Most of the pirates I know also buy games regularly (generally because they want to support a particular developer/series, want to play online, or because the pirate version isn't immediately available at release for some reason).
 
Saitou said:
To be fair, I guess this argument works more for copyright laws in general. For games, though? Developers not getting money means developers not making games.
Click to expand...

I don't believe this is true. There is a case, that I consider overwhelming and incontrovertible, that piracy opens up a media market by which black and white markets coexist. People who are inclined to pirate games are not, or ever can be, lost 'sales'.
That is like saying a bank robber doesn't have a savings account, or fat people are responsible for the decline of the avacado.

The nasty ugly truth is that most videogames globally, are free. There is no future in which digital information will get harder to copy. Its not coming. The current attempts are what I consider a zero-sum game.

A far more constructive approach is to totally annihilate piracy profiteering, and tacitly endorse private information copying through silence. This was Sony with the PS2, and their reward was global domination. People buy more hardware this way and great things happen.

I will scream the above until I can scream the skin off a nerd at 200 paces.
 
Wolves Evolve said:
The nasty ugly truth is that most videogames globally, are free. There is no future in which digital information will get harder to copy. Its not coming. The current attempts are what I consider a zero-sum game.
Click to expand...

Never underestimate the tendency and ability of governments to increase their control.
 
In Hong Kong, unless you are in shops like Toys 'R' Us or official Sony partner shops, almost every single PS2/PSP/NDS/etc you can find is already pre-moded. Even if you want to buy mod-free console with legit game softwares, some of these shops will actively persuade you to do the opposite :lol
 
Wolves Evolve said:
The nasty ugly truth is that most videogames globally, are free. There is no future in which digital information will get harder to copy. Its not coming. The current attempts are what I consider a zero-sum game.
Click to expand...

Tell that to people pirating PS3 games. You can certainly make it not worth people's time and effort.

Your argument boils down to let the honest people pay, and the dishonest not, but when there are a certain number of dishonest people, the stigma attached to the crime is reduced to a level where almost anyone is prepared to do it. CF MP3.
 
In Canada the large majority buy their games, but among my friends DS piracy via flash carts is pretty popular. As well I know several people with modded Xboxes (original) but this is mostly to use XBMC.
 
fistfulofmetal said:
America


Fuck Yeah!
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What are you taking out, in my circle of friends I am the only one buying DS and PSP games.

Everybody else uses "homebrew" software to play pirated games. I get really pissed at one of my friends that calls me stupid for actually buying PSP games instead of getting them for free.

And this is in America, the richest country in the world.
 
Wolves Evolve said:
I
I happen to be militantly pro-piracy, with a total and absolutely zero tolerance approach to corporate control of the affairs of private people. If you're wondering what the shit, my position is this - I believe that selling pirated goods for a profit is a crime. I believe making and installing modchips for money is not, and I believe pirating culture for your personal use, is not. That includes widespread distribution of your pirated culture, as long as no money is made.

(Disclosure: I also happen to be an academic who studies game piracy, amongst other things.
The above is not an admission that I have ever pirated a game; far from it.)
Click to expand...
You do realise that people who develop modchips have ties with asian and eastern europe gangs? Same thing with the upper levels of pirate groups who release games on the internet. What do you think funds the multiple terrabytes ftp sites they used? Paypal Donations from the EFF? Theses arent a bunch of nerds stabbing at nintendo and microsoft because they want to be all about open source and freedom of informations. These guys are funded by real criminals; modchips is a multi-millions business and not a bunch of idiots wanting to stick it to nintendo because of region coding or because it's a challenge
 
Wolves Evolve said:
I doff my chapeau to you, sir. I intend to not be a part, but a fulcrum of the problem. An engine of the problem. The problemforge. Terra Problematica.
Click to expand...

Yeah...so I'm stealing this.

That whole bit was genius, despite the fact that you're a bad man.
 
Chairman Yang said:
People have already talked about Canada. I'll add that while pirated stuff is fairly easy to come by, it's generally not blatantly displayed (except in cities like Toronto or Vancouver). This, from what I gather, is different from the US, where piracy is less easy outside of the major cities. So my question is, why are Canadian sales proportionally the same as US sales? Does piracy really have much of an impact here?

Based on personal anecdotal evidence, it doesn't. Most of the pirates I know also buy games regularly (generally because they want to support a particular developer/series, want to play online, or because the pirate version isn't immediately available at release for some reason).
Click to expand...

I can't speak about "impact" but I can speak to how much it goes on. ALOT.

My nephew is at university and I've gone to his trackmeets and watched his teammates with the DS's. There's easily twenty of them and not one of them are playing legit games. Twenty might not seem like much but my nephew has told me that "everyone" at his university has a modified DS.

As for where I work, there is a huge amount of PS1 / PS2 and Xbox piracy still going on. Yes, old gen games but even four years ago it was rampant. People don't even think twice about it. The same goes for downloading movies. There's some wierd disconnect going on in the minds of the greater unwashed in Canada.
 
For the people I know:
Xbox 360: No one has it modded
PS3: No one has it modded
Wii: 25%? Not too sure. Some people don't want to risk Brawl being unplayable
DS: 100%? I think I'm the only one I know who hasn't bought an M3 or R4
PSP: lol, 100%?

The thing is a lot of them buy games that they really like. But from the way that broke down, Note to hardware people: Make online a bigger part of your system, it deters piracy if you do what Microsoft does
 
angelcage87 said:
Dude at least you always have those beautiful girls with amazing round asses:lol


And hot trannies.
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Hell Yeah :D :D :D

Kaervas said:
I have a friend living in brazil, and he always tell me how the authorities are quite harsh regarding piracy, like, you cant have a shop selling pirate copies in the street.

Here in argentina is harder to fing a place that sells original games than one that sells pirate copies.
Click to expand...

That´s not very true. Only in major cities the authorities take care of piracy like that, and ONLY in the major streets. If you take a walk to the dark side of the city you find it very, and I mean VERY, easily.
 
Leonsito said:
It's disgusting seeing that is almost the same in every country in the world... this is why when Microsoft ban consoles I just feel a little better :lol
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Me too. I don't feel sorry for any of these people that own banned consloes. I will says Iam glad I live in the USA where we can get good prices on games, especially with clearance sales.
 
Firestorm said:
For the people I know:
Xbox 360: No one has it modded
PS3: No one has it modded
Wii: 25%? Not too sure. Some people don't want to risk Brawl being unplayable
DS: 100%? I think I'm the only one I know who hasn't bought an M3 or R4
PSP: lol, 100%?

The thing is a lot of them buy games that they really like. But from the way that broke down, Note to hardware people: Make online a bigger part of your system, it deters piracy if you do what Microsoft does
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Yeah, that is pretty darn similar to my situation, the handhelds are pretty much pirate heaven, while the consoles seem to be almost piracy free.

I think it also has a lot to do with price, a person would have more problems with a $500 paper weight compared to a $170 one if a the console gets bricked.
 
Here in Chile, the predominant consoles for piracy are the DS,PS2 and PSP. There's a lot of Wii piracy too but in a less scale than PS2 and PSP being newer.
I personally like to buy the originals, it's more gratificating owning the legal copies (at least for me)but most gamers here don't care about having them and they just dll them for free and they think you're weird because you buy the originals.
 
Emotions said:
Here in Chile, the predominant consoles for piracy are the DS,PS2 and PSP. There's a lot of Wii piracy too but in a less scale than PS2 and PSP being newer.
I personally like to buy the originals, it's more gratificating owning the legal copies (at least for me)but most gamers here don't care about having them and they just dll them for free and they think you're weird because you buy the originals.
Click to expand...

That is what irritates me the most, it is this mentality that "I deserve something free" that also permeates the anime and manga fandom. They actually have the gall to laugh at someone who is legitimately supporting the industry.
 
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