@@alenmack3471 Nope, nothing to do with emulation, in fact some ubisoft DLC is going to be completely unplayable September first, in fact a LOT of DLC, and pirating is the only way to preserve those.
I would never pirate an Indie game, but I’d definitely pirate a game from a AAA company especially if it’s one that can’t be bought or is just too expensive for what it is.
Same for me, exception is when the game is genuinely fun enough for me that I honestly will fucking buy the game outright instead. I liked mhw enough when I tried it pirated. Bought it. Then bought the dlc, same thing for mhrise.
I pirate indie games also. Not every indie is to be trusted. You gota test the game before you buy it. But demos for games are getting more and more rare.
"pirates having a better experience than legit users" has been happening since the first DRM fiasco, which incidentally was also Ubisoft's fault. Pirates were playing Assassin's Creed day one while legit users were locked out because the DRM server wasn't working.
It’s very true. I’m forced to pirate just to get access to content above 720p in streaming services because I watch tv on my PC. These companies that worry about piracy so much that they don’t give paying customers access to the content, just cause more piracy.
When the new year came, everyone was complaining they couldn't play Sims 4 because of server errors or the stupid launcher not working properly. Meanwhile I was chilling having fun with my pirated copy lol. Another reason why I'm slowly getting discouraged buying games these days.
Piracy in most cases is done because; A: You dont have the cash - you wouldnt be able to afford it anyways. B: To try a game before you buy because demos are either non-existent or not representative of the actual game. C: The game is no longer available through legitimate retailers / the service required to access the game is terrible or offline. Developers like those that made Darkwood actually didnt think the piracy was a problem. They even let people torrent it for free on pirate bay so that people could get a virus free version of the game and try it out, but urged people to buy it if they liked it.
@@staringcorgi6475 Exactly, and it's not like nintendo can claim you're violating their copyright when they no longer directly sell the games. A part of copyright law is is replacement of the source material. Obviously if theyre not selling the game, you cant buy it from them so theres nothing to replace. Another part is damages. What's in circulation just is and the money is going to a third party not nintendo.
@MrEmerald2006 Arguably those people were not going to buy your product anyway so no loss because you were never going to get a sale out of that person. Also, in some cases the service is BETTER for pirated games because there is no DRM such as Denuvo hampering performance which is notorious in a bunch of always online titles. Or your game becoming unplayable because your internet is out temporarily. In most cases Denuvo and other anti piracy softwares do little more than checking the legitimacy of the purchase. In which case a cracked version without Denuvo is favorable to people because they dont have problems that Denuvo brings to the game. And it always get cracked and torrented anyways. Why play a technically inferior product just because devs want to check if you're playing on a legit account? Why be unable to play offline a product you've paid for that is standard with so many other games? Why play the stuttery frame-dropping, cpu and gpu intensive Denuvo version when you can play a cracked version and get better smoothness and performance? Why should paying players suffer a worse experience than those torrenting it for free?
You forgot to mention how the piracy community often keeps their own servers online for people who want to play multiplayer on abandoned Triple A games, that's why you see people launching Spacewar on Steam.
yo true, so many games lost their official servers and are run by as far as I know free community modded servers that requires pirated version (and a custom launcher)
for people who dont know Spacewar is a game profile that the steam backend has for developers to test features without having to actually set up a steam page (for $200)
I dont always do it, i'll generally do it for old games that cant be bought or if I previously owned the game and I have a reason I cant play it anymore, for example, when I was younger I had a Luigi's Mansion disc but now its broken and so occasionally ill play the game via piracy. Pirating big, new, expensive games is (generally) not something I support, but I wont ever complain or hunt anyone down for it.
@@meatloaf_gaming1016 While true, unless Violet here made their own ISO backup of the game while they had it in their possession, then piracy was involved. Which I'm glad is a thing, because I certainly didn't make backups of my copies of NFS: Carbon or Fallout 1/2 etc.
Perfect example: Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4, Origins, Shattered Memories, and Book of Memories all cost $100 second hand and Konami refuses to invest the money/time to properly preserve them. Loading up Duckstation and/or PCSX2 is free and preserves games very well. Plus no money to Konami. I’d say piracy is morally legal. EDIT: I'm actually wrong. Shattered Memories on PS2 goes for $300-400. jfc you might as well just pirate the damn thing
It's even worse for DS Pokemon games. Black and White copies cost hundreds of dollars on some sites (not including the DS system price as well), and the Pokemon Company still won't port anything past Gen 2 to the Switch.
Literally just looked for these titles to buy on eBay, $120 & up per title? I just bought a modded gaming console & am playing through all the titles less than $140. Worth it imo. These companies are losing so much money by not giving us the titles we’ve been BEGGING for.
Nintendo's poor executive choices is why I'm 100% on Emulation and Piracy for their Retro Games, since some Games are never going to be rereleased, and don't get me started with RockStar's poor attempt of GTA: SA Remaster.
Same here. When they essentially shut down a smash bros competition that supported charity, that's when I said "yeah, I'm not going to support Nintendo anymore."
Amen to that. Nintendo is cordially invited to suck my dong. As a matter of fact, i stumbled around a SNES emulator for PS2 yesterday and i was able to rip every single of the almost 3000 ROMs that contained the .iso. As for R*, i have all v1.0 versions of the original trilogy backed up on a hard drive. There's been times i've pirated games, but ended up buying them afterwards, most of them were indies
There's a reason piracy is having a renaissance. These greedy companies do not care about the customer, whether it be locking one show behind a $5 streaming platform nobody wants or charging people to replay an older game on a "remastered" edition which is worse than the modded game they banned modders for making playable. The whole entertainment industry thought it was in the clear and could get away with this shit, but it wont, and it will suffer!
Yeah, AAA game companies have been pushing it inch by inch with how much they can nickel and dime the average consumer with in game purchases and cookie cutter DLC. They don't deserve what they're asking for and the amount of defense they get from the "just don't buy it" crowd are just making the landscape even worse
I agree with most except i do think they will get away with it. Consumers are not as smart as you think. Most don't even know how to pirate. Just look at the prevalence of iPhone. They are way too comfortable bending over.
"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting anti-piracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." -Gabe Newell
Just see how many still pirate music after Apple Music, Spotify, UA-cam Music, etc. were created. It might be a pricing issue tho in the sense that you may want to get a game, but it's way overpriced and it's more logical to pirate said game.
@Milk nearly? I would argue that all of them are. And Nintendo is biggest offender, but a lot of games are overpriced when you compare them to older titles.
We've had this discussion in the anime community for years now and the conclusion is basically either you provide fans a way to enjoy the shows legally in as high quality fashion as they would by pirating or you shut up and don't bitch and moan when they do pirate. That means reasonable prices for subscriptions, having all shows in a season avalibale in all countries via a streaming site, and notably against Netflix, same day releases. If you cannot provide at the very least those features, don't complain when someone pirates a show. Same with games, if pirating gives the consumer an objectively better experience than buying the game legally then just do that. Paying specifically to get a worse experience is not better, it's just letting the companies off the hook and letting them know they can pull stupid shit like this without repercussions. Going through the trouble of pirating a game is not something most people will do even if it's literally free. Most people do, in fact, pay for the stuff they enjoy if they can afford it. But if later down the line the company is gonna spit on you for buying a game and forcing you to rebuy it just ot be able to acces what you already own, or will simply take it away from you alltogether, how could they justify charging you for it in the first plce when you can get it and KEEP it for free elsewhere? It's on them to keep making that commitment worth it, if they fail on that because they are greedy as fuck or just don't care that's on them, not on the consumer.
Which is why I actively support many, but pirate the crap out of Aniplex shows. They only give the big ones to London for a week and forget the rest of the UK exists, and I don't want to spend more on travel than an already overpriced london movie ticket. Or their games where they'd rather shut down entire servers for not making enough money than release the "English" versions in England too lmao.
It was pirated anime ON THIS VERY PLATFORM is why it's so mainstream. I know Toonami and Adult Swim put in work yet really it was UA-cam with those dogshit 7part cut up episodes of Naruto and other anime we haven't gotten in the west.
This. Anime still has a long way to go in that regard as MANY shows just straight up are not available to anyone outside of the US. I have no issue at all pirating shows if they literally give me no legal way to watch them affordably
So as a indie game developer, most of the games I have helped make are on the piratebay. While I don't see the sells of the games, it's nice to know someone is getting the chance to enjoy the work put into it. Thanks for playing, please support indie devs when you can. :D
@@GregorianMG Not always the case. OP is taking the situation pretty well, but if his/her game really has passion put into it, then I think he/she should be compensated fairly. I've never heard of anyone pirating a game "just to try it" till recently. Unless the developer put anti-piracy code into the game to set off just in case, what's stopping someone who has a full-fledged Pirate game from just completing it and never buying it?
@@chrisjr6214 And how does that affect in any way or capacity the devs and publishers? do they lose money when someone pirate a game, complete it and never buy it?
This whole debacle seriously needs legally addressing. Companies abandoning software that people have paid for, should either: 1) Publish a patch to remove DRM 2) Opensource the code 3) Refund *all* customers (+ inflation) failing to do one of them should mean them losing intellectual property of the title and it becomes public domain.
@@ynblue1 They wouldn't ignore a big time law firm coming at them with a heavy duty lawsuit. once you buy a game, unless the fine print very specifically says the publisher reserves the right to revoke license usage/access to content, well then you DO own that game, and by denying you access to a commodity you paid for, taxes included, that represents a breach of contract on their part and they are legally financially responsible to either issue a refund, in part or whole, or remove DRM and give the purchasers access to the content they paid for. And that's exactly what needs to happen, a class action lawsuit with a big firm representing thousands of claimants suing these mega corporations to put a stop to these immoral and legally questionable business practices. Just a matter of time before it happens, and when it does you better believe companies like Ubisoft will opt to quietly settle out of court, because they literally don't have a leg to stand on. Depending on how a judge or prosecutor might interpret the laws, withholding access to content could even be a potentially criminal act on their part.
yeah, imagine buying a SINGLE Call of Duty titles that isn't more than a price of a pack of noodles. I don't see the issue of piracy will ever be gone from the SEA region
Some companies treat their customers so badly that I actually feel _immoral_ for buying some of their games. When it comes to those publishers, I'd pirate their games even if I were rich.
I took a videogame ethics class and the most important thing my professor wanted me to remember is that piracy and theft are legitimately two different things.
@@DBLRxyz Legally, theft involves the owner being deprived of their property. If you steal a car from someone, they don't still have the car, you do. What digital piracy is, is _copying,_ which doesn't take anything away from the owner nor stop them from doing whatever they want with the version of the thing they still own.
@@SaintLumbridge SOG stands for "SomeOrdinaryGamers," which is who posted this video. And they were just referencing the character in my profile picture.
I’m with the “I don’t care crowd” Whether I pirate or buy a game is entirely dependent on whether or not I’m motivated enough to grab my credit card from the other room.
it ain’t that big of a deal either. sure, game companies lose money, but how much do they really? they make more than they lose, WAY more. it doesn’t matter in the end really. i’m broke anyways, so piracy is just the best option to me
@@gamsssreal Piracy isn't the reason that only 4% of games make their money back. There's just lots of indie projects that don't ever gain any traction.
Pirates have done more for video game preservation than most game companies ever have, games like Driver: San Francisco or any PC Spider man game that is unable to be played on PC legitimately can be fairly easily gotten through piracy and if companies are going to fully abandon their games then they should just do it the right way and make it DRM free and either sell it for cheap on GoG or just give it away for those who care to still play it. As Gaben said "Piracy is an issue of Service"
@@alenmack3471 that as well, Emulation is a great way to play tons of games forgotten by their developers like all the digital 3DS games and the ones i said too. With the games i mentioned i meant the PC ports as they were once available for sale but were all delisted and in Driver SF's case even had a petition of over 150K people asking Ubisoft to relist it but judging by their latest anti consumer practices there's little chance of that.
You're sort of right that you can install physical discs without an internet connection and it can't be taken away, but there's a small issue: 99% of AAA games released now practically require a day 1 patch to play, so once someone decides to shut off the servers you're still screwed. Piracy is the only way games can be properly preserved.
I don't get why console users thinks they own the product when the first thing you have to do have a proper experience is to download a 50 GB patch. If you are happy with a broken disc then its fine. I also find it scummy that sony intentionally manufactures more digital consoles to gradually translate the audience towards digital distribution.
@@jebbi2570 What companies are you buying from where 100% of your games need a day 1 patch else it's literally unplayable? Are you an EA fan? Most of my games never required a patch to play, save for games like Spyro Reignited and Crash Trilogy, where only one of the games is on the disc. And of course, never buying from Activision Blizzard ever again. In some cases, I don't *want* a patch, because sometimes they decide to censor something post-development. Not to mention, GOTY editions often have the patches and DLC on the disc. So, my Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin edition laughs at you and your poorly thought-out hyperboles.
Not really, sure, most games get substantially better with a day 1 patch, but my inpatient ass has played a lot of games without waiting for the update and I'd say 80 to 90% of the time it works perfectly (talking about single player games ofc)
Most of my games work offline, obviously if on game pass then no. But as long as they have single player components I can play offline. I’m always moving around and I don’t have room to carry discs so I download everything and I never have trouble( Xbox btw) but I do have like a case of disc games from 360
@@jebbi2570 uhhhhhh do you think pc games don't get patches lmao? If a game on console gets a patch, it's very likely the pc version of that games gets the same patch, like what?
"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates" -Gabe Newell
And steam does provide a banger deals. Now Valve, not Sony or Microsoft makes a banger products to compete with the Switch which is the Steam Deck. They aint entirely angels, but they make the right decisions like hiring the creators of Counter Strike mod for Half Life on their team while R* drags the modders to court and sell us a school project.
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, that logic is PURE entitlement, imagine how entitled you must be to think you can steal someone's work just because it doesn't live up to your arbitrary standards
@@TheSMR1969 i think it's fine if you steal from companies (not actual devs, they already got their paychecks) that set those false standards on their own, i.e the majority of AAA companies currently
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: If the game is no longer available for purchase or made it no longer playable, then yes. It is morally ok. I believe in persevering video games, no matter how old.
@@ThatCanadianGuyin some countries i think you can get away with pirating games be it old or new, just make sure you're not dumb enough to get caught by your ISP ( Internet Service Provider ) if you're tryna sail the seven seas
You also have to remember companies have pirated there own game to re-release it, since the pirated version has a fan patch to to remove the DRM that some companies couldn't, or a ROM they couldn't find/was easier to get
When I was young, I pirated a ton of shit. Then I got my finances in order, I went back and *PURCHASED* a whole mess of titles that I had enjoyed via piracy. So now I own about 200 games that steam thinks I never played. I tried to buy batches too and unfortunately, my batch for Assassin's Creed excluded Brotherhood and Revelations. So if I ever get time again to do some gaming, I might go back and have to pirate those titles in order to enjoy them again. Annoying as fuck. But yeah, I've come full circle. Same deal with Microsoft and Adobe though too. I paid for a few versions via the upgrade path. Then they tried to recruit me into creative cloud. For about three times the annual cost I was setting aside for it. Fuck em. Excel took out shared workbooks, which allows shared excel files on local file servers, replacing it with co-authoring, which only allows saving online, and accessing excel online, which is missing a lot of advanced features like scripting that is relevant for the function of the excel file, so it's a deal breaker. I told the Microsoft guy about the problem and he didn't care. Fuck the lot of them.
@@khy8 I agree. I get that you might want to thank and donate to the devs for a game you liked but doing it for 200 games you most likely aren’t going to play again is pretty stupid lol
@eschelar For your information, (in some countries) it cannot be considered "piracy" if you download files that you already have the rights to, regardless of the source from which you download it. If those files have been edited (e.g. cracked/pre-patched/dlc'd), it depends on local laws whether that falls under reverse-engineering and depends on the eula of the software in question to specify that reverse-engineering is specifically not allowed. For example, I owned DukeNukem 3D but a decade later I didn't own a CD-rom reader, I downloaded the game. Perfectly legal. But it was patched, so illegal. (edit: but it is also shareware so not illegal and deliberate bad example :P )
When it comes to morals and piracy, it all depends on the context. Maybe it's because I've on the seas for so long and seen terrible companies use the moral argument to manipulate people, but I don't ascribe morality to piracy in general. I, for one, don't care about legality when that same law serves to benefit companies screwing customers in the ass in every way.
I recently buy GTA San andreas to play on my pc from rockstar it don't work I can't play it with a controller or with my keyboard so I just waste money I really wanted to play but I lose my interest after that I don't even want to bother to download the game from a free page
I think piracy is a fair response to having to buy hundreds of dollars worth of DLC just to have a complete game that you could have bought 5 years ago for $60
as a indie gamedev myself, i don't mind if my game gets pirated. i grew up on pirated games and im forever thankful for them. i wish i could pay for it but living in a third world country is not easy. not everyone has it easy. so i just believe they play it pirated is still better than not playing it at all. maybe they like it and market it for us.
The main issue here is not even money to pay for the game in the first place, if this was the case, piracy would be largely unsupported and would have been gone by now.
Unless company's like Microsoft , Sony , or Nintendo make it easier to access the library of games from their back catalog then it is up to the community to preserve those games. The moment they restrict them or make it impossible to play such games then yes I see the benefits of piracy.
Imagine if they all charged developers enormous fees for day 1 updates? Say $500k to $1M per gigabyte? It might force these studios to ship an intact product
@@syko2164 good when you rule the planet you should be able to do shit like that and worse if you're rich enough you should literally be allowed to do anything you want period and if not what's the fking point
Dude, there was a study done like 4 years ago of about 300+ pages explaining how piracy isn't harmful and it was supressed by the EU. Piracy isn't an issue, we don't live on the 2000 anymore.
@@vidhijhamnani2748 If you don't buy the game - $0 lost, nothing happens If you Pirate the game - $0 lost, used the Game without the Publisher's Permission. Is not playing a video game that hard?
I've always thought that buying one version of a game should give you the right to pirate a game. I already paid for it once, I didn't steal it. The studio got a sale from me, and I didn't hurt their bottom line, especially if the game is no longer available for purchase.
I would think the same for creative software too. Most big-name music production software plugins have download managers and require online activation to use. If the internet gets so authoritarian that my unv@x0rd self can't access it, I'd still like to have access to plugins I've invested lots into regardless and be able to continue to create in peaceful solitude.
Don’t take this the wrong way but if I brought a white shirt from this store, it doesn’t mean I can take all the same white shirt from this store for free
@@zhiawei4252 I am looking you in the eyes and asking you if you equate a copy of a physical item that you can hold in your hands with a copy of a digital item. A copy of a textbook you purchased and a copy on your e-reader is the same to you as buying a 2022 Honda Accord cash, and walking back into the dealership and driving off with another of the same car.
This. I ain't droppin' 300 dollars on a physical copy of a PS1 game from a collector, and anyone who tries to take the moral high ground for doing that is a fool.
the fact that the question if it's "morally okay?" has to be asked already tells me there's something going terribly wrong with the "proper" way to play games
@@cool_bug_facts The only reason i could understand the morals argument of piracy is when it comes to pirating indie games with small dev teams of sometimes just one guy.
@@alex-qn5xp That's not an sound argument, though. That only works if you're implying that you are, in some way or another, superior to others and thus entitled to reap the benefits of other people's labor. Not saying this to offend or insult you, but you *aren't* superior to everyone else, so that means that you don't have the entitled right to take things without paying for them- that is called theft which is immoral. And no, "theft" doesn't just mean you break into the game studio and physically steal the harddrives that the game is stored on. "Theft" is when you take something that the owner doesn't consent to without paying the set price for it first. Piracy is making a copy without the owner's consent and is explicitly against his will/desire. There's a reason why it's called "piracy", pirates steal things... they commit theft. If you want to do it then go ahead, I honestly don't care. What I care about is hypocrisy. Don't say that the devs didn't lose anything or that it isn't immoral (or even amoral) because the devs lose out on the profit that would've been made had you purchased it legally. Pirate to your heart's content- whether it be games, anime, movies, whatever you want- but call it what it is, don't try to sugarcoat or justify it.
Pirating for old games especially I think is a good thing for two reasons. 1, the developers tend to be gone or the conditions in some way are complicated to the point where they aren’t even making money off the game anymore so pirating does next to nothing. And 2, being a older game, official digital copies are usually not available for said games and physical copies can be very rare and pricy. So to have access to the game for a modern day user can be incredibly hard and run the risk of the game being almost basically lost. Pirating remedies this by allowing the game to be present in a downloadable form for anyone to hold and play.
Some of the devs for games I use to play on the ps1 went out of business ages ago and all the copies of their games online are from other people who bought them ages ago. Pretty much all of them have scratches if you want to pay a decent price. The really good conditions cost more than I'm willing to pay for. I still have the old discs but they are to scratched up to use or copy so I'm left with very few choices if I ever wanted to play them again. I know that regardless my money isn't going to be going to the company that made the game if I buy it so I feel as if there isn't anyone I'm hurting with that. Pirating a new game is kinda iffy to me tho. If there isn't a demo of the game and you only plan to play a mission or 2 just to see if you like the mechanics before you buy it. That's something a few of my friends do when they aren't to sure of a game.
This is why I’m thankful I bought most of my Wii games physical during my childhood. Yes, my Wii will eventually be beyond repair, but those games can still be ripped and stored for historical purposes.
When it comes to piracy I see a few situations where it's morally ok. 1: Abandonware (games that can't be obtained anymore). 2: Games you've already bought. It's absolutely not ok is for small indie games or games with a small amount of financial backing.
It all depends on the context surrounding piracy. If it's something that is affordable and can be easily accessed, then no. If it's too expensive or it is not accessible in your area, then yes, pirate away! Simple as.
Gabe Newell once said, “The easiest way to stop piracy is … by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates,” as in, make a game better so people will buy a real copy instead of pirating one. I would like to see Valve maybe stand up for us and say “We’re not going to let you sell your games on Steam unless you offer a better experience than pirated versions offer and make strides at preserving your games.”
Like them cutting the fat of all the dogshit DRM. Yet I think that's why a lot of them want their own launcher now because it's THEIR rules not Steam's
Considering Steam is itself a DRM platform, I doubt they are going to do that lol. Not to mention Steam/Valve helped kill the physical games market and made digital delivery the only method for PC games distribution. Stop being a fanboy for them, they are as much to blame as anyone else for this state of affairs.
I “legally downloaded” a game for the first time in my life last month. I wanted to play need for speed underground 2 with a friend, but the version I had (Xbox) was bugged when you tried to play it on the Xbox 360. There were slowdown issues (those were bearable) but the split screen mode was completely broken so like the good samaritan I am I purchase a ps2 copy off of Amazon (it was like 40 bucks for a 17 year old game) so I can emulate it on my pc. Well my order gets cancelled and I didn’t have enough time to obtain another copy before my friend visited so I visit an iso and rom hosting website and “legally acquired” a digital iso from them. If EA still supported the windows version of the game I would’ve gladly bought it from them, but they don’t support any nfs game past 2008.
My take on it is that: -It's okay if it is an old game from a big franchise, especially if it's an EA game, like Need For Speed. -Online only games are no-no, might get banned.
There are several studies that show that piracy does help the gaming market. But, the gaming market seem to have a questionable markets and are getting away from the physical.
Cdkeys hurt the gaming market more because someone who buys a cdkey will never buy the game from the developer but if you pirate it there’s still a chance
@@geeeunit they get paid initially, but because the people re selling them are scumbags is that they use stolen credit cards and shit, and when that stolen credit card purchase catches up to the bank it gets charged back, hurting the company sadly
@@MarxistMogger cdkeys are a factor but a small one. the majority of the cdkeys are fake or trojan in the Chinese or Russian market. Darkwoods come to mind. "We decided to upload it to Pirate Bay to ensure that people who can't afford it can download a safe version of the game,". They actually earn more because of that move. Their game is still out on the pirate bay yet still keep earning dosh.
@@geeeunit There are even cases in which devs were loosing money. G2A was the biggest market for stolen keys and it was a wild case. Also, steam refund system is itself a scam that hurts devs as well so.... If you're not sure if you'll like certain game and just want to try it out with possibility of returning it... Just pirate it.
My moral code for piracy: - Singleplayer game with no online element= yes definitly (unless a studio i respect, then im buying it) - Multiplayer = no point so no (unless just to test out the game in offline mode) - Indie games = if i can i try to always buy them but i do download them to test them out
Im thinking pretty similar, wanted to get ghostrunner for a long time and had no money to buy it but didn't pirate it because I respect the devs too much for it, at some point it was on sale and I bought it nearly 6 months later...
i dont really care about pirating but at this point pirating is like downloading a game and paying is like donating money to the developers and getting the game
My view on piracy has always been thus: If you cannot get it legitimately from first/second party source (so developers directly or a storefront like Steam), then piracy is moral. If the first party source version does not function properly due to silliness like online service requirements for a singleplayer game, or half-assed emulation from the dev/publisher, then piracy is not really 'moral', but justifiable. Pirating just because you don't want to pay for something is blanket immoral. It's a case by case basis thing, from my POV. On a side note, I do not consider used market relevant for classic games. The whole 'moral' argument around piracy is whether it qualifies as 'stealing' profit from a developer/publisher. In practice, with games bought second hand, the original creator sees no profit from that, so that moral argument disappears immediately. Add on the absurd pricing you frequently see with older games, as well as having to wade through a flood of knock-off carts/burned discs that people are charging realprice for, and you see why one could argue it moral to obtain 'illegitimately'.
How do you mention steam, a glorified rental service that takes away older versions of games on Publisher command like Ubisoft, while saying "not wanting to pay for something is blanket immoral"??? I'll be immoral if it means I dont support bad products.
You missed the part when games become exuberantly expensive. The Silent hill games are still available to buy on the second market, but are 100 dollars a pop (a guy above mentioned Shattered Memories on PS2 actually goes for $300-$400 a copy). I feel like another exception is to get the full experience of a game, for example the sims 4. It's not that good gameplay wise so most create sims and lots, but to do that effectively you need packs, but to get packs you need fork out 5 bucks (reasonable) for a few items in a kit to 40 for an likely buggy expansion (less reasonable). The problem is less with the prices for most people, players would happily pay for more expansions if they were worth it, but they are almost always buggy, lackluster, and there are like 11 soon 12 expansions ($599.99), 11 game packs ($218.89), 19 stuff packs ($189.81), and 13 kits ($77.87 I can get a full game for the equivalent of about 10 items per pack...). At the amount you would need to spend on the sims 4 you are just burning a hole in your wallet to make the game actually fun with things to actually do.
I remember I first tried Cuphead and also Undertale through the pirated version, and the longer I played it the more sorry I felt for not buying it, so then I bought it, in a way piracy helps me to know if a game is worth the price
Oh also, Mutahar. I heard that those "You wouldn't download a car" bumpers that they put on DVDs was used without permission. Supposedly it was meant for airing at a film festival *only*, but then the creators found that it had been reproduced an ungodly amount of times without authorisation on DVDs around the world.
@@firstnamesurname2482 but 3D printing is also expensive...? Especially considering how expensive materials that make the car with be expensive and your need a motor too of you want the car to work. With all of that, it’ll probably end up being close to the price of the car.
Lack of ease of access leading to piracy is what Gabe focused on during early days of Steam. When you have shit like SecuROM/DRM making it hard to play, unable to buy it for your region, or other QoL then it leads to piracy. Obviously some people are cheap or literally can't afford as such it isn't a lost sale but if companies want sales then being consumer friendly is important. GOG makes money despite lack of DRM last I checked.
old ones, yes new ones, only when not indie reasoning: I ain't paying 70 bucks for a half-assed, incomplete, ptw, microtransaction-riddled game from an underperforming rich company who's been letting fans down for the past decade. indie game devs are chads though and deserve every cent. I'd pay for the old games if they actually sold them for a change. In theory, of course.
I think it’s fair to say for everyone that it depends on the situation of the said game. Take eShop games on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Some of those games are going away forever, and your only option is to pirate the game, then I think you’re totally justified. On the other hand, if a game is still widely available such as a game like Metroid Dread, then you should definitely rethink your decision. Without support to the developers, we might not see another entry into the series. Devs gotta pay bills and eat too.
My personal rule with piracy: If I can buy a brand new copy, I won’t pirate. If it’s something that can only be played through used hardware, time for downloading…
I want to add If the damn game isn't available anywhere Example would be Nocturne, an old PC game. And also Chris Jerichos' game I'd be more than happy to throw money at it, but apparently they don't want it, soooooo, to the high seas we go.
@@ThisIsNotMyUsername I got a jailbroken ps3, and I Pirate so many Exclusive games that you can't get anymore on the PS4 and PS5. So basically I never buy any PS3 games or dlc, but when I play PS4 and PS5 I pay for it
Piracy wouldn't be such a hot topic if gaming companies didn't find new and innovative ways to piss of the consumer with their BS and apply "anti-piracy" mechanics that more often than not ends up hurting the people who bought the game fairly. Assassin's Creed 2 is a great example where the official, bought PC version was riddled with problems thanks to anti-piracy tech while the pirated version had almost no problems whatsoever. It's astounding how Ubisoft could be so unbelievably stupid in this regard.
The problems go away when you stop playing games. I really slowed down playing them in 2002 and pretty much had them totally phased out by 2006. Not playing games at all hurts video game companies WAY more than pirating copies of them. I didn't stop playing games out of spite or anything though. I've always loved Nintendo's product, but I just found other things that appealed to me more than gaming.
@@ThatCanadianGuy emphasize on the word "IF". Piracy will always be a thing no matter what. while i don't accept the acts of pirating as a whole, considering the state that we live in with prices going up and the economy is all over the place, you would think that people wouldn't wanna try to pirate something ? especially if they come from a poor background and they live in a country where the cost of living is rough ? think again, this is reality.
Moral or not moral, I could care less. Nintendo fleeced my ass in the 80s charging $50 for games back in 1989, thats $130 by todays standards. I paid my dues. The amount of money I saved pirating for 20 years has saved me literally thousands of dollars that I used to pay off my House. Morals don't pay the bills. And the companies are making enough money without my ass.
This, exactly. The companies nowadays succeed and fail regardless of one's personal actions. The only people you should give your money to are indie devs.
Tbh I pirate games cuz I'm broke, If I get the money in the future I just get it because it's less complicated than going out of my way to buy the games so I'm not really concerned for how much money a company makes.
This is the answer here. When you grandstand and say "I don't pirate games because it's immoral," that's just money going out of your pocket and into the pockets of companies that 1. Don't give a shit about you and 2. Will make that money anyways. I don't agree with pirating indie games because usually indie studios don't have the brand recognition that AAA studios have, but pirating from AAA studios is always okay because they have that brand recognition and they're always going to have a target audience that will buy their games and microtransactions no matter what. I mean, games like Fortnite and Genshin Impact are literally free to play because the companies behind them know that they have a loyal audience of whales that will pay their bills.
I don't judge anyone who uses pirated games, I know how it is to not have money for every game you want and in most cases it's not like the companies are losing money. Also modern digital goods regulations are a joke, many companies can take away your things if they wanted to, so it's really ok to make a copy of the game you bought.
The more you pirate the better. Companys dont deserve money this days, as they just make showelware. There are only a few good ones that are worth supporting.
Despite what Nintendo and their fanboy consumers and UA-camrs may say, it is their lack of care on game preservation and their refusal to either rerelease it on modern platforms, and of they do, treat it right and not monetize it at a outrageous price tag with none of the effort that went into the original software that causes people to emulated them. Why pay $60 for a shitty Mario Galaxy port, _in a collection that is now unavailable and limits your control settings,_ when you can just emulate them at the highest resolution your computer allows, with the controller _you_ want, _with custom mods._ It's literally a no brainer.
Yeah Nintendo is the worst. I’ll purchase whatever’s on the current console but anything older than switch is getting emulated. Nintendo picking and choosing what I get to play and resetting the catalogue every new generation makes me sick. Fans are the only ones who truly care about preserving it
In my opinion, if it is no longer being sold, then yes. Though if it becomes available and you did not pay for it previously, you're kind of obligated to buy it even though you probably wont. Also if its a cesspit of a company like Activision or Ubisoft then feel free to pirate, in fact take pride that your money is not ending up in those evil executives pockets!
"I just don't care anymore" I definitely agree. If the game I want to play is an independent game project made by a minimum wage working college craduate then I'd probably not pirate it but that's it
It’s fine to say you don’t care. Of course that doesn’t address the question of whether piracy is ethical. You’re saying there are circumstances where you’d feel bad pirating right? You game an extreme example. Lots of great indie games are made by small dev teams that take a share of the profits. They don’t earn a lot of money unless the game does well.
I care very much about game preservation and this topic in general, Mutahar! I grew up on nes/snes/n64/psx games for the most part and the lack of care for game classics genuinely makes me sad. I really appreciate you making a video about this and I whole heartedly agree with everything you've said in this video and others where you expressed your feelings on this matter.
I'd say pirating from huge multimillionaire studios, especially the greedy ones like EA, is completely ok. Where I draw the line is pirating from small devs who put passion and effort into their projects. I think we should support them. Edit: to any dumbass who is stretching and trying to point out 'loopholes' in this take, like the guy in the replies, use common sense and understand that I meant support good people who don't scam or use NFTs or groom children. Jesus.
Absolutely! However there are some exceptions to this. Take Touhou Project for example. The creator has pretty much lost the original versions of like the first 9 games in the series, so it's basically impossible to obtain them without pirating them or getting the rare physical copies still in existence.
@@maskedmenreiki Yeah that's fine, emulating/pirating lost games and mega old games which aren't available in the market anymore is totally just a normal thing to do
@@GameJunkyard11 Your argument is really wrong, paying a 15$ for indie games that will most likely just take the money and never update the game again is bullshit. Id rather spend 40$ on EA game that is greedy but is consistent in updating and making the game fun than waste my money on a game that is gonna be dead in a month
@@raptourn9578 I'm talking about actually dedicated developers, like New Blood, who care about their work. And how does it matter if the game isn't gonna get a jaw dropping update, if it's already very fun, great to play and polished?
I can literally make an indie dev team and do extremely scummy shit and you’d still suck me off. I can groom children with no consequences or be extremely rude and nasty to my employees. I would have immunity because of you people. But shame on a AAA dev for having MTX in a free to play game or having one bug that doesn’t completely break the game.
Game companies see video games as a product to sell, gamers see it as an experience to enjoy. I think we will get proper game preservation once companies realize this.
Their talking about doing this with cars. Your car will become an entire micro transaction. If you need the heater well expect to pay a subscription fee.
To me? Always. Growing up I couldn't bother my mom with buying me a game so I always pirated. And I do it still. Its completely unfair for argentina to get a game for 50 cents b ecause their minimal wage is super small but my country gets the full 70 euro when in 2019 we had lower minimal wage than Argentina. When I asked Steam they said that legally they cant charge a different price for different countries in the European Union. I s aid fuck this shit its free then. Cause a minimal wage after taxes would be like 650bgn and a 70usd game turns into a 70 euro game which turns into 140bgn. That's more than 1/5th of the minimum wage. It just makes 0 sense. So Right now I may or may not have around 10 pirated copies of popular games on my PC that allegedly amount to like 400usd saved from buying. I make great effort to buy indie games especially if they are co-op. I had pirated Terraria before but the game is so cheap and good that I had to buy it even made a friend buy it too.
I've always thought of it this way: We agree on a reasonable price. That's meeting in the middle. If you wanna pick an extreme with what you're wanting to charge, then I can adopt an extreme of my own and try to get it for free. It's better for all of us to negotiate a fair price, but extreme options are always on the table.
I'm not going to bother trying to pick this argument apart, which is flimsy by the way considering the industry, but all I'll say is to give your money to developers that you actually trust.
@@andersjjensen I'm a POS, I'm well aware, but this comment has 2 responses in dissent, but 70 something likes, what does say about the society we are living in?
@@ghost-facedhindu4275 Oh, my comment wasn't in dissent. It was a compliment. Many people think taking a strong stance and presenting it in a hostile fashion goes hand in hand, to which I beg to differ. I myself prefer the "Speak softly, but carry a big stick" approach too. We can talk reason and be reasonable all day. But just know that if reason ends... my version of unreason may be very undesirable :P I'm all for supporting the advancement of the arts. I buy albums from my favourite artists despite having spotify. But I only stopped pirating music BECAUSE spotify provided me with a solution that was reasonably priced for the convenience it provides. Paying that amount monthly for not having to buy CDs, rip to MP3 and copy to all relevant devices is simply a no-brainer. And it even won out over just downloading what I didn't feel like buying and mucking about with that on several devices. With games I buy the physical medium. And then I proceed to download the pirated version with the No-Activation and No-CD patches because I've got no time for their clown show. And if the game sucks I can sell it with the shrink wrap intact... Movies are a bit different. I have Netflix and Blockbuster. If I can't get it from either of those... well, stop your "Prime exclusive" and "Disney exclusive" horse manure... because I know where the pirates anchor their ships... And I'm NOT budging on it. I'll do pay-per-view for prime content. But I will NOT have several movie streaming services. If you want my money, release it on the services I use. End of freaking story. TL;DR: No, you're not a POS. And the likes show it. There's nothing wrong with stating boundaries. And there's nothing wrong with standing your ground when someone tries to push those boundaries.
The discs are not software keys, that's dumb. However, they have an early build with no patches, bug fixes, DLC etc. I know with Cyberpunk 2077, the version on the disc is from MONTHS before the game actually launched. So while physical discs are certainly better for game preservation they still don't preserve the final versions of many games unfortunately.
@@grovescharles92 there's network for most games does not matter if you have disk or not unless your own xbox 360 and PS3 you can install games from the disk but sometimes playing from the disk is better depends on the game if you play black ops 1 from a disk on a xbox 360 not connected to the Internet when drinking perks its the WAW animation small feature but it was only updated when Mule kick got added also no mule kick unless you update the game.
@@grovescharles92 i think that has something to do with speed. if its on your harddrive, the cpu can instantly process files and ram can pick up data to be ready whenever its needed. if you take it from a disk, you are bound to the speed of the laser and the RPM and that can be slower than the game needs it to be. you can actually test it out yourself by installing a modern game on an old USB 2.0 stick and play it from there. the x1 speed of a blue ray btw. is 4.5 MB/s. even if you have it with x20 speed (which i think is not a thing yet for blue-ray), it would still be only 90MB/s. a shitty HDD has over 200MB/s, SATA SSD over 400MB/s and NVME SSD can crack over 3000MB/s. games like age of empires 2 already profit from using SATA SSD over HDD.
I would literally download everything, whatever it is I desire in that moment: Just download it. Pay for it? Hm yeah, if it's worth it: Sure. Pirate a game that I cannot get my hands on any other way? Yes.
Youre absolutely right, its a losing fight. We can just sit back and watch everyone suffer the consequences 5 or 10 years later when they will basically have no way to play any older games and then switching to piracy. If the companies dont give a shit now, the probably wont give a shit later
i live in a 3rd world country and i would never have fallen in love with curtain games if i didn't pirate them. i fell in love the souls series and have bought both Elden ring and ds3 and plan to buy the rest in the future, but not only with games even software, i animate and i would never be able to afford the software back then.
For software I strongly recommend looking into free and open source alternatives, not only are they free of charge but they're incredibly easy to get your hands on and can often be better than the pirated proprietary software.
For the sake of Morality: No it is not. When it comes to piracy, I personally think pirating games from Triple A companies is no big deal since they make millions of dollars regardless. I don't think it is okay to pirate from indie developers though. Only a real asshole would want to steal from someone who's barely got themselves off the ground.
Exactly my thoughts on the matter. Especially if it's one of those hidden gems that never got the appreciation it deserved. Jesus even when I pay for games like that it breaks my heart.
it is a weird question. I would not buy the games i pirate to begin with, is it wrong? I do not know the answer and don't think it can be answered. I am not taking anything away from the dev, and I would not play the game otherwise.
There are some greedy indies as well though. And with some of them being so hit or miss it's only fair to try out the game sometimes, especially when indies like to supersize the first 2 hours with exposition and what not to stretch the time you don't get to play the game so refunding is impossible.
Ok but look at the prices some of these indie devs ask for....sometimes these indie games made by a few people with barely any content get sold for like 30 bucks and shit... im sorry but thats just not how it works. If youre a small lil indie game you cant ask for that much money because in the end its not worth it. just like how its not worth buying these expensive ass triple A games. Sure,i will buy an indie game for like 10 to 20 bucks, but sweet WAMPA some of these mother fuckers want some hard cash right out the gate. If you take a look at pretty much every successful indie game,its cheap as fuck.
It always bothered me that even online only games could so easily be designed with a singleplayer patch in mind for when the servers are shut down, but no one even thinks about doing it. Take Destiny 1 for an example... Once it shuts down, they could just drop a patch that tweaks raid and strike difficulty and layouts so it's possible alone, or just straight up move raid loot to solo locations. It wouldn't exactly be a million dollar update...
Games like Wolfenstein 2009, that are literally not available to buy anymore, I think those games, and ONLY those games, should be able to "pirate." And if people say that you can just buy it off ebay or something, it still won't support the devs.
The other thing that bugs me as a Trophy Hunter, is many of these games, namely AC Liberation, have trophies tied to online services. With the servers gone, you can't really 100% the games and get the platinum trophy.
The thing inspiring big game devs like Nintendo to keep making lackluster games is the fact that people will still buy them no matter what, they're peak consumerism. Piracy, in that sense, is most definitely okay.
For sure, Nintendo would make plenty of money offering this more widely. But they are at least warming up too the idea, they have a few Gamecube, N64 games on the switch & already got a few NES, SNES games as well that supports online multiplayer, its cool too see them take it that far. Like the entire SNES & NES library as a whole is less then 3 gb & that's ALL of them so it's just a matter of effort & time too get as many of them on there as possible that are famous or that may not be easy too find physically while still loved by the fans. The switch has like what 32 - 64 gb of built in storage ? Sure there is some licensing needed too like somewhat greedy song label companies that wants money for 15 - 20 year old songs still too exist digitally in a game last published like 2004 physically for the Gamecube id imagine. Even if the artist is dead or isn't even signed with the company these days but still owns the rights too those particular songs. But I'm fairly certain they'd still make it out like a thief for people wanting too play something like the Gamecube version of 007 Nightfire or like Tony Hawks Proskater 3 on a Nintendo switch if they get the right deal too publish the games for a good price. Ofc it's not going too be comparable too a crt tv & original console but that's due too technology changing in screens & emulation in between also adding a very small delay of like 3 - 10 ms but it's a damn good experience still being able too emulate an older console & game. It's a service problem, not a price problem usually, other then for you know kids & teens with no budget anyway. But a company can't count them as customers in the first place imo. Valve showed this almost 16 - 18 years ago by now as long as the game gets a patch or fix too still run on a newer operating system, people will buy it as long as it's available in one form or the other.
@@Mini-z1994 it's a subscription service tho, thats the worst part. They won't even give you the option of owning these 35-25 year old games. You gotta rent them from daddy nintendo and give them back if you dont keep paying them. And this is on top of an already bad online service.
@@Mini-z1994 the switch has absolutely shit emulation, Nintendo didn't care and invested very little. They also only ever have a few titles and they charge alot for them. Why can the community make better emulators that work good with basically every game but Nintendo cant. Watch some videos about it on the modern vintage gamers channel.
If you're talking about Nintendo's newer games (Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, etc.) then I don't see how you could call those lackluster. If you mean lackluster treatment of old titles and horrible anti-consumer business practices though, I concur.
@@mikeexits switch launch titles were kind of just before the shitty games rolled in, which in itself says alot that nintendo hasn't come that far. Obviously not the only good titles on the Switch but when I look at stuff like €60 upscales and ports, unfinished games, pokémon, and the state of mario sports games, it's hard to focus on those. In the end those are both 5-year old games, that's nearly the gap between mario 64 and sunshine.
I've always had the mindset that if some content is not available, let's say old retro games, downloading a copy off the internet is not an issue. I don't have a Nintendo 64, GameCube or similar consoles, so emulation is the only way for me to enjoy Super Mario 64, Pikmin, Mario Sunshine and so on. Nintendo would not get my money if I bought a console and games off eBay anyways. Also just a concern of e-waste, emulation allows me to have most of the games I hold dear on a single device.
As someone who runs Mario Kart Wii on my android through Dolphin and regularly plays old games that are basically impossible to find these days (without dropping a full grand for a 30 year old console), this topic means a lot to me. I'm tired of AAA games dicking us over because "mUH tHe gAMe iS tOo OlD"
Yes it is, I cannot count how many times I have spent $60 on a brand new AAA game that was a let down or was a flat out marketing lie. I will always pay full price for indie games that deserve it. But I pirate everything else.
Back in the 80's, we spent our allowance money on crummy games like Nightmare on Elm Street, and we had to live with it. We didn't cry like babies after a bad purchase and whine about why it's right to steal. Back then you got like 4 video games a year, and those were not bad times, trust me.
Yes, it's morally fine, especially with AAA titles. You can't guarantee that they're gonna be good, and money is very thin, so the ability to have an extended try before you buy is invaluable for putting your money into the right places.
They should bring back demos. Well either way, it is still stealing. If they advertise it to you , you check it out and decide. If not you watch videos on others playing it! Watch reviews, that's why they exist... There is no need to pirate it to "try it out." At that point, you may as well just play the damn thing to the end, no? Because you have already stolen it
@@idkwhy77 I'm not going to shed a tear for the triple a devs that keep shitting up games, rushing them out the door, and demanding a decent portion of my paycheck for the privilege to wait a year for the game to be in a playable state. And you can't trust demos either. A company can heavily control what you get to play so it looks like gold, only for you to buy it and it ending up being utterly broken outside the vertical slice. And don't get me started on trying to return games. So often now, games are being released as digital downloads than physical copies, which makes it 1000% harder to get your money back as money, and not platform scrip you can trade for more low quality games. As to your other point: why not just play it all they want through since you stole it? You are right that I could do that -- but if I'm enjoying the game enough to consider finishing a playthrough, then what's wrong with me buying a real copy to support a project that gave enough of a shit to be playable and fun? It shows that the game is worth at least my time and meager money, and I get future updates and potential modding tools after the fact. Plus, I generally recommend the games I buy to friends, which means more potential sales to offset myself downloading a game *once* for free.
Short answer: yes Long answer: if it's a small indie company you pirating from and not planning on paying for the game at a later moment, no, otherwise, yes. Just my opinion
I'd say: when the game is not available anymore, yes. I remember being excited because I could play WWE Day of Reckoning 2 in an emulator because I have so many good memories of it and the only copy I could get was from a friend (which said copy was sadly scratched to a point of no return). So yeah, if the game is unavailable in any current legal way I usually just emulate it.
While Triple A Gaming remains in the state it's in, it's always ethical to pirate. Same applies for media as long as there are 50 competing streaming services trying to rip you off more than Cable ever did.
I used to be a huge pírate when I was younger, pírated lots of books and games that I couldn't afford. That didn't affect any of those game/book sales at all. All the specialized education I got from said books allowed me to get very high paying jobs, and now I've got one of the top 0.8% biggest Steam libraries in the world. Piracy in some sense can be like a "pay it forward" type of thing.
I live in a "third-world country" and access for games was not easy when I was a kid, so piracy was a saviour cuz I played a LOT of games, I have to say thanks to that now that I can afford most of the games that I play I've been hunting down all of those games that I enjoyed when I was kid, specially games from PS1, if it weren't for that I would've never known the existence of all these wonderful games. So morally yes to piracy, even though I don't do it myself nowadays.
I remember hearing somewhere that tabletop RPGs had to be bootleg printed in "3rd world countries." Funny how we live in a world that uses PDFs as a "written" medium.
@@ince55ant To a certain point, the ones hurting are the devs and companies who put money and time in these games, back then it was different nowadays it more than morally Ok to do piracy because companies are predatory. Stray became an example of why piracy is not ok, that's the case of why would you do that?
Yeah I hate how people say video games are a luxury my guy it's a form of entertainment how is a depressied teen in a depressing county supposed to have fun
I used pirating to beta test in the past. If it was good and i liked it, i bought it. I got over 50% of paid games this way. Steam, for example. 2 hours often is not enough to test the game and understand it's bugs, flaws and beauty of it. I don't do it anymore as i don't support piracy (maybe unless it's an abandonware like NFS MW 2005 and others) and it's become very unsafe due to viruses becoming more stealthy and dangerous in general. But now I also barely get any games too because of that.
I’ll never forget: it was 2012. I was a kid, and my cousin threw a party for his birthday. One of his friends brought an Xbox 360, with a game I never thought existed: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World The Video Game. I had the time of my life playing that game and I wanted to purchase it myself. Xbox Arcade was the exclusive platform at the time, and I remember going out of my way to secure a Microsoft card for the purchase. A few months after I bought it, they delisted it. What was the reason? I don’t really know, but rumor has it, the license for the film split up the rights. Even though the game has been rereleased in recent months, there was a chance that game would be lost forever, never existing again. I don’t look forward to an all digital future…
Physical copies has always been the way to own stuff, but you can't cut costs without going digital so in a financial way, it's completely unfeasible to keep those Physical copies, this is why piracy exists the way it does.
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Check out the newest podcast episode: ua-cam.com/video/g4G5LDB-z6o/v-deo.html
Fire
yes
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Fun Fact: "Legality" and "Illegality" is just a Human construct. "Laws" and Morality don't mix.
Yes. It is legitimately the best way to preserve games since publishers don't want to do it
It’s called emulation. Pirating and emulation are two completely different things.
@@alenmack3471 Get me a legal copy of Rule of Rose to emulate
@@紫の羊-c3g Same with Kuon.
@@alenmack3471 Nope, nothing to do with emulation, in fact some ubisoft DLC is going to be completely unplayable September first, in fact a LOT of DLC, and pirating is the only way to preserve those.
@@alenmack3471 I've never seen anyone inflict a much bigger L than you
I would never pirate an Indie game, but I’d definitely pirate a game from a AAA company especially if it’s one that can’t be bought or is just too expensive for what it is.
Same for me, exception is when the game is genuinely fun enough for me that I honestly will fucking buy the game outright instead. I liked mhw enough when I tried it pirated. Bought it. Then bought the dlc, same thing for mhrise.
This, especially when a lot of old games just aren't that available
I pirate indie games also. Not every indie is to be trusted.
You gota test the game before you buy it. But demos for games are getting more and more rare.
Doesn’t really work with online games tho. But single player games like Far Cry work great
@@Bullminator you can refund a game if you don't like it or it does not work. Quit making excuses for you entitlement.
I don't know if it's morally okay to pirate, but I know it's morally wrong to buy a game from Ubisoft.
Except if you buy R6 starter, and grind all the ops, then fair, minimal pay for good game.
Fuck I bought crew 2 on discount, guess I’ll commit arson.
@@cementbox4430 Lmao just bought it too i'm enjoying it they really put effort into it
@@LucasImpulse now you can get 18 free ops just for playing r6 extraction trial so buying only the base game is the supreme choice
@Gay Nazi Defense Mechanism Im so glad you realized your mistake, +1 cookie for you
"pirates having a better experience than legit users" has been happening since the first DRM fiasco, which incidentally was also Ubisoft's fault. Pirates were playing Assassin's Creed day one while legit users were locked out because the DRM server wasn't working.
Yikes
It’s very true. I’m forced to pirate just to get access to content above 720p in streaming services because I watch tv on my PC. These companies that worry about piracy so much that they don’t give paying customers access to the content, just cause more piracy.
The day they learn that their DRM related measures are not the worth it is the day the world has forgotten Ubisoft existed I suppose.
Irony hahah
When the new year came, everyone was complaining they couldn't play Sims 4 because of server errors or the stupid launcher not working properly. Meanwhile I was chilling having fun with my pirated copy lol. Another reason why I'm slowly getting discouraged buying games these days.
Piracy in most cases is done because;
A: You dont have the cash - you wouldnt be able to afford it anyways.
B: To try a game before you buy because demos are either non-existent or not representative of the actual game.
C: The game is no longer available through legitimate retailers / the service required to access the game is terrible or offline.
Developers like those that made Darkwood actually didnt think the piracy was a problem.
They even let people torrent it for free on pirate bay so that people could get a virus free version of the game and try it out, but urged people to buy it if they liked it.
Based Darkwood devs
The old pokemon games are ok to pirate because i’m not going to pay more than the system just for a game
@@staringcorgi6475 Then you’re emulating them. And they suck ass on PC. Like the controls are complete dogshit.
@@staringcorgi6475 Exactly, and it's not like nintendo can claim you're violating their copyright when they no longer directly sell the games.
A part of copyright law is is replacement of the source material. Obviously if theyre not selling the game, you cant buy it from them so theres nothing to replace. Another part is damages. What's in circulation just is and the money is going to a third party not nintendo.
@MrEmerald2006 Arguably those people were not going to buy your product anyway so no loss because you were never going to get a sale out of that person.
Also, in some cases the service is BETTER for pirated games because there is no DRM such as Denuvo hampering performance which is notorious in a bunch of always online titles. Or your game becoming unplayable because your internet is out temporarily.
In most cases Denuvo and other anti piracy softwares do little more than checking the legitimacy of the purchase. In which case a cracked version without Denuvo is favorable to people because they dont have problems that Denuvo brings to the game. And it always get cracked and torrented anyways.
Why play a technically inferior product just because devs want to check if you're playing on a legit account? Why be unable to play offline a product you've paid for that is standard with so many other games? Why play the stuttery frame-dropping, cpu and gpu intensive Denuvo version when you can play a cracked version and get better smoothness and performance?
Why should paying players suffer a worse experience than those torrenting it for free?
You forgot to mention how the piracy community often keeps their own servers online for people who want to play multiplayer on abandoned Triple A games, that's why you see people launching Spacewar on Steam.
spacewar is a fuckin classic ;)
yo true, so many games lost their official servers and are run by as far as I know free community modded servers that requires pirated version (and a custom launcher)
its especially fun if the server software isnt released and poeple start making their own from scratch
Yeah like that one absolute chad maintaining the servers in HunterVerse so fans can play multiplayer for the older gen Monster Hunter games.
for people who dont know Spacewar is a game profile that the steam backend has for developers to test features without having to actually set up a steam page (for $200)
When companies decide to restrict your access to games you pay for? Entirely, yes.
No
EA....thats all ima say
@@ImClueless_ I download need for speed most wanted 2005 for free and play it with no regrets
What situation is this referring to?
@@vexageedits6995 Need for Speed Most Wanted - the good one.
I dont always do it, i'll generally do it for old games that cant be bought or if I previously owned the game and I have a reason I cant play it anymore, for example, when I was younger I had a Luigi's Mansion disc but now its broken and so occasionally ill play the game via piracy. Pirating big, new, expensive games is (generally) not something I support, but I wont ever complain or hunt anyone down for it.
Emulation is not piracy
I pirated a copy of MGR because they don’t sell it here in SEA
@@meatloaf_gaming1016 While true, unless Violet here made their own ISO backup of the game while they had it in their possession, then piracy was involved. Which I'm glad is a thing, because I certainly didn't make backups of my copies of NFS: Carbon or Fallout 1/2 etc.
I also do it for old games
@@meatloaf_gaming1016 that's like saying buying silks from pirates isn't piracy. Technically true. But you wouldn't get the silk without piracy.
Perfect example: Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4, Origins, Shattered Memories, and Book of Memories all cost $100 second hand and Konami refuses to invest the money/time to properly preserve them.
Loading up Duckstation and/or PCSX2 is free and preserves games very well. Plus no money to Konami. I’d say piracy is morally legal.
EDIT: I'm actually wrong. Shattered Memories on PS2 goes for $300-400. jfc you might as well just pirate the damn thing
Didn't you make a video a while back on the prices of retro games or something
It's even worse for DS Pokemon games. Black and White copies cost hundreds of dollars on some sites (not including the DS system price as well), and the Pokemon Company still won't port anything past Gen 2 to the Switch.
Obligatory comment shocked that UA-camr has a life outside of their videos
Literally just looked for these titles to buy on eBay, $120 & up per title? I just bought a modded gaming console & am playing through all the titles less than $140. Worth it imo. These companies are losing so much money by not giving us the titles we’ve been BEGGING for.
Woah, where'd you move her from?
But yeah emulation is very based, very happy with the work our emu devs have been doing all these years.
Nintendo's poor executive choices is why I'm 100% on Emulation and Piracy for their Retro Games, since some Games are never going to be rereleased, and don't get me started with RockStar's poor attempt of GTA: SA Remaster.
Same here. When they essentially shut down a smash bros competition that supported charity, that's when I said "yeah, I'm not going to support Nintendo anymore."
Plus the best version of San Andreas is always the 1.0 release. Which isn’t sold anymore so piracy is helpful in this regard
fr it pisses me the heck out I have to basically spend 400 dollars just to play Mario kart 8 deluxe and the switch with a cap of 60fps
Amen to that.
Nintendo is cordially invited to suck my dong. As a matter of fact, i stumbled around a SNES emulator for PS2 yesterday and i was able to rip every single of the almost 3000 ROMs that contained the .iso.
As for R*, i have all v1.0 versions of the original trilogy backed up on a hard drive.
There's been times i've pirated games, but ended up buying them afterwards, most of them were indies
@@Somethingcoolig A pc good enough to run an emulation of Mario Kart 8 coasts far more than 400 dollars...
There's a reason piracy is having a renaissance. These greedy companies do not care about the customer, whether it be locking one show behind a $5 streaming platform nobody wants or charging people to replay an older game on a "remastered" edition which is worse than the modded game they banned modders for making playable. The whole entertainment industry thought it was in the clear and could get away with this shit, but it wont, and it will suffer!
Companies are sus, they be lackin', cuh.
Yeah, AAA game companies have been pushing it inch by inch with how much they can nickel and dime the average consumer with in game purchases and cookie cutter DLC. They don't deserve what they're asking for and the amount of defense they get from the "just don't buy it" crowd are just making the landscape even worse
I agree with most except i do think they will get away with it. Consumers are not as smart as you think. Most don't even know how to pirate. Just look at the prevalence of iPhone. They are way too comfortable bending over.
@@rannnoch Yeah lol.
Same for Movies, Music and TV again. Platforms are so fractured with exclusives I ain't spending minimum wage for this.
"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue.
It's a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting
anti-piracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service
that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." -Gabe
Newell
gabe is our savior
Just see how many still pirate music after Apple Music, Spotify, UA-cam Music, etc. were created.
It might be a pricing issue tho in the sense that you may want to get a game, but it's way overpriced and it's more logical to pirate said game.
@@SubarticGold > mentions apple and YT
What part of "better service" confused you?
Remember Resident Evil Village stuttering like a bitch in the paid version and working absolutely fine on the pirate version? I do...
@Milk nearly? I would argue that all of them are. And Nintendo is biggest offender, but a lot of games are overpriced when you compare them to older titles.
We've had this discussion in the anime community for years now and the conclusion is basically either you provide fans a way to enjoy the shows legally in as high quality fashion as they would by pirating or you shut up and don't bitch and moan when they do pirate. That means reasonable prices for subscriptions, having all shows in a season avalibale in all countries via a streaming site, and notably against Netflix, same day releases. If you cannot provide at the very least those features, don't complain when someone pirates a show. Same with games, if pirating gives the consumer an objectively better experience than buying the game legally then just do that. Paying specifically to get a worse experience is not better, it's just letting the companies off the hook and letting them know they can pull stupid shit like this without repercussions. Going through the trouble of pirating a game is not something most people will do even if it's literally free. Most people do, in fact, pay for the stuff they enjoy if they can afford it. But if later down the line the company is gonna spit on you for buying a game and forcing you to rebuy it just ot be able to acces what you already own, or will simply take it away from you alltogether, how could they justify charging you for it in the first plce when you can get it and KEEP it for free elsewhere? It's on them to keep making that commitment worth it, if they fail on that because they are greedy as fuck or just don't care that's on them, not on the consumer.
Which is why I actively support many, but pirate the crap out of Aniplex shows.
They only give the big ones to London for a week and forget the rest of the UK exists, and I don't want to spend more on travel than an already overpriced london movie ticket.
Or their games where they'd rather shut down entire servers for not making enough money than release the "English" versions in England too lmao.
Also screw XSeed games for making Corpse Party only PHYSICALLY available in
A. America, and
B. A region locked 3DS
It was pirated anime ON THIS VERY PLATFORM is why it's so mainstream. I know Toonami and Adult Swim put in work yet really it was UA-cam with those dogshit 7part cut up episodes of Naruto and other anime we haven't gotten in the west.
Anime is like games!? No it's not just stop with the anime bs.
This. Anime still has a long way to go in that regard as MANY shows just straight up are not available to anyone outside of the US. I have no issue at all pirating shows if they literally give me no legal way to watch them affordably
So as a indie game developer, most of the games I have helped make are on the piratebay.
While I don't see the sells of the games, it's nice to know someone is getting the chance to enjoy the work put into it.
Thanks for playing, please support indie devs when you can. :D
And when try really liked it, they will buy it.
@@GregorianMG ^this
@@GregorianMG Not always the case. OP is taking the situation pretty well, but if his/her game really has passion put into it, then I think he/she should be compensated fairly.
I've never heard of anyone pirating a game "just to try it" till recently. Unless the developer put anti-piracy code into the game to set off just in case, what's stopping someone who has a full-fledged Pirate game from just completing it and never buying it?
@@chrisjr6214 And how does that affect in any way or capacity the devs and publishers? do they lose money when someone pirate a game, complete it and never buy it?
@@GregorianMG depends. not everyone will buy it.
This whole debacle seriously needs legally addressing. Companies abandoning software that people have paid for, should either:
1) Publish a patch to remove DRM
2) Opensource the code
3) Refund *all* customers (+ inflation)
failing to do one of them should mean them losing intellectual property of the title and it becomes public domain.
not a bad idea
would love that lol
Opensourcing game code is seen as impossible over removing DRM
These 3 options are viable but the 2nd and 3rd option should be like highly considered. Of course these companies are probably going to ignore
@@ynblue1 They wouldn't ignore a big time law firm coming at them with a heavy duty lawsuit. once you buy a game, unless the fine print very specifically says the publisher reserves the right to revoke license usage/access to content, well then you DO own that game, and by denying you access to a commodity you paid for, taxes included, that represents a breach of contract on their part and they are legally financially responsible to either issue a refund, in part or whole, or remove DRM and give the purchasers access to the content they paid for.
And that's exactly what needs to happen, a class action lawsuit with a big firm representing thousands of claimants suing these mega corporations to put a stop to these immoral and legally questionable business practices. Just a matter of time before it happens, and when it does you better believe companies like Ubisoft will opt to quietly settle out of court, because they literally don't have a leg to stand on. Depending on how a judge or prosecutor might interpret the laws, withholding access to content could even be a potentially criminal act on their part.
When you're in a third world country and a game is priced higher than the minimal wage, ig piracy can be forgivable sometimes.
250 monkey money is most definitely a reasonable price for a single dynasty warriors game
@@ConsarnitTokkori monkey money 😂
yeah, imagine buying a SINGLE Call of Duty titles that isn't more than a price of a pack of noodles. I don't see the issue of piracy will ever be gone from the SEA region
AND there's absolutely zero consequences for doing it right in the open.
that moment when a new release has a price tag that could equally feed you for 2 months
Some companies treat their customers so badly that I actually feel _immoral_ for buying some of their games. When it comes to those publishers, I'd pirate their games even if I were rich.
Rockstar, EA, Activision, etc...
In the case of Activision and EA they treat both customers _and_ employees terribly
@@robohobosapien I've heard EA treat their staff pretty good, not confirmed it for myself though
EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, could go on tbh
rockstar/t2 just pissed me off so much with their defective edition, i'll be pirating all of their games from now on
I took a videogame ethics class and the most important thing my professor wanted me to remember is that piracy and theft are legitimately two different things.
Elaborate?
@@DBLRxyz theft the object is taken piracy the object is copied
@@DBLRxyz Legally, theft involves the owner being deprived of their property. If you steal a car from someone, they don't still have the car, you do. What digital piracy is, is _copying,_ which doesn't take anything away from the owner nor stop them from doing whatever they want with the version of the thing they still own.
Yes. I don't know why people equate piracy and theft. Even the law doesn't consider piracy and theft to be the same thing.
That seems like a good use of higher education tuition 😂
I did a paper on this last year for my research writing class. SOG actually inspired the idea for me. Thanks for keeping us updated!
Reshiram needs HUGS
@@Margen67 Reshiram could ALWAYS use hugs.
So confused. What is SOG and what does Reshiram have to do with it?
@@SaintLumbridge SOG stands for "SomeOrdinaryGamers," which is who posted this video. And they were just referencing the character in my profile picture.
@@astro_lw643 oh my god im retarded
Ubisofts newest games catch phrase is "Long live piracy".
I feel like someone didn't think that one through
Or maybe the advertising department is dropping hints XD
They say that bc they put their games on sale so soon unless they take it away
I’m with the “I don’t care crowd”
Whether I pirate or buy a game is entirely dependent on whether or not I’m motivated enough to grab my credit card from the other room.
My mom's credit card* nigga acting like his mom's money is his lmao stop crip
it ain’t that big of a deal either. sure, game companies lose money, but how much do they really? they make more than they lose, WAY more. it doesn’t matter in the end really. i’m broke anyways, so piracy is just the best option to me
@@rightsider considering the fact 4% of games make their money back a lot of companies loose money.
@@gamsssreal Piracy isn't the reason that only 4% of games make their money back. There's just lots of indie projects that don't ever gain any traction.
@@gamsssreal What percentage of people even pirate modern games? Can't imagine it's enough to change that 4%
As a wise man once said: "piracy is good and always moral"
"you can always pirate Adobe products, It's always morally correct" -Prince
Maybe I should steal your computer! It’s just physical piracy after all
@@giodoubledover i fr always pirate adobe products LMAOO
it helps you save money as well
Did the wise man steal that too?
Muta: pirating media is bad
Also Muta: piracy is the best thing since free food
Pirates have done more for video game preservation than most game companies ever have, games like Driver: San Francisco or any PC Spider man game that is unable to be played on PC legitimately can be fairly easily gotten through piracy and if companies are going to fully abandon their games then they should just do it the right way and make it DRM free and either sell it for cheap on GoG or just give it away for those who care to still play it.
As Gaben said "Piracy is an issue of Service"
Don’t you mean emulation?
@@alenmack3471 that as well, Emulation is a great way to play tons of games forgotten by their developers like all the digital 3DS games and the ones i said too.
With the games i mentioned i meant the PC ports as they were once available for sale but were all delisted and in Driver SF's case even had a petition of over 150K people asking Ubisoft to relist it but judging by their latest anti consumer practices there's little chance of that.
You're sort of right that you can install physical discs without an internet connection and it can't be taken away, but there's a small issue: 99% of AAA games released now practically require a day 1 patch to play, so once someone decides to shut off the servers you're still screwed. Piracy is the only way games can be properly preserved.
I don't get why console users thinks they own the product when the first thing you have to do have a proper experience is to download a 50 GB patch. If you are happy with a broken disc then its fine. I also find it scummy that sony intentionally manufactures more digital consoles to gradually translate the audience towards digital distribution.
@@jebbi2570 What companies are you buying from where 100% of your games need a day 1 patch else it's literally unplayable? Are you an EA fan? Most of my games never required a patch to play, save for games like Spyro Reignited and Crash Trilogy, where only one of the games is on the disc. And of course, never buying from Activision Blizzard ever again. In some cases, I don't *want* a patch, because sometimes they decide to censor something post-development.
Not to mention, GOTY editions often have the patches and DLC on the disc. So, my Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin edition laughs at you and your poorly thought-out hyperboles.
Not really, sure, most games get substantially better with a day 1 patch, but my inpatient ass has played a lot of games without waiting for the update and I'd say 80 to 90% of the time it works perfectly (talking about single player games ofc)
Most of my games work offline, obviously if on game pass then no. But as long as they have single player components I can play offline. I’m always moving around and I don’t have room to carry discs so I download everything and I never have trouble( Xbox btw) but I do have like a case of disc games from 360
@@jebbi2570 uhhhhhh do you think pc games don't get patches lmao? If a game on console gets a patch, it's very likely the pc version of that games gets the same patch, like what?
"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates" -Gabe Newell
Steam DRM exist, but it isn't as bad.
And steam does provide a banger deals. Now Valve, not Sony or Microsoft makes a banger products to compete with the Switch which is the Steam Deck. They aint entirely angels, but they make the right decisions like hiring the creators of Counter Strike mod for Half Life on their team while R* drags the modders to court and sell us a school project.
This is a great quote, I really like this 👍
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, that logic is PURE entitlement, imagine how entitled you must be to think you can steal someone's work just because it doesn't live up to your arbitrary standards
@@TheSMR1969 i think it's fine if you steal from companies (not actual devs, they already got their paychecks) that set those false standards on their own, i.e the majority of AAA companies currently
Gaben got it right. Just improve products and piracy will be solved.
Here's a Non Bot Tip; Charles Hoskinson Sounds Alot like The Gabe...
@@petegrizwald2666 Who dat?
@@petegrizwald2666 man's seriously trying to shill eth in a comment section of a man who, very correctly, calls people who like crypto stupid
@@Mark-zi6nt The Dude who Peer Pressures His work before Launching Anything; Now like Gaben AND Elon hehe.
@@petegrizwald2666 That sounds an awful lot like what a bot would say
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: If the game is no longer available for purchase or made it no longer playable, then yes. It is morally ok. I believe in persevering video games, no matter how old.
But what about new games just because you can’t afford it?
@@ThatCanadianGuyin some countries i think you can get away with pirating games be it old or new, just make sure you're not dumb enough to get caught by your ISP ( Internet Service Provider ) if you're tryna sail the seven seas
You also have to remember companies have pirated there own game to re-release it, since the pirated version has a fan patch to to remove the DRM that some companies couldn't, or a ROM they couldn't find/was easier to get
...or the community has fixed their bugs for them...
When I was young, I pirated a ton of shit.
Then I got my finances in order, I went back and *PURCHASED* a whole mess of titles that I had enjoyed via piracy. So now I own about 200 games that steam thinks I never played.
I tried to buy batches too and unfortunately, my batch for Assassin's Creed excluded Brotherhood and Revelations.
So if I ever get time again to do some gaming, I might go back and have to pirate those titles in order to enjoy them again.
Annoying as fuck. But yeah, I've come full circle.
Same deal with Microsoft and Adobe though too.
I paid for a few versions via the upgrade path. Then they tried to recruit me into creative cloud. For about three times the annual cost I was setting aside for it.
Fuck em.
Excel took out shared workbooks, which allows shared excel files on local file servers, replacing it with co-authoring, which only allows saving online, and accessing excel online, which is missing a lot of advanced features like scripting that is relevant for the function of the excel file, so it's a deal breaker.
I told the Microsoft guy about the problem and he didn't care. Fuck the lot of them.
Rebuying the game's again is dumb
@@khy8 I agree. I get that you might want to thank and donate to the devs for a game you liked but doing it for 200 games you most likely aren’t going to play again is pretty stupid lol
@@KristisG can't you just directly donate the devs via patreon or sumthing?
Same here. More than 200, and on ps5, but same otherwise
@eschelar For your information, (in some countries) it cannot be considered "piracy" if you download files that you already have the rights to, regardless of the source from which you download it. If those files have been edited (e.g. cracked/pre-patched/dlc'd), it depends on local laws whether that falls under reverse-engineering and depends on the eula of the software in question to specify that reverse-engineering is specifically not allowed.
For example, I owned DukeNukem 3D but a decade later I didn't own a CD-rom reader, I downloaded the game. Perfectly legal. But it was patched, so illegal.
(edit: but it is also shareware so not illegal and deliberate bad example :P )
When it comes to morals and piracy, it all depends on the context. Maybe it's because I've on the seas for so long and seen terrible companies use the moral argument to manipulate people, but I don't ascribe morality to piracy in general. I, for one, don't care about legality when that same law serves to benefit companies screwing customers in the ass in every way.
Morality is out of the window for big 3A companies if they can't even hold their own morality to their employees. Same standard for indiegames.
Yeah, if it's an indie game that is obvious the creator worked hard on, i'll pay. 3a tho, fuck morals, I ain't paying $60 for dogwater
I recently buy GTA San andreas to play on my pc from rockstar it don't work I can't play it with a controller or with my keyboard so I just waste money I really wanted to play but I lose my interest after that I don't even want to bother to download the game from a free page
@@LOQUENDOYSRA99 pirated San Andreas is way better
How do you pirate
I think piracy is a fair response to having to buy hundreds of dollars worth of DLC just to have a complete game that you could have bought 5 years ago for $60
Almost every Fighting game have this, I'm tired of these "complete edition" bullshit...
This. Fucking this.
@@ryangustavo7248 i'm glad cyberpunk now bring DLC for free, even if you buy at price of discount, off of % %
Looking at The Sims. It is always morally okay to pirate The Sims DLC
the sims 4
as a indie gamedev myself, i don't mind if my game gets pirated. i grew up on pirated games and im forever thankful for them. i wish i could pay for it but living in a third world country is not easy.
not everyone has it easy. so i just believe they play it pirated is still better than not playing it at all. maybe they like it and market it for us.
that's an awesome take man i hope your game/games/products do well and make you loads of money!
@@zeening not possible. 99% indie devs lose money.
The main issue here is not even money to pay for the game in the first place, if this was the case, piracy would be largely unsupported and would have been gone by now.
This works when the product is very good and already fairly priced. It's why AAA will always be pirated content.
@@QWERTY-gp8fd thats bc is a labor of love not greed
Unless company's like Microsoft , Sony , or Nintendo make it easier to access the library of games from their back catalog then it is up to the community to preserve those games. The moment they restrict them or make it impossible to play such games then yes I see the benefits of piracy.
Nintendo in particular.
I will pay for a port of the metroid prime games, yet instead I'm emulating them with Dolphin
Also if you buy an old copy you are literally giving some random person money that will never go back to the developers
@@musictorin a lot of time the ports or emulators by the official company are pretty poor compared to emulation and patches by fans.
Imagine if they all charged developers enormous fees for day 1 updates? Say $500k to $1M per gigabyte? It might force these studios to ship an intact product
As Disney once said, "Take what you can, give nothing back."
Funny statement coming from Disney
😂
@@SarimFaruque Why funny coming from them? That's exactly what they do.
@@SarimFaruque its how Disney treats IPs.
@@syko2164 good when you rule the planet you should be able to do shit like that and worse if you're rich enough you should literally be allowed to do anything you want period and if not what's the fking point
Dude, there was a study done like 4 years ago of about 300+ pages explaining how piracy isn't harmful and it was supressed by the EU.
Piracy isn't an issue, we don't live on the 2000 anymore.
i'd love it if you could give some details to help me find this study or just link it if you have it handy
thanks for removing my qualms about pirating games
Piracy literally loses money for the ppl who had to put in work who developed the game. How is that not harmful?
@@ThatCanadianGuy Money the devoloper loses if I pirate the game-0$
Money devoloper loses if I don't buy the game -0$
@@vidhijhamnani2748 If you don't buy the game - $0 lost, nothing happens
If you Pirate the game - $0 lost, used the Game without the Publisher's Permission. Is not playing a video game that hard?
I've always thought that buying one version of a game should give you the right to pirate a game. I already paid for it once, I didn't steal it. The studio got a sale from me, and I didn't hurt their bottom line, especially if the game is no longer available for purchase.
I would think the same for creative software too. Most big-name music production software plugins have download managers and require online activation to use. If the internet gets so authoritarian that my unv@x0rd self can't access it, I'd still like to have access to plugins I've invested lots into regardless and be able to continue to create in peaceful solitude.
Don’t take this the wrong way but if I brought a white shirt from this store, it doesn’t mean I can take all the same white shirt from this store for free
@@zhiawei4252 I am looking you in the eyes and asking you if you equate a copy of a physical item that you can hold in your hands with a copy of a digital item. A copy of a textbook you purchased and a copy on your e-reader is the same to you as buying a 2022 Honda Accord cash, and walking back into the dealership and driving off with another of the same car.
This. I ain't droppin' 300 dollars on a physical copy of a PS1 game from a collector, and anyone who tries to take the moral high ground for doing that is a fool.
@@zhiawei4252 such a shitty take lmao
the fact that the question if it's "morally okay?" has to be asked already tells me there's something going terribly wrong with the "proper" way to play games
morally okay? no, but do i care? no, so piracy game is okay, just play and pretend that you dont care about morals
@@cool_bug_facts even if it's still being sold if you weren't gonna buy it anyways the devs won't lose anything from you pirating it.
@@cool_bug_facts you said it better than I did
@@cool_bug_facts The only reason i could understand the morals argument of piracy is when it comes to pirating indie games with small dev teams of sometimes just one guy.
@@alex-qn5xp That's not an sound argument, though. That only works if you're implying that you are, in some way or another, superior to others and thus entitled to reap the benefits of other people's labor. Not saying this to offend or insult you, but you *aren't* superior to everyone else, so that means that you don't have the entitled right to take things without paying for them- that is called theft which is immoral.
And no, "theft" doesn't just mean you break into the game studio and physically steal the harddrives that the game is stored on. "Theft" is when you take something that the owner doesn't consent to without paying the set price for it first. Piracy is making a copy without the owner's consent and is explicitly against his will/desire.
There's a reason why it's called "piracy", pirates steal things... they commit theft. If you want to do it then go ahead, I honestly don't care. What I care about is hypocrisy. Don't say that the devs didn't lose anything or that it isn't immoral (or even amoral) because the devs lose out on the profit that would've been made had you purchased it legally.
Pirate to your heart's content- whether it be games, anime, movies, whatever you want- but call it what it is, don't try to sugarcoat or justify it.
Pirating for old games especially I think is a good thing for two reasons. 1, the developers tend to be gone or the conditions in some way are complicated to the point where they aren’t even making money off the game anymore so pirating does next to nothing. And 2, being a older game, official digital copies are usually not available for said games and physical copies can be very rare and pricy. So to have access to the game for a modern day user can be incredibly hard and run the risk of the game being almost basically lost. Pirating remedies this by allowing the game to be present in a downloadable form for anyone to hold and play.
Some of the devs for games I use to play on the ps1 went out of business ages ago and all the copies of their games online are from other people who bought them ages ago. Pretty much all of them have scratches if you want to pay a decent price. The really good conditions cost more than I'm willing to pay for. I still have the old discs but they are to scratched up to use or copy so I'm left with very few choices if I ever wanted to play them again. I know that regardless my money isn't going to be going to the company that made the game if I buy it so I feel as if there isn't anyone I'm hurting with that. Pirating a new game is kinda iffy to me tho. If there isn't a demo of the game and you only plan to play a mission or 2 just to see if you like the mechanics before you buy it. That's something a few of my friends do when they aren't to sure of a game.
Yeah the companies of old games do tend to shut down and theres no way to get the old game
@@sta5011 Konami with Suikoden I and II remastered, hold my capitalism!
This is why I’m thankful I bought most of my Wii games physical during my childhood. Yes, my Wii will eventually be beyond repair, but those games can still be ripped and stored for historical purposes.
You can play those copies on PC too. I also dumped all my ps2 and gamecube games.
@@ezio934 Chad.
When it comes to piracy I see a few situations where it's morally ok. 1: Abandonware (games that can't be obtained anymore). 2: Games you've already bought.
It's absolutely not ok is for small indie games or games with a small amount of financial backing.
Depends on who you ask. I personally don’t care.
There really needs to be laws made for customers when it comes to abandonware. These is going to be a serious problem in the not-so-distant future.
It all depends on the context surrounding piracy.
If it's something that is affordable and can be easily accessed, then no.
If it's too expensive or it is not accessible in your area, then yes, pirate away!
Simple as.
This. It's hard to pirate with few seeders and slow internet. That's why I check steam first if the price is reasonable.
Or if its a triple aaa game that sucks, yes
@@simonjesusbeliever3467 why would you get a game that sucks anyway?? 🤣
@@aquietplaceinthedark5458 idk review/ceritism or you hate your self.
It ain't that simple , you don't get to make rules on what qualifies are "morally" okay lol. This is the stupidest idealogy i've seen.
Gabe Newell once said, “The easiest way to stop piracy is … by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates,” as in, make a game better so people will buy a real copy instead of pirating one.
I would like to see Valve maybe stand up for us and say “We’re not going to let you sell your games on Steam unless you offer a better experience than pirated versions offer and make strides at preserving your games.”
Like them cutting the fat of all the dogshit DRM. Yet I think that's why a lot of them want their own launcher now because it's THEIR rules not Steam's
There's a magical thing called GOG, it has no DRM bullshit and has regular sales on great games
@@ExeErdna GOG does that, no DRM, no spyware, no garbage
Pretty ironical coming from the one responsible for Steam, don't you think?
Considering Steam is itself a DRM platform, I doubt they are going to do that lol.
Not to mention Steam/Valve helped kill the physical games market and made digital delivery the only method for PC games distribution.
Stop being a fanboy for them, they are as much to blame as anyone else for this state of affairs.
I “legally downloaded” a game for the first time in my life last month. I wanted to play need for speed underground 2 with a friend, but the version I had (Xbox) was bugged when you tried to play it on the Xbox 360. There were slowdown issues (those were bearable) but the split screen mode was completely broken so like the good samaritan I am I purchase a ps2 copy off of Amazon (it was like 40 bucks for a 17 year old game) so I can emulate it on my pc. Well my order gets cancelled and I didn’t have enough time to obtain another copy before my friend visited so I visit an iso and rom hosting website and “legally acquired” a digital iso from them. If EA still supported the windows version of the game I would’ve gladly bought it from them, but they don’t support any nfs game past 2008.
Heat is pretty good. EA royally screwed it with awful post launch support tho
My take on it is that:
-It's okay if it is an old game from a big franchise, especially if it's an EA game, like Need For Speed.
-Online only games are no-no, might get banned.
Wasn't the online game usually cannot be pirated without butchering its online function?
@@GregorianMG community servers
Some games are unplayable online on the original servers
Uhhhh, online games usually get their online features disabled so you can actually play it single player
Its always ok to pirate an EA game pointblank.
Its EA, they deserve it.
There are several studies that show that piracy does help the gaming market. But, the gaming market seem to have a questionable markets and are getting away from the physical.
Cdkeys hurt the gaming market more because someone who buys a cdkey will never buy the game from the developer but if you pirate it there’s still a chance
@@MarxistMogger Do they not get paid for the initial sale of the key? key resellers get them from somewhere, right?
@@geeeunit they get paid initially, but because the people re selling them are scumbags is that they use stolen credit cards and shit, and when that stolen credit card purchase catches up to the bank it gets charged back, hurting the company sadly
@@MarxistMogger cdkeys are a factor but a small one. the majority of the cdkeys are fake or trojan in the Chinese or Russian market. Darkwoods come to mind. "We decided to upload it to Pirate Bay to ensure that people who can't afford it can download a safe version of the game,". They actually earn more because of that move. Their game is still out on the pirate bay yet still keep earning dosh.
@@geeeunit There are even cases in which devs were loosing money.
G2A was the biggest market for stolen keys and it was a wild case.
Also, steam refund system is itself a scam that hurts devs as well so....
If you're not sure if you'll like certain game and just want to try it out with possibility of returning it...
Just pirate it.
My moral code for piracy:
- Singleplayer game with no online element= yes definitly (unless a studio i respect, then im buying it)
- Multiplayer = no point so no (unless just to test out the game in offline mode)
- Indie games = if i can i try to always buy them but i do download them to test them out
Im thinking pretty similar, wanted to get ghostrunner for a long time and had no money to buy it but didn't pirate it because I respect the devs too much for it, at some point it was on sale and I bought it nearly 6 months later...
thats how i role
I'd add older titles that aren't available anywhere and aren't supported by devs anymore.
I wouldn't download indies. They are at the bottom of the chain.
Anything: Pirate it, it's either this or not playing, I can't buy it
i dont really care about pirating but at this point pirating is like downloading a game and paying is like donating money to the developers and getting the game
My view on piracy has always been thus:
If you cannot get it legitimately from first/second party source (so developers directly or a storefront like Steam), then piracy is moral. If the first party source version does not function properly due to silliness like online service requirements for a singleplayer game, or half-assed emulation from the dev/publisher, then piracy is not really 'moral', but justifiable. Pirating just because you don't want to pay for something is blanket immoral.
It's a case by case basis thing, from my POV.
On a side note, I do not consider used market relevant for classic games. The whole 'moral' argument around piracy is whether it qualifies as 'stealing' profit from a developer/publisher. In practice, with games bought second hand, the original creator sees no profit from that, so that moral argument disappears immediately. Add on the absurd pricing you frequently see with older games, as well as having to wade through a flood of knock-off carts/burned discs that people are charging realprice for, and you see why one could argue it moral to obtain 'illegitimately'.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
I have never seen a counterfeit game disc before. Plenty of counterfeit cartridges but never a counterfeit disc.
How do you mention steam, a glorified rental service that takes away older versions of games on Publisher command like Ubisoft, while saying "not wanting to pay for something is blanket immoral"???
I'll be immoral if it means I dont support bad products.
Ok so buying games 2nd hand is just as morally bankrupt as piracy. Got it, cons00m.
You missed the part when games become exuberantly expensive. The Silent hill games are still available to buy on the second market, but are 100 dollars a pop (a guy above mentioned Shattered Memories on PS2 actually goes for $300-$400 a copy).
I feel like another exception is to get the full experience of a game, for example the sims 4. It's not that good gameplay wise so most create sims and lots, but to do that effectively you need packs, but to get packs you need fork out 5 bucks (reasonable) for a few items in a kit to 40 for an likely buggy expansion (less reasonable). The problem is less with the prices for most people, players would happily pay for more expansions if they were worth it, but they are almost always buggy, lackluster, and there are like 11 soon 12 expansions ($599.99), 11 game packs ($218.89), 19 stuff packs ($189.81), and 13 kits ($77.87 I can get a full game for the equivalent of about 10 items per pack...). At the amount you would need to spend on the sims 4 you are just burning a hole in your wallet to make the game actually fun with things to actually do.
I remember I first tried Cuphead and also Undertale through the pirated version, and the longer I played it the more sorry I felt for not buying it, so then I bought it,
in a way piracy helps me to know if a game is worth the price
My god cuphead is so good they deserve all the praise in the world. I’m glad you bought it to support the devs.
Yeah a lot more games should come with a demo of sorts, cause otherwise it's hard to tell whether you'd like it.
most of other people don't do that. You don't represent them
@@georgeroni2599 that game made me broke my keyboard.
Same, i really liked Undertale and too bought it. Was def worth it.
Oh also, Mutahar. I heard that those "You wouldn't download a car" bumpers that they put on DVDs was used without permission. Supposedly it was meant for airing at a film festival *only*, but then the creators found that it had been reproduced an ungodly amount of times without authorisation on DVDs around the world.
I still don't understand the "You wouldn't download a car" phrase
Wtf? If there's big enough 3d printer, people would've already download a car.
@@firstnamesurname2482 Fr
@@firstnamesurname2482 but 3D printing is also expensive...? Especially considering how expensive materials that make the car with be expensive and your need a motor too of you want the car to work. With all of that, it’ll probably end up being close to the price of the car.
Assetto Corsa? Downloading a car?
lmao, imagine pirating anti-piracy stickers XD
Lack of ease of access leading to piracy is what Gabe focused on during early days of Steam. When you have shit like SecuROM/DRM making it hard to play, unable to buy it for your region, or other QoL then it leads to piracy.
Obviously some people are cheap or literally can't afford as such it isn't a lost sale but if companies want sales then being consumer friendly is important. GOG makes money despite lack of DRM last I checked.
old ones, yes
new ones, only when not indie
reasoning: I ain't paying 70 bucks for a half-assed, incomplete, ptw, microtransaction-riddled game from an underperforming rich company who's been letting fans down for the past decade. indie game devs are chads though and deserve every cent. I'd pay for the old games if they actually sold them for a change.
In theory, of course.
I just don't play games that I don't want to pay sticker price for.
Where do you pirate it though?
@@jaimeromero7997 Nah man seriously, where do you guys do it? Piratebay is not something I want to do.
AAA bad indie gud amirite fellas
@@prasantpandey4057 igg games
I think it’s fair to say for everyone that it depends on the situation of the said game. Take eShop games on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Some of those games are going away forever, and your only option is to pirate the game, then I think you’re totally justified.
On the other hand, if a game is still widely available such as a game like Metroid Dread, then you should definitely rethink your decision. Without support to the developers, we might not see another entry into the series. Devs gotta pay bills and eat too.
I buy nintendo games, and download them to play on yuzu since I don't have a switch.
then you got games like stellaris. 200 bucks for the base game and all the dlc. Just to get the full experience and they EXPECT you to pay for that.
My personal rule with piracy:
If I can buy a brand new copy, I won’t pirate. If it’s something that can only be played through used hardware, time for downloading…
I want to add
If the damn game isn't available anywhere
Example would be Nocturne, an old PC game.
And also Chris Jerichos' game
I'd be more than happy to throw money at it, but apparently they don't want it, soooooo, to the high seas we go.
@@firstnamesurname2482 Same for console games. I'd love to grab a physical copy if some dude on Ebay wasn't charging me a kidney
@@ThisIsNotMyUsername I got a jailbroken ps3, and I Pirate so many Exclusive games that you can't get anymore on the PS4 and PS5. So basically I never buy any PS3 games or dlc, but when I play PS4 and PS5 I pay for it
@@firstnamesurname2482 Fam I did not know about Nocturne that game looks cool asl
I refuse to pay full price for black ops 1 and then £45 for 4 dlc zombie maps
Piracy wouldn't be such a hot topic if gaming companies didn't find new and innovative ways to piss of the consumer with their BS and apply "anti-piracy" mechanics that more often than not ends up hurting the people who bought the game fairly.
Assassin's Creed 2 is a great example where the official, bought PC version was riddled with problems thanks to anti-piracy tech while the pirated version had almost no problems whatsoever. It's astounding how Ubisoft could be so unbelievably stupid in this regard.
The problems go away when you stop playing games. I really slowed down playing them in 2002 and pretty much had them totally phased out by 2006. Not playing games at all hurts video game companies WAY more than pirating copies of them.
I didn't stop playing games out of spite or anything though. I've always loved Nintendo's product, but I just found other things that appealed to me more than gaming.
However, if pirating didn’t exist, these measures would not need to be put Into place thus making the game actually playable for ppl who paid for it
@@ThatCanadianGuy emphasize on the word "IF". Piracy will always be a thing no matter what. while i don't accept the acts of pirating as a whole, considering the state that we live in with prices going up and the economy is all over the place, you would think that people wouldn't wanna try to pirate something ?
especially if they come from a poor background and they live in a country where the cost of living is rough ? think again, this is reality.
@@FIQ2256 Ppl could just not play the game?
Moral or not moral, I could care less. Nintendo fleeced my ass in the 80s charging $50 for games back in 1989, thats $130 by todays standards. I paid my dues. The amount of money I saved pirating for 20 years has saved me literally thousands of dollars that I used to pay off my House. Morals don't pay the bills. And the companies are making enough money without my ass.
This, exactly. The companies nowadays succeed and fail regardless of one's personal actions. The only people you should give your money to are indie devs.
Don't forget how the likes of Activision don't pay taxes yet still get tax breaks, so your still paying for their games whether you want to or not!
@@scottthewaterwarrior Or don't buy their games??
Tbh I pirate games cuz I'm broke, If I get the money in the future I just get it because it's less complicated than going out of my way to buy the games so I'm not really concerned for how much money a company makes.
This is the answer here. When you grandstand and say "I don't pirate games because it's immoral," that's just money going out of your pocket and into the pockets of companies that 1. Don't give a shit about you and 2. Will make that money anyways. I don't agree with pirating indie games because usually indie studios don't have the brand recognition that AAA studios have, but pirating from AAA studios is always okay because they have that brand recognition and they're always going to have a target audience that will buy their games and microtransactions no matter what. I mean, games like Fortnite and Genshin Impact are literally free to play because the companies behind them know that they have a loyal audience of whales that will pay their bills.
I don't judge anyone who uses pirated games, I know how it is to not have money for every game you want and in most cases it's not like the companies are losing money. Also modern digital goods regulations are a joke, many companies can take away your things if they wanted to, so it's really ok to make a copy of the game you bought.
The more you pirate the better. Companys dont deserve money this days, as they just make showelware. There are only a few good ones that are worth supporting.
@@hhjhj393 No, they're not losing money. All that f2p liveservice microtransaction crap is there to make MORE money.
@@Bullminator If you don't like companies don't play the damn game, period, piracy could bring more users to that company, durk
It feels so weird that games from the 90s would be preserved way better than the games in 2020's in 100 years.
I do it because i do not wanna pay for a game that can't even run on the gaming laptop anyway.
Yes it is morally ok. Off to the pirate bay lol. And yes I would download a space ship
Despite what Nintendo and their fanboy consumers and UA-camrs may say, it is their lack of care on game preservation and their refusal to either rerelease it on modern platforms, and of they do, treat it right and not monetize it at a outrageous price tag with none of the effort that went into the original software that causes people to emulated them.
Why pay $60 for a shitty Mario Galaxy port, _in a collection that is now unavailable and limits your control settings,_ when you can just emulate them at the highest resolution your computer allows, with the controller _you_ want, _with custom mods._
It's literally a no brainer.
Yeah Nintendo is the worst. I’ll purchase whatever’s on the current console but anything older than switch is getting emulated. Nintendo picking and choosing what I get to play and resetting the catalogue every new generation makes me sick. Fans are the only ones who truly care about preserving it
Started pirating just because of how horrible 3d all stars was, now I got a wii u loaded with games
Isn't Nintendo now an evil company not comparing to EA?
Or...
You could've bought the title during the window instead of being a cheap skate, entitled gamer who's owed nothing.
@@MochaFatTart wait did they make all stars bad? that was my third favorite game! how dare they!
In my opinion, if it is no longer being sold, then yes. Though if it becomes available and you did not pay for it previously, you're kind of obligated to buy it even though you probably wont.
Also if its a cesspit of a company like Activision or Ubisoft then feel free to pirate, in fact take pride that your money is not ending up in those evil executives pockets!
can't forget nintendo
Nah, I wouldn't even want to waste bandwidth on pirating anything from Ubisoft, EA, or Activision lol
@Rick May SV (Soldier Voice) Not really, at least for the companies that actually treat their developers well.
@@lorebanjo8516 At least Nintendo doesn't actively abuse their employees.
@@EnigmaticGentleman Time for them to quit then.
"I just don't care anymore" I definitely agree. If the game I want to play is an independent game project made by a minimum wage working college craduate then I'd probably not pirate it but that's it
Wish people were honest and knew they stole instead of hiding back and claiming it ain't stealing bc people do this and god it is annoying
@@idkwhy77 then stay annoyed
It’s fine to say you don’t care.
Of course that doesn’t address the question of whether piracy is ethical.
You’re saying there are circumstances where you’d feel bad pirating right? You game an extreme example.
Lots of great indie games are made by small dev teams that take a share of the profits.
They don’t earn a lot of money unless the game does well.
I care very much about game preservation and this topic in general, Mutahar! I grew up on nes/snes/n64/psx games for the most part and the lack of care for game classics genuinely makes me sad. I really appreciate you making a video about this and I whole heartedly agree with everything you've said in this video and others where you expressed your feelings on this matter.
Yes. With the amount of micro transactions they put in there it's obnoxious
Especially with the old games from like 10-15 years ago that are still like 45 -30 dollars that barley have player bases
I would even say it’s morally correct in certain cases
I love how Muta has to make a video on this topic like every 6 months.
I'd say pirating from huge multimillionaire studios, especially the greedy ones like EA, is completely ok.
Where I draw the line is pirating from small devs who put passion and effort into their projects. I think we should support them.
Edit: to any dumbass who is stretching and trying to point out 'loopholes' in this take, like the guy in the replies, use common sense and understand that I meant support good people who don't scam or use NFTs or groom children. Jesus.
Absolutely! However there are some exceptions to this. Take Touhou Project for example. The creator has pretty much lost the original versions of like the first 9 games in the series, so it's basically impossible to obtain them without pirating them or getting the rare physical copies still in existence.
@@maskedmenreiki Yeah that's fine, emulating/pirating lost games and mega old games which aren't available in the market anymore is totally just a normal thing to do
@@GameJunkyard11 Your argument is really wrong, paying a 15$ for indie games that will most likely just take the money and never update the game again is bullshit. Id rather spend 40$ on EA game that is greedy but is consistent in updating and making the game fun than waste my money on a game that is gonna be dead in a month
@@raptourn9578 I'm talking about actually dedicated developers, like New Blood, who care about their work. And how does it matter if the game isn't gonna get a jaw dropping update, if it's already very fun, great to play and polished?
I can literally make an indie dev team and do extremely scummy shit and you’d still suck me off. I can groom children with no consequences or be extremely rude and nasty to my employees. I would have immunity because of you people. But shame on a AAA dev for having MTX in a free to play game or having one bug that doesn’t completely break the game.
Game companies see video games as a product to sell, gamers see it as an experience to enjoy. I think we will get proper game preservation once companies realize this.
IF they realize it.
They’ll never realize it
They realized it and continue to screw you over anyway.
IF they actually realize it and stop chasing the smartphone zombies dwelling in the smartphone app stores (Diablo Immortal).
Pirating from companies trying to turn everything into a stupid cloud streaming service is 1000 percent okay
Their talking about doing this with cars. Your car will become an entire micro transaction. If you need the heater well expect to pay a subscription fee.
no your wrong,it is 1000000000000000 percent okay
@@russellmania5349 pretty sure that story about BMW's heated seats was false but they did do it with their car play so same-same.
To me? Always. Growing up I couldn't bother my mom with buying me a game so I always pirated. And I do it still. Its completely unfair for argentina to get a game for 50 cents b ecause their minimal wage is super small but my country gets the full 70 euro when in 2019 we had lower minimal wage than Argentina. When I asked Steam they said that legally they cant charge a different price for different countries in the European Union. I s aid fuck this shit its free then. Cause a minimal wage after taxes would be like 650bgn and a 70usd game turns into a 70 euro game which turns into 140bgn. That's more than 1/5th of the minimum wage. It just makes 0 sense. So Right now I may or may not have around 10 pirated copies of popular games on my PC that allegedly amount to like 400usd saved from buying. I make great effort to buy indie games especially if they are co-op. I had pirated Terraria before but the game is so cheap and good that I had to buy it even made a friend buy it too.
I've always thought of it this way: We agree on a reasonable price. That's meeting in the middle. If you wanna pick an extreme with what you're wanting to charge, then I can adopt an extreme of my own and try to get it for free. It's better for all of us to negotiate a fair price, but extreme options are always on the table.
I'm not going to bother trying to pick this argument apart, which is flimsy by the way considering the industry, but all I'll say is to give your money to developers that you actually trust.
That's the nicest way to put a threat I've heard in a long time.
@@andersjjensen I'm a POS, I'm well aware, but this comment has 2 responses in dissent, but 70 something likes, what does say about the society we are living in?
@@ghost-facedhindu4275 Oh, my comment wasn't in dissent. It was a compliment. Many people think taking a strong stance and presenting it in a hostile fashion goes hand in hand, to which I beg to differ. I myself prefer the "Speak softly, but carry a big stick" approach too. We can talk reason and be reasonable all day. But just know that if reason ends... my version of unreason may be very undesirable :P
I'm all for supporting the advancement of the arts. I buy albums from my favourite artists despite having spotify. But I only stopped pirating music BECAUSE spotify provided me with a solution that was reasonably priced for the convenience it provides. Paying that amount monthly for not having to buy CDs, rip to MP3 and copy to all relevant devices is simply a no-brainer. And it even won out over just downloading what I didn't feel like buying and mucking about with that on several devices.
With games I buy the physical medium. And then I proceed to download the pirated version with the No-Activation and No-CD patches because I've got no time for their clown show. And if the game sucks I can sell it with the shrink wrap intact...
Movies are a bit different. I have Netflix and Blockbuster. If I can't get it from either of those... well, stop your "Prime exclusive" and "Disney exclusive" horse manure... because I know where the pirates anchor their ships... And I'm NOT budging on it. I'll do pay-per-view for prime content. But I will NOT have several movie streaming services. If you want my money, release it on the services I use. End of freaking story.
TL;DR: No, you're not a POS. And the likes show it. There's nothing wrong with stating boundaries. And there's nothing wrong with standing your ground when someone tries to push those boundaries.
The discs are not software keys, that's dumb. However, they have an early build with no patches, bug fixes, DLC etc. I know with Cyberpunk 2077, the version on the disc is from MONTHS before the game actually launched. So while physical discs are certainly better for game preservation they still don't preserve the final versions of many games unfortunately.
My problem with discs is that they still require you to download shit on to my hard drive. Kinda defeats the purpose of having that data on disk
@@grovescharles92 there's network for most games does not matter if you have disk or not unless your own xbox 360 and PS3 you can install games from the disk but sometimes playing from the disk is better depends on the game if you play black ops 1 from a disk on a xbox 360 not connected to the Internet when drinking perks its the WAW animation small feature but it was only updated when Mule kick got added also no mule kick unless you update the game.
@@grovescharles92 i think that has something to do with speed. if its on your harddrive, the cpu can instantly process files and ram can pick up data to be ready whenever its needed. if you take it from a disk, you are bound to the speed of the laser and the RPM and that can be slower than the game needs it to be.
you can actually test it out yourself by installing a modern game on an old USB 2.0 stick and play it from there.
the x1 speed of a blue ray btw. is 4.5 MB/s. even if you have it with x20 speed (which i think is not a thing yet for blue-ray), it would still be only 90MB/s. a shitty HDD has over 200MB/s, SATA SSD over 400MB/s and NVME SSD can crack over 3000MB/s. games like age of empires 2 already profit from using SATA SSD over HDD.
I would literally download everything, whatever it is I desire in that moment: Just download it. Pay for it? Hm yeah, if it's worth it: Sure. Pirate a game that I cannot get my hands on any other way? Yes.
Youre absolutely right, its a losing fight. We can just sit back and watch everyone suffer the consequences 5 or 10 years later when they will basically have no way to play any older games and then switching to piracy. If the companies dont give a shit now, the probably wont give a shit later
The problem is pirating new games, old are fine imo.
i live in a 3rd world country and i would never have fallen in love with curtain games if i didn't pirate them. i fell in love the souls series and have bought both Elden ring and ds3 and plan to buy the rest in the future, but not only with games even software, i animate and i would never be able to afford the software back then.
For software I strongly recommend looking into free and open source alternatives, not only are they free of charge but they're incredibly easy to get your hands on and can often be better than the pirated proprietary software.
@@InfernalMonsoon definitely and I have done that
I don’t think anyone besides businesses has bought Adobe products legally
@@MarxistMogger Businesses and schools. I don't have to pirate my Adobe apps because my school pays for them lol
@@InfernalMonsoon This. It's stupid to pay for Photoshop monthly when GIMP is RIGHT FUCKING THERE.
For Preservation Sake: Yes, yes it is.
For the sake of Morality: No it is not.
When it comes to piracy, I personally think pirating games from Triple A companies is no big deal since they make millions of dollars regardless. I don't think it is okay to pirate from indie developers though. Only a real asshole would want to steal from someone who's barely got themselves off the ground.
Exactly my thoughts on the matter. Especially if it's one of those hidden gems that never got the appreciation it deserved. Jesus even when I pay for games like that it breaks my heart.
it is a weird question. I would not buy the games i pirate to begin with, is it wrong? I do not know the answer and don't think it can be answered. I am not taking anything away from the dev, and I would not play the game otherwise.
@@StrengthScholar0 I only pirate from indies when their game is unavailable to me due to platform they are using.
There are some greedy indies as well though. And with some of them being so hit or miss it's only fair to try out the game sometimes, especially when indies like to supersize the first 2 hours with exposition and what not to stretch the time you don't get to play the game so refunding is impossible.
Ok but look at the prices some of these indie devs ask for....sometimes these indie games made by a few people with barely any content get sold for like 30 bucks and shit... im sorry but thats just not how it works. If youre a small lil indie game you cant ask for that much money because in the end its not worth it. just like how its not worth buying these expensive ass triple A games. Sure,i will buy an indie game for like 10 to 20 bucks, but sweet WAMPA some of these mother fuckers want some hard cash right out the gate. If you take a look at pretty much every successful indie game,its cheap as fuck.
It always bothered me that even online only games could so easily be designed with a singleplayer patch in mind for when the servers are shut down, but no one even thinks about doing it. Take Destiny 1 for an example... Once it shuts down, they could just drop a patch that tweaks raid and strike difficulty and layouts so it's possible alone, or just straight up move raid loot to solo locations. It wouldn't exactly be a million dollar update...
I guess it's to force you to buy Destiny 2 if you wanna keep playing Destiny in general.
it cost more then doing nothing so they won't do it
Games like Wolfenstein 2009, that are literally not available to buy anymore, I think those games, and ONLY those games, should be able to "pirate." And if people say that you can just buy it off ebay or something, it still won't support the devs.
The other thing that bugs me as a Trophy Hunter, is many of these games, namely AC Liberation, have trophies tied to online services. With the servers gone, you can't really 100% the games and get the platinum trophy.
All you can really do now is just play the ps4 version. It has no online trophies and you'll be able to platinum them.
@@kalmah456 this is good to know.
Yuuuupp, knowing I'll never platinum the 2013 Tomb Raider because of the damn online trophies sucks. Bloody adore that game.
@@Erin1313 I am surprised they haven't rerelease that game with the online trophies/achievements chopped out.
The thing inspiring big game devs like Nintendo to keep making lackluster games is the fact that people will still buy them no matter what, they're peak consumerism. Piracy, in that sense, is most definitely okay.
For sure, Nintendo would make plenty of money offering this more widely.
But they are at least warming up too the idea, they have a few Gamecube, N64 games on the switch & already got a few NES, SNES games as well that supports online multiplayer, its cool too see them take it that far.
Like the entire SNES & NES library as a whole is less then 3 gb & that's ALL of them so it's just a matter of effort & time too get as many of them on there as possible that are famous or that may not be easy too find physically while still loved by the fans.
The switch has like what 32 - 64 gb of built in storage ?
Sure there is some licensing needed too like somewhat greedy song label companies that wants money for 15 - 20 year old songs still too exist digitally in a game last published like 2004 physically for the Gamecube id imagine.
Even if the artist is dead or isn't even signed with the company these days but still owns the rights too those particular songs.
But I'm fairly certain they'd still make it out like a thief for people wanting too play something like the Gamecube version of 007 Nightfire or like Tony Hawks Proskater 3 on a Nintendo switch if they get the right deal too publish the games for a good price.
Ofc it's not going too be comparable too a crt tv & original console but that's due too technology changing in screens & emulation in between also adding a very small delay of like 3 - 10 ms but it's a damn good experience still being able too emulate an older console & game.
It's a service problem, not a price problem usually, other then for you know kids & teens with no budget anyway.
But a company can't count them as customers in the first place imo.
Valve showed this almost 16 - 18 years ago by now as long as the game gets a patch or fix too still run on a newer operating system, people will buy it as long as it's available in one form or the other.
@@Mini-z1994 it's a subscription service tho, thats the worst part. They won't even give you the option of owning these 35-25 year old games. You gotta rent them from daddy nintendo and give them back if you dont keep paying them. And this is on top of an already bad online service.
@@Mini-z1994 the switch has absolutely shit emulation, Nintendo didn't care and invested very little. They also only ever have a few titles and they charge alot for them. Why can the community make better emulators that work good with basically every game but Nintendo cant. Watch some videos about it on the modern vintage gamers channel.
If you're talking about Nintendo's newer games (Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, etc.) then I don't see how you could call those lackluster. If you mean lackluster treatment of old titles and horrible anti-consumer business practices though, I concur.
@@mikeexits switch launch titles were kind of just before the shitty games rolled in, which in itself says alot that nintendo hasn't come that far. Obviously not the only good titles on the Switch but when I look at stuff like €60 upscales and ports, unfinished games, pokémon, and the state of mario sports games, it's hard to focus on those. In the end those are both 5-year old games, that's nearly the gap between mario 64 and sunshine.
It's always morally correct to Pirate EA Games
yes
based
$500 "dlc" paywall beyond morally correct to pirate ea games
Based pirate
Based
I've always had the mindset that if some content is not available, let's say old retro games, downloading a copy off the internet is not an issue. I don't have a Nintendo 64, GameCube or similar consoles, so emulation is the only way for me to enjoy Super Mario 64, Pikmin, Mario Sunshine and so on. Nintendo would not get my money if I bought a console and games off eBay anyways.
Also just a concern of e-waste, emulation allows me to have most of the games I hold dear on a single device.
Adobe: yes
Ubi(now): yes
Indie devs: no
As someone who runs Mario Kart Wii on my android through Dolphin and regularly plays old games that are basically impossible to find these days (without dropping a full grand for a 30 year old console), this topic means a lot to me. I'm tired of AAA games dicking us over because "mUH tHe gAMe iS tOo OlD"
Yes it is, I cannot count how many times I have spent $60 on a brand new AAA game that was a let down or was a flat out marketing lie. I will always pay full price for indie games that deserve it. But I pirate everything else.
Back in the 80's, we spent our allowance money on crummy games like Nightmare on Elm Street, and we had to live with it. We didn't cry like babies after a bad purchase and whine about why it's right to steal. Back then you got like 4 video games a year, and those were not bad times, trust me.
@@theboombodypeople be acting like games are as important as water or food
Yes, it's morally fine, especially with AAA titles. You can't guarantee that they're gonna be good, and money is very thin, so the ability to have an extended try before you buy is invaluable for putting your money into the right places.
They should bring back demos. Well either way, it is still stealing. If they advertise it to you , you check it out and decide. If not you watch videos on others playing it! Watch reviews, that's why they exist... There is no need to pirate it to "try it out." At that point, you may as well just play the damn thing to the end, no? Because you have already stolen it
@@idkwhy77 I'm not going to shed a tear for the triple a devs that keep shitting up games, rushing them out the door, and demanding a decent portion of my paycheck for the privilege to wait a year for the game to be in a playable state. And you can't trust demos either. A company can heavily control what you get to play so it looks like gold, only for you to buy it and it ending up being utterly broken outside the vertical slice.
And don't get me started on trying to return games. So often now, games are being released as digital downloads than physical copies, which makes it 1000% harder to get your money back as money, and not platform scrip you can trade for more low quality games.
As to your other point: why not just play it all they want through since you stole it?
You are right that I could do that -- but if I'm enjoying the game enough to consider finishing a playthrough, then what's wrong with me buying a real copy to support a project that gave enough of a shit to be playable and fun? It shows that the game is worth at least my time and meager money, and I get future updates and potential modding tools after the fact. Plus, I generally recommend the games I buy to friends, which means more potential sales to offset myself downloading a game *once* for free.
Short answer: yes
Long answer: if it's a small indie company you pirating from and not planning on paying for the game at a later moment, no, otherwise, yes.
Just my opinion
I always get physical copies of games because you can always dump it and have the digital copy as well. You get the best of both worlds.
I'd say: when the game is not available anymore, yes. I remember being excited because I could play WWE Day of Reckoning 2 in an emulator because I have so many good memories of it and the only copy I could get was from a friend (which said copy was sadly scratched to a point of no return). So yeah, if the game is unavailable in any current legal way I usually just emulate it.
if buying ist owning, piracy is not theft.
Piracy is the only way for the consumer to protest predatory behavior by the tech industry
Only way?
@@KingPingviini yes, the only way.
Imagine you could boycott Starbucks but still drink an exact copy of their coffee
While Triple A Gaming remains in the state it's in, it's always ethical to pirate. Same applies for media as long as there are 50 competing streaming services trying to rip you off more than Cable ever did.
Depends. If it's something new then no. If it's an old game that hasn't been ported, then yes
It depends. If it's a game no longer available for purchase, it should be legal/moral.
Mortal Kombat 2011 was removed on steam, the only way to play now is via piracy.
its moral either way, folk don't have money for every game over there.
I used to be a huge pírate when I was younger, pírated lots of books and games that I couldn't afford. That didn't affect any of those game/book sales at all. All the specialized education I got from said books allowed me to get very high paying jobs, and now I've got one of the top 0.8% biggest Steam libraries in the world. Piracy in some sense can be like a "pay it forward" type of thing.
I live in a "third-world country" and access for games was not easy when I was a kid, so piracy was a saviour cuz I played a LOT of games, I have to say thanks to that now that I can afford most of the games that I play I've been hunting down all of those games that I enjoyed when I was kid, specially games from PS1, if it weren't for that I would've never known the existence of all these wonderful games. So morally yes to piracy, even though I don't do it myself nowadays.
I remember hearing somewhere that tabletop RPGs had to be bootleg printed in "3rd world countries." Funny how we live in a world that uses PDFs as a "written" medium.
i think we have a moral obligation to consume art. If piracy is your only means to access that art then no further justification is needed
@@ince55ant To a certain point, the ones hurting are the devs and companies who put money and time in these games, back then it was different nowadays it more than morally Ok to do piracy because companies are predatory.
Stray became an example of why piracy is not ok, that's the case of why would you do that?
Yeah I hate how people say video games are a luxury my guy it's a form of entertainment how is a depressied teen in a depressing county supposed to have fun
I used pirating to beta test in the past.
If it was good and i liked it, i bought it. I got over 50% of paid games this way.
Steam, for example.
2 hours often is not enough to test the game and understand it's bugs, flaws and beauty of it.
I don't do it anymore as i don't support piracy (maybe unless it's an abandonware like NFS MW 2005 and others) and it's become very unsafe due to viruses becoming more stealthy and dangerous in general.
But now I also barely get any games too because of that.
Need for speed most wanted 2005 is such a great game with a banger soundtrack imo.
@@JuanM254 it's also a great drifting simulator, and it's one of the many reasons why i love it.
I’ll never forget: it was 2012.
I was a kid, and my cousin threw a party for his birthday. One of his friends brought an Xbox 360, with a game I never thought existed: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World The Video Game. I had the time of my life playing that game and I wanted to purchase it myself. Xbox Arcade was the exclusive platform at the time, and I remember going out of my way to secure a Microsoft card for the purchase. A few months after I bought it, they delisted it. What was the reason? I don’t really know, but rumor has it, the license for the film split up the rights.
Even though the game has been rereleased in recent months, there was a chance that game would be lost forever, never existing again. I don’t look forward to an all digital future…
That’s why we need to promote the CD revival and convince people to unsubscribe from Spotify en masse
Physical copies has always been the way to own stuff, but you can't cut costs without going digital so in a financial way, it's completely unfeasible to keep those Physical copies, this is why piracy exists the way it does.
@@wolfetteplays8894 CDs are useless, too big to carry around and too annoying to deal with. Mp3 players and cassete players are cool though