You want a candidate for diamond devs ? WUBE Software comes to mind. One of the cleanest early access campaigns i´ve ever seen. Extensive weekly updates, more stable test versions than most AAA released games and of course transparent price policy.
The EU tried to hide that study. Julia Reda had to sue the EU with the freedom of information act - where the EU Did not react at first, but she got handed the study via a backchannel.
I am a game developer as well with 2 games released on Steam, I am completely fine with people pirating my games. As long as people enjoy them, that is all that matters.
@@SidAlpha He is correct, and the developer is correct. You are living in USA with so much privilege that an average Turk would commit felonies for one tenth of what you had. When my book is completed, I will put it on pirated sites myself. It is better for people to access it for free than not at all. Those with money can support me.
hakita has always been incredibly based in regards to stuff like this. Edit* Also if buying a game isn't ownership, piracy isn't theft. People may make the comparison to movies and CDs, but the thing is the copyright holder cant go back and retroactively decide you aren't allowed to watch/listen to that content anymore.
Yep totally agree. Look what ubisoft did with the crew and even removed the game from peoples libraries, which is a prime example. Since they don't want us owning our games.
Try stealing the modem my Internet company rents me and see if It's still theft. If buying a game isn't ownership, then piracy isn't theft isn't logical. It's like a bastardization of "modus tollens" flat earthers use. If piracy actually helps the game, then you aren't actually performing civil disobedience, you are still just helping a bad company. The only REAL way to punish these bad companies is to not play the game or talk about them at all. Also, companies use piracy as an excuse to charge other people more. Which just defeats the actual point of what people are trying to accomplish toward ownership and value.
"If we don't own, then piracy isn't theft." ~Sensibility ... Not gonna lie, I'd rather have large files on local storage (without any restrictions) than a subscription service.
Ironically the term has been poisoned since its establishment. What we're witnessing now is product being leased - it's been made not to be owned. Companies turning their software into a service and going sour seems likely the next step. Like the new samsung 24 that you simply don't need because you're just paying extra for stuff you'd never use. I am omitting the quality of the newest iterations of product intentionally but maybe I shouldnt. I me eyes - if you own a functioning copy. You own a copy. It's yours.
"If you like our game please buy it in the future.. ... " When I started using Steam my library was a testament to this mentality. Just about every game in there was a game that I "demo'd" in the past when I was broke. Now a days piracy for me is about maintaining access to games I've paid for that aren't built around the "always online" or "G.a.a.L.S".(Gaming as a Live Service)
Thanks to licensing shenanigans, I hold the opinion that if buying isn't owning, pirating isn't theft. If my access to a game can be revoked at any time for any reason, then I may still buy the game, but I'll keep a pirated copy as a backup just in case.
@@devilslayersbane That's not what I mean. You can pay full price and even have the game on disc and ubisoft can still snatch the ability for you to play the game even in offline mode.
Let me lend my perspective as someone from a third-world country. I was born in the 1980s to a relatively wealthy family. Growing up, my parents bought me a NES. This console was expensive, as were the game cartridges. There was only one store in the city that sold them. In my class, there was only one other friend who owned the system. As you can see, only a fraction of children enjoyed gaming back then. By the time Sony released the original PlayStation, piracy had become widespread. Almost every kid had the system, and the games were dirt cheap-pirated games, of course, as there were no official distribution channels here. It was the golden age of gaming, although most kids were playing Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution Soccer) and FIFA. My friends and I, however, enjoyed JRPGs. Playing these games is how I actually learned English. When I got my first PC, I naturally played games on it too. Again, there were no official distribution channels here, so all games were pirated. Each game was cheap, costing around 50 cents when converted to USD. I found this normal. Then Steam happened. This was basically my first opportunity to purchase games legitimately. And I did, thank God for Steam's regional pricing. For instance, Ultrakill costs 12 USD in my country. Now I buy all my games through Steam. Do I still engage in piracy? The short answer is yes. Why? Because games are relatively expensive here, even with Steam's regional pricing. Any AAA game costs more than what a minimum-wage worker would make in a month. So, if a game is out of my budget, I pirate it. However, if I like the game, I put it on my Steam wishlist and buy it later during discounts. Even if a game isn't expensive, if there's no demo available, I usually pirate it to try it out. If I don't like it, I uninstall the pirated game and move on. If I like it, I buy the game or wishlist it. So, this is my opinion on pirating games: it doesn't hurt sales. People who can afford the game and want it will buy it. Those who pirate the game probably can't afford it anyway.
don't forget the 3rd reason : Game publisher refuses to sell/distribute the game in your region. Now how is a pireted copy = a lost sale in that region? People WANT to buy the game, people are WILLING to pay for the game, but... the archaic, depricated practice of regionlocks, licensing, georestrictions in a globalized economy really needs to be cancelled.
My opinion differs.... I think piracy does hurt sales. But i think the numbers that publishers and game devs seem to quote and hang onto is vastly overblown. Dont get me wrong. Piracy was a major issue many many years ago but most of it went away when distribution platforms like steam gained prominence and so many millions of games were made available for everyone and people were able to pick up cheap games in sales (on steam!) that take place quite a few times in one year. However, you do get those who cant afford to buy the game so pirate it - that is a fair and honest point but I think the total number is vastly overblown. I wouldnt say that game piracy completely died. Id say it went into more of a dormant state. Then publishers started coming out with games that were half finished and not ready for launch, loot boxes, microtransactions, silly games as 'live services', raising prices of games even higher while quality of games went into the gutter, All the Anti-consumer 'buying isnt owning' attitude and behaviour from the big publishers. Poor writing, forced DEI and destruction of much loved franchises lead to the rebirth of piracy. Piracy is an issue but the developers/publishers have done more damage to themselves with their own attitudes and anti-consumer behaviours than piracy itself. Not that many games are even worth pirating compared to the days when pirating was rife among the gaming community. It only takes a few hours or days to crack most new titles that contain securom or other such anti-piracy protection programs.
@@Rose.Of.Hizaki The point of why the EU study was supressed was because it was showing that, at least for games, piracy improved sales. Something else to keep in mind in relation to piracy, a lot of the DRM in the games make the games slower, because they are constantly checking to make sure its a real version. When pirates crack them, the end product is a better one than one can pay for.
Finally someone who mentioned the study by the EU. So many times i had to write comments to others about it but never anyone talked about when the topic came up. Neither in comment nor in video form.
I pirated a game I owned. Fallout 3. Why? Because at the time, the DRM literally didn't allow me to play the game I had legally purchased. The only way to play was to pirate what I owned.
that happened to me with One piece pirate warriors 3. My "demo" version was so much fun, so I decided to buy a version off steam. I scrubbed my computer of the ld copy and downloaded the legit. Suddenly the game lagged terribly and cutscenes were all black screens. It was the drm breaking everything.
I remember that ZUN, the dev of the Touhou series, came out a long time ago to explain that he was okay with piracy because back then the export market of goods from Japan was only really starting and getting your hands on a legitimate, translated copy of a game from Japan was extremely expensive and hard to do. The Touhou games were especially notorious for this, with the only place I've ever seen them sold was a single booth at a convention. And if you tried to debate with the hard core fans who went out of their way to gain the game legitimately, they would find out to a T which corner of the internet you existed on and harassed you (This was before social media became popular and all we had were chat rooms and forums). If it hadn't been for piracy, I'd have never known the joys of ZUN's music and games, nor would I have been able to tell people about it.
Affordability isn't the issue. it's difficulty of Getting the product and the fact that It can be removed at anytime or become unusable. Piracy solves Both of these issues, as long as someone is able to supply it will always be available. Although the second one is harder depending on the type of product it is. Anime and Manga is some of the Most pirated content in the world and its Not because of price. It's because its mostly just Not sold anywhere outside of Japan. But people Want it, so if they cant buy it, they will take it.
For all their flaws, VALVE has said sales are always when devs make the most sales and many devs have said they make more money during sales than any other time. More affordable = more sales. But ask yourself, if you made a game, how much would you charge for it and why?
Bought the game the moment I saw that tweet. Did the same with Darkwood years ago. Both are games I wouldn't buy usually, but man, I need to support this attitude. Ended up LOVING Darkwood, excited to try Ultrakill when I have some time. Piracy is an accessibility problem.
I've always used a "try before you buy" system where I pirate the game first, and if I feel like it's a genuinely good game from companies that aren't just trying to make shameless microtransaction cash grabs, then I will buy it. But the games industry is by and large a predatory toxic place and I am very careful who I support
My stance has always been: "If you can't get it any other way, download it." This is true of not only video games, but also other forms of media, including the delisted, limited/out-of-stock, and media that - even still, today - receives no official release outside of its country of origin.
The other day, I realized that the movie I wanted to watch wasn't on any of the **FIVE** streaming services I subscribe to. Two of them have had it in the past, but have since removed it. First time in a long time that I looked into how to put a parrot on me shoulderrrrrr. Turns out it's easier than ever. Your move, Disney.
Companies keep claiming piracy ruins them but they keep making more money per year than any of us will ever dream of. And that is to say, the big companies are always the ones crying about piracy. -- Piracy is a gray area because you can never know the intentions of the person, nor the final outcome. Some people pirate, then buy.
This is literally how I decided to buy Hades. I got a copy of it on a jailbroken Switch, tried it out, liked it so much in only a couple runs that I immediately deleted it from my jailbroken Switch and bought it on my main Switch. Haven't looked back since, merely looking forward to the sequel.
Did the same with Kenshi. Browsed the game on Steam, looked intriguing to me. Had no money at the time, so I decided to pirate it. Tried it out, bought the game a week later when I had money, removed the pirated copy off my system and have put 100+ hours into the game on my steam copy. Basically every game I've ever pirated, I've gone on to purchase at some point in the future. With the exception of games I just didn't like. I'm so glad that some companies, like Capcom, do give demos. Never pirated FF16, or thought about doing it, because I played the demo, loved it, and bought it full price.
7:57 Music: This is fine but less compressed wouldnt hurt Movies/TV : This content isnt available in your region --> so you cant even buy it Books: My ebook reader is so more convenient, I dont need a physical boiok and there isnt muchj difference to buy (also potentially as above as IIRC ebook readers do come with walled stores) Games: Fuck I cant afford that / THERE IS NO DEMO VERSION TO SEE IF MY SYSTEM CAN DEAL WITH IT --> Oh hell yes it can and it is fun! Better buy ASAP As a Whise Gabe once said : Piracy is an access problem
Honestly that is a good point, out of the medias listed, games are the only ones which the hardware on your pc drastically affect the performance of the media. Part of the piracy may not be people who are deterred by the price but simply do not want to waste their money on product that their computer can't even run. Steam has a 2hr return policy but that may not be long enough for people who want to test differnt graphic settings or games with overly long tutorial sections and unskippable cutscenes. It's also mostly agreed upon that emulation is perfectly fine if you already own the product and sometimes offer better performance and graphical settings, or even mod support.
Tbh, the one I am most bumbed about is books. Although, I think there is a growing number of authors who are basically putting the books out for free and just getting a paycheck from patreon.
Piracy is mostly economics as in some places the game costs an arm and a leg. Its also a service issue as pointed out by valve. Maybe the game has something that locks it out of your country. Looking at you Sony pushing the PSU requirement which locks out countries that do not have that. There's been some people who lose their EA games due to some BS like using a mod to play sims 4 and Uh oh there goes your ENTIRE LIST of games.
Since doom clone transformed into first person shooter over the year literally the genre definition went from doom clone to fps Edit: not actually saying your wrong their is definitely plenty of differences between the games just pointing out that doom was one of the first big fps games and that depending on what your view point is/ how old you are doom clone is accurate
Sometimes piracy is necessary because it's literally the only way left to use a piece of software or play a game. The product you own could be so old that the activation key won't work because the company either discontinued the product or simply no longer exists. Trying before buying or circumventing a bad company's services may be the common reasons for piracy, but the sake of preservation is and will always be the most legitimate use case.
My current computer can't run some of the gamestore clients because I am not using windows. The only way I can play some games is by piracy. Not to mention the ones whose support is so bad that they won't change accounts with defunct emails to new emails so I cannot access those accounts.
I remember when that study was published and I couldn't help but stop laughing, because it was released when I had to do a research paper for college over the topic.
Our studio has exactly the same policy. A pirated copy isn't a lost sale, it's a potential fan and potential buyer in the future if the game is ethically priced. So that's our mission -- make a great game, price it ethically across all regions, and provide players with demos/information to prevent any misunderstandings about what our games are.
"Theft" implies depriving the owner of their property. Software piracy is a copyright violation, and *usually* just a civil liability issue, unless the scale is massive. Nobody is deprived of property because I copied their computer file without permission. Sure, as compared to me buying a license to do *that exact same action*, they're losing money, but often the alternative to piracy is to not play the game. As a teenager, and well into my 20s, I was both an enthusiastic gamer, and poor. I "stole" piles of games. The alternative was never to buy them. There is no way I could have afforded even a fraction of them. My "theft" enabled me to be involved in gaming on a much larger scale, and as my economy improved, that lead to me buy a lot more games than if I had spent my time knitting sweaters instead. I've since bought the ones I really enjoyed on GoG, but that's entirely besides the point.
Darkwood developers made a similar statement many years ago "3:00" Haha, preempted that one. I was one of the people who pirated the copy they themselves had recommended. I bought that game so fast after I became an adult with a real job. Always support developers who make games you love.
For me, what baffles me is that there are common people defending things such as intrusive always online DRM with every fiber of their being when they have nothing to gain from it and will actively taunt those who have issues with it. To them, there mere idea of voicing discontent is to admit that you are "a filthy pirate" and that as they have had no issue, the problem does not exist.
You can condone video game piracy completely, and still be 100% against theft. If I pirate a game I have taken nothing from nobody. I didn't steal a copy off a shelf, in no way shape or form has someone lost anything but an opportunity. And if I'm kot going to pay for it anyway, it means nothing that I pirated the game. TLDR, piracy is damn near the farthest thing from theft. People that cry about it can get bent.
Piracy is not theft, it's copyright infringement. Theft deprives the victim of something real. "Potential sales" is a fictional simplification, a prediction - not a fact. Copyright infringement is not a good thing, but neither is denying the less fortunate access to culture.
I'd argue it is not copy right infringement either, depending on the situation. Fair use can only be decided by a court, but depending on the situation of the piracy, it is possible the pirated software would be found as fair use. Critique of art is usually considered fair use for example. So if a person pirates, because legit sale was cost prohibitive or denied to them, for a critical analysis; it is quite possible a court would deem it fair use.
I can personally attest that using temporary piracy as a way to demo a product that doesn’t otherwise have a demo available, has led to quite a few purchases for me. Some cases that’s borrowing a friend copy, which is something that no longer exists in most cases, and in some cases it is, outright piracy. With the number of publishers that do not respect their players time and money, and with increasingly fewer games having demos available, I don’t see myself stopping this practice anytime soon.
I'm a "Try before you buy"-er here and I can say with certainty that if a game is good, and I see myself wanting to go back and play it. I always end up buying it. I grew tired of the marketing BS of trailers and such. Gameplay cannot be doctored like a trailer so I often base my purchase on if I enjoyed the "demo"
See, you're discussing Piracy. All I can hear is... Shareware. Just goes to show that perhaps Doom did it right all along! Or at the very least, it does show how important a good demo is to the popularity of said game, maybe.
My team released a game on steam and we feel the same way. People pirate for different reasons, some to try the game, some because they can't afford it and others are just have a drive to own every game they can. Most of these people are not "lost customers" and we don't view the piracy as lost sales. Most of us on the team pirated games when we were younger and now that we make money we buy games. It's how it works and getting bent out of shape about it shows one knows nothing about the facts of the industry. We put no copy protection on the game.
@@retroicdescent Difference being that if I come home to find my yard empty, with no house on it, that actually impacts me. Copying a computer file does not deprive anyone of the original. It's not theft.
There are other questions that need to be asked as well: What happens when a majority of the industry itself doesn't even allow you to own a copy, only a license that can be revoked at any time by the maker of the "purchased product"; What happens then? Is it still wrong? Is it still theft? And who is the real thief?
Reminds me of Australian comedian Randy Feltface whose popularity SOARED outside of Australia after one of his dvd's got pirated and posted on this website. I watched that video, found out who he was and now thoroughly enjoy his comedy style. Definitely agree with Hakita on every word.
I'm glad you brought up the lack of demos... apart from figuring out if you might like the game or not, figuring out how it will run on your PC before purchase is a pretty big thing.
If non indie games were more affordable, didn't have microtransactions shoved everywhere and had demos then piracy would probably be lower lol If buying a game doesn't mean you fully own the copy then pirating it isn't theft
Back on Second Life, my business partner and I usually had a very hard stance on pirated (copybotted) work. We mostly targetted the copybotters, since not much could be done with the pirated copies. That said, I hung around the main store often and sometimes would find people who just can't afford the avatars we sold. I'd often ask them how much they were willing to spend, and manually process the sale in the system, which entitled them to free updates. This was so our legit copies were more out in the wild, and a person who had a good experience will usually talk about it. For whatever $2 or $3 we didn't make, it was made up with other sales. I can't say for certain if that was what my now ex-business partner did, but this was my own practice I followed and it worked well.
I bought it soon after they made their announcement, it was the reason I chose to do so. I mean I was interested in the game but what they did, got me to buy it.
Hakita seems like a genuinely cool dude. His fanbase (and even the small voice cast) is full of sh*tposters but there is also a weirdly wholesome undercurrent to the whole thing. I have some disposable income, but can't properly play ULTRAKILL - I just do not have the reflexes to keep up with anything shooter-esque much less a game that moves as blazingly FAST as UK does. I am enamored with the lore and worldbuilding, though, to such a degree that it's become my newest special interest in spite of my complete lack of skill. My constant talking about it lead a roommate to buy a Steam copy of his own to play on VR through mod support, so I've technically 'done my part', but I'm planning to also purchase a copy of my own down the line, once I have struggled my way through the freely accessible demo version or found that I REALLY need access to the easiest difficulty settings. The demo version has some accessibility options, but it doesn't include the two lowest difficulties (Lenient, and finally Harmless) which I might fare better with as a non-gamer. I'll have to buy the game and see if I can work my way up to at least surviving on Standard! I'll never be able to play it to it's fullest, which I don't mind - I don't know how the wizards that consistently play on Brutal manage that mayhem, but I'll give it all I have and enjoy viewing better players' playthroughs to see the content I'm not skilled enough to reach by myself. That's also something which comes with the added bonus of getting to hear other peoples' thoughts on this game I love, no matter how terrible I am at it, so nobody is really losing! I get to interact at a pace I can actually process, even if some people might always believe that I'm 'cheating myself out of' experiencing the game 'as it's supposed to be played'.
Id say its more a Quake clone, Just with quadruple the speed (like playing against pro people), WITH a PARRY ability, Bulletstorms skillshot system AND secrets and weapon alts
Remember when mcpixel released the dev actually put the full game free on a pirate site. He gave it away free and yet he made a profit on steam. In fact he had a surge of more purchases since he put it on that pirate site, almost as if ppl bought the game after they pirated it.
I thougt there was anogther earlier study by the EU which also got suppressed because they accidentally proved that "westerners pirating anime they can't buy actually helps the anime industry grow" or something?
Ubisoft's statement about you not owning your games from them, has helped pushed Piracy. Because when you start telling people they don't own their games anymore even after they paid for them, then I doubt they're going to feel bad when they pirate your games. This though can a wider effect though and hurt other companies who are not pulling this stuff, and more importantly it will hurt the smaller developers/publishers. All thanks to Ubisoft who created this environment by their terrible actions again.
I agree that if I buy a product I own that product, if game devs take that away or regional block 180 country’s from buying that product, look at helldivers 2 3 months after lunch Sony took the game from those 180 country’s and refused to do refunds I say piracy’s very warranted, like when destiny 2 removed paid for story dlc you had to pay for and never gave it back, I’ve never pirated anything before but if I owned something and the took it away and I wanted it back bad enough I would. Games as a service is them saying oh you only get access for a limited time then we are taking it away, way I see it is is their scamming people, you don’t buy a car just for them to take it away a year or a few months later do you, the old saying goes you screw your customers they screw you.
On the flipside: they tell you, you don't even 'own' the games that you buy. Games can get removed from a platform even if you paid money for it in the first place (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft and The Crew). If buying isn't ownership, then piracy can hardly be considered stealing.
The target audience for UltraKill (although they want as much sales as well of course) are pretty dedicated to these kind of genres, it's not like this current path of DEI that needs a particular audience to like a game beyond the game-play. games like these are game-play, people like to support that even when tried it first by other means.
Hey, an interesting Dirty Devs idea. Dirty Devs: Valve Software's mishandling of Team Fortress 2, DOTA2, and CS2. Valve allows cheaters and bots to run rampant in all three.
Well none of these other companies "stop cheating" either - they just brick your CPU and steal your personal files. BTW: "serverside" anti-cheat is incredibly possible but for some reason nobody wants to do it.
*sea shanties intensify* On that note, the best way to handle piracy is simply to make legitimate access as simple as possible. Every additional layer of security or red tape you add just makes piracy more appealing. We dont own our games anymore after all, so its not stealing
As a guy who is raised by pirated copies of games and movies and animes since i was a wee lad in South East Asia, i'm fine with piracy. If anything this means Hakita has enough confidence for his product to be good, and that's saying something.
I can't talk about games, as I have never done that, but I have "Sailed" for music on YT. Most of the time it was either for ease of access (records not being sold in all countries) or to mainly try new artists. I have a massive collection of CDs from artists I have found on here where I never would have heard of them before including backing many IGG/KFs for more lesser-known bands. Was it wrong to listen to a full album? Yes, but I still supported way more than I gave up on. I can also understand it from an artist's side, such as the outrage from OTEP when the album was on YT before release.
I think the biggest issue is that there's zero proof a pirate would buy a game if he can't pirate it. DRM doesn't convert pirates into paying customers, it just creates a worse product for those who do pay and drives more of them to desire piracy.
Case in point, all the third world countries where a new AAA game cost half their monthly income. If they cant pirate it they will either skip it, wait until the game is 80% off years later when sales dont matter anymore or they will just pay $10 to play it on gamepass. Either solution generates a fraction or no profit for the company
people have been saying for years that if companies would only just compete with pirates instead of trying to destroy them, piracy wouldnt really be a thing anymore. the age of streaming kind of proved that people will allways choose the most convenient option. if a game costs $75-$80 from a company that boasts about record profits while at the same time laying off large portions of their workforce to apease the shareholders and to "make line go up", then its most convenient to buy a second hand key from a shady site and risk it getting taken off you. its either that or pay for a game that is apparently worth a months worth of food shipping. when netflix had EVERYTHING, i didnt need to pirate anything, i had netflix. pirates wouldnt be able to compete with companies. if companies did, piracy wouldnt be an issue.
Got a ton of C64 copies from my brother back in the days. All exchanged in the school yard. Piracy is such a misplaced word, sharing always been a part of gaming.
Wow, I heard about that study a while ago, but thinking about it now it's impressive how accurate it is in my case. I'm from the gaming age that allowed not just one game but several on a floppy disk and sharing those were very prevalent as they weren't available for purchase in any way. But now I can get those games that I had in my gaming youth and/or I've been a long time supporter of a gaming franchise that I first was introduced to by people sharing the first game in that series. Yes, I wasn't in a situation where I could buy games, I bought my first game on my own with money from my birthdays and that was around $40-50 in 1995 or 6 money, if we exchange it to dollars that is. Since then I've accumulated a large library of games, most are physical copies still, and it's a extremely high percentage that was introduced to me through unofficial means at first but now I own them. Granted, some games has never been accessible for purchase for me at all, but they've fuelled my interest in a genre that have resulted in several purchases since then. Games from 30+ years ago are now available again for purchase, some by the original devs, and I've wholeheartedly purchased several at full price the moment I saw them. One example are the game Ports of Call, it was never available anywhere I could get it, but now I've got a license for that and it's current revamped version in 3d and it's the original devs that put the original up on Steam. Now I'll have to check for the games in this video and get myself a license for those I don't have that for yet, just for the stances their devs stand for.
I would help if steams refund policy wasnt so strict. Only the other day they told me , im not supposed to use it to try out games, so its less risky to pirate , since i dont like a lot of games i try. I always pay for a game if the price is reasonable, especially indy ,fostering a agreeable customer base is defo helpful
There was one game dev, they made a game about making video games. They created their own pirated version of the game and released it on all the places that like to host pirated content. Except the pirated version of the game was coded to have random pirate events. The first time it happens, you lost something trivial like 1% of a games sales, then the next time it's 2%, then 4% then 8% etc. Eventually you release a game that has a 100% piracy rate and because you made no money, your company is forced to shut down, ending your progress. I always thought that was a funny way to deal with pirating. If luck was on your side, it was possible to reach the end game but most of the time, you straight up lost.
When I was younger I used to pirate a lot of games. At the time my choice was pirate it and play it, or don't play it. I couldn't afford to buy them at the time. Now that I'm older and much more financially secure, I pretty much exclusively buy the games I want to play. Piracy isn't theft. It's pretty distinct from theft. That's why it's covered by counterfeiting laws rather than larceny laws. If I steal from you, you lose something and I gain it. With Piracy, I'm making an identical copy of something you have, but you still have your original copy.
Wasn't going to buy Ultrakill, not my style of shooter. But I'm going to now. Even if I never play it, this dev deserves the love and support after a take like that.
I bought the 5e DnD player's handbook because I felt like I owed them a sale for enjoying the game that they've benefited from updating and keeping in circulation for all these years. Then they tried to shred the OGL and nickel-and-dime creators depending on the OGL. Now I owe them nothing.
Good to see that you brought up that study on piracy regarding games, movies, etc. It is a perfect example showing that piracy rarely if ever hurts game developers making it. Most people who pirate their games are the type of people who would have never bought it anyway realistically. Meaning no loss in revenue. And your point is true about turning illegal customers into legal paying ones, is good, people tend buy a pirated game if they view that game being good. The thing with piracy is that people equate piracy and stealing to one another. Which is wrong and also not how it works. Stealing is you stealing and removing the original, with piracy what happens is that someone makes an illegimate copy of the original and shares it forward. Stealing would be basically me going into a museum and taking the Mosa Lina off the wall and running. Piracy would be more akin me going into a museum, pulling out a painting stand and canvas and then painting a perfect identical replica of Mona Lisa and then walking out. Stealing the original removes it and then bars others from experiencing it, piracy on the other hand just makes an identical copy, people can still go into the museum to see the original Mona Lisa, I just have my own personal copy on my own wall. Also in the immortal words of Gabe Newell, piracy is a service problem. The reason why many people resort to piracy is because lot of modern games are plagued with shit like DRM and antic-cheats which lot of the time can make the games worse due to making the performance worse. The problem only getting hotter when you introduce shit like DRM or anti-cheat that has a kernel level access to your PC, which is bad because if it is ever compromised as a program it can wreck havoc on your computer by stealing sensitive information and whatever.
Recently because of my tight budget I've been using piracy to try games that release in a very early access state, then as those games update and near a gold release I'll pick it up on Steam or GOG. There are certain types of games this couldn't apply to but I typically play long survival or action adventure games. In the last year I've pirated 3 such games and bought 2 of them, the 3rd is on my wishlist as it's a solo developer I'm giving it time to cook.
I don't think fraudulent sites that buy with stolen credit cards and such would count as grey markets. Unless I'm confusing it, but grey markets in this context generally get their keys from less expensive countries and such. But being grey market, you can't really go "oh yea, definitely not stolen" cuz you don't know for sure.
When I was young and broke I pirated games. As soon as a strat making money I started buying the games and sequels from my favorite games and studios. I would never had played them were it not for piracy. I haven't pirated a game in over 15 years now.
Plus these days even in the incredibly rare chance that a game's actually good and worth the asking price, half the time the publisher still ends up doing something dumb like sticking live-service into it, or malware, or insulting 99.98% of your country's population. To the point that you don't WANT to financially encourage their behavior and pirate out of spite / boycott.
with 1000 games on my backlog I see no reason to pirate a game. But I cannot condemn it because of all the actions of publishers and shady key resellers. The only thing I'd say is: if it is a smaller studio or publisher, please support them when you can.
Back when I couldn't afford many games, I pirated most of what I played. I still regularly bought games and later when I could afford to buy games I would buy them and have bought most games that I thought were good, some of them I bought 3-4 times, some even more. The point is that if I can I will always support the people making anything, but if I feel have the money, or in some cases if I am unsure if I will want to support them I will find other means. That being said, I really haven't pirated anything in quite a long time, most of the time lately if I am unsure or can't afford it, I just do something else.
Speaking about piracy,in early 2000s,it is almost impossible to buy a legitimate game in my country due to its high price and so i was on the 'high sea' for a while while i was still in high school. Once Steam updated their pricing to my region area and now as a salary man,i immediately bought so many games i pirated in the past and nowadays,eventhough most of my purchase went to indie and AA games,i do occasionally 'go to the high seas' to check out the game before i fully purchase it. See how well you can run the game to the end without that 2 hour deadline and most importantly,if the game gets censored,removed or outright brick my system,my 'high seas' copy are still around for me to enjoy it. Piracy is also,funnily enough,the only way for you to preserve a videogame since i see most of publisher nowadays could care less about games they publish and only serve to satisfy their investors annual report.
I personally believe once all contracts for all licensed things in a game is gone the game should be put out for free. At some point in time it belongs to the communities.
He's kind of right. I pirate games to get a feel for them, but at times when I enjoy the game I play and the developers are good at keeping their words and not abandoning a game or making awful choices, I can look back and wishlist the game on Steam and then buy it then or later. However, some games out there are not worth any amount of money, or are a cash grab or a scam depending on how one person may view it and it's why bother giving them anything of value. The sole other reason I pirate games is because the game itself is almost 20 years old, and I no longer have the CD to play it anymore, if it's not on Steam for nothing (under a few bucks) then I ain't forking over good money either. Him bringing up that it may add a sale or 2 to a game when people may not know is kind of right in a sense. Steam may refund you a game at 3 hours, but they may not. Why take a chance assuming a game works after 3 hours and it doesn't and then not being able to refund gets you fucked over when you could pirate said game enjoy it find the bug or whatever after a few hours and then delete the game from your hard drive? No one loses anything and you're not fighting someone for a refund. It's just not black or white. Good video.
See the EU Piracy Study here: cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf
I bought darkwood on steam because they made that torrent and post.
@Natepwnsu for me I got it for free on the epic game store which came out of the companies pocket.
You want a candidate for diamond devs ? WUBE Software comes to mind. One of the cleanest early access campaigns i´ve ever seen. Extensive weekly updates, more stable test versions than most AAA released games and of course transparent price policy.
The EU tried to hide that study. Julia Reda had to sue the EU with the freedom of information act - where the EU Did not react at first, but she got handed the study via a backchannel.
I am a game developer as well with 2 games released on Steam, I am completely fine with people pirating my games.
As long as people enjoy them, that is all that matters.
What to expect from the gigachad developer who had the balls to add buttplug support to his game?
That's... interesting...?
@@SidAlpha He is correct, and the developer is correct. You are living in USA with so much privilege that an average Turk would commit felonies for one tenth of what you had. When my book is completed, I will put it on pirated sites myself. It is better for people to access it for free than not at all. Those with money can support me.
@@SidAlpha Oh my god. I looked it up. He's not lying. There's a PC Gamer article about it.
fuck me that is hilarious the Dane in me cant help but approve and hell yes it is interesting never even knew such a thing existed
@@SidAlpha That........ actually did happen believe it or not. It was in the news
hakita has always been incredibly based in regards to stuff like this. Edit* Also if buying a game isn't ownership, piracy isn't theft. People may make the comparison to movies and CDs, but the thing is the copyright holder cant go back and retroactively decide you aren't allowed to watch/listen to that content anymore.
Or censor it after sale with mandatory patches
Except Warner Bros. did just that. Revoked the licenses of thousands who paid for digital media.
Yep totally agree. Look what ubisoft did with the crew and even removed the game from peoples libraries, which is a prime example. Since they don't want us owning our games.
@@RedneckSith And when people go back and pirate it they have no one to blame but themselves. I mentioned CDs, not digital media, though.
Try stealing the modem my Internet company rents me and see if It's still theft. If buying a game isn't ownership, then piracy isn't theft isn't logical. It's like a bastardization of "modus tollens" flat earthers use. If piracy actually helps the game, then you aren't actually performing civil disobedience, you are still just helping a bad company. The only REAL way to punish these bad companies is to not play the game or talk about them at all. Also, companies use piracy as an excuse to charge other people more. Which just defeats the actual point of what people are trying to accomplish toward ownership and value.
If a publisher reserves the right to revoke ownership at any point, I'll reserve the right to keep it by any means.
"If we don't own, then piracy isn't theft." ~Sensibility
...
Not gonna lie, I'd rather have large files on local storage (without any restrictions) than a subscription service.
i remember hearing a similar version of this quote "If buying isn't owning, Piracy isn't stealing"
Ironically the term has been poisoned since its establishment. What we're witnessing now is product being leased - it's been made not to be owned. Companies turning their software into a service and going sour seems likely the next step. Like the new samsung 24 that you simply don't need because you're just paying extra for stuff you'd never use. I am omitting the quality of the newest iterations of product intentionally but maybe I shouldnt. I me eyes - if you own a functioning copy. You own a copy. It's yours.
@@ACT8113 piracy isn't stealing you mean
same
"If you like our game please buy it in the future.. ... "
When I started using Steam my library was a testament to this mentality. Just about every game in there was a game that I "demo'd" in the past when I was broke. Now a days piracy for me is about maintaining access to games I've paid for that aren't built around the "always online" or "G.a.a.L.S".(Gaming as a Live Service)
Yep same. I use it for trial, then buy the game, and keep the pirate copy as backup in case game goes offline.
Thanks to licensing shenanigans, I hold the opinion that if buying isn't owning, pirating isn't theft. If my access to a game can be revoked at any time for any reason, then I may still buy the game, but I'll keep a pirated copy as a backup just in case.
Pirating a ubisoft game is morally justifiable.
It isn't theft regardless because you're not depriving anyone of their copy.
@@almalone3282 Yeah, but then you have a ubisoft game, which... I mean, it's a game. you can play it. But there's better ways to spend one's time.
@@devilslayersbane That's not what I mean. You can pay full price and even have the game on disc and ubisoft can still snatch the ability for you to play the game even in offline mode.
@@almalone3282 Any online platform or service does this. Piracy is always justified.
Let me lend my perspective as someone from a third-world country.
I was born in the 1980s to a relatively wealthy family. Growing up, my parents bought me a NES. This console was expensive, as were the game cartridges. There was only one store in the city that sold them. In my class, there was only one other friend who owned the system. As you can see, only a fraction of children enjoyed gaming back then.
By the time Sony released the original PlayStation, piracy had become widespread. Almost every kid had the system, and the games were dirt cheap-pirated games, of course, as there were no official distribution channels here. It was the golden age of gaming, although most kids were playing Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution Soccer) and FIFA. My friends and I, however, enjoyed JRPGs. Playing these games is how I actually learned English.
When I got my first PC, I naturally played games on it too. Again, there were no official distribution channels here, so all games were pirated. Each game was cheap, costing around 50 cents when converted to USD. I found this normal.
Then Steam happened. This was basically my first opportunity to purchase games legitimately. And I did, thank God for Steam's regional pricing. For instance, Ultrakill costs 12 USD in my country. Now I buy all my games through Steam.
Do I still engage in piracy? The short answer is yes. Why? Because games are relatively expensive here, even with Steam's regional pricing. Any AAA game costs more than what a minimum-wage worker would make in a month. So, if a game is out of my budget, I pirate it. However, if I like the game, I put it on my Steam wishlist and buy it later during discounts. Even if a game isn't expensive, if there's no demo available, I usually pirate it to try it out. If I don't like it, I uninstall the pirated game and move on. If I like it, I buy the game or wishlist it.
So, this is my opinion on pirating games: it doesn't hurt sales. People who can afford the game and want it will buy it. Those who pirate the game probably can't afford it anyway.
don't forget the 3rd reason :
Game publisher refuses to sell/distribute the game in your region. Now how is a pireted copy = a lost sale in that region? People WANT to buy the game, people are WILLING to pay for the game, but... the archaic, depricated practice of regionlocks, licensing, georestrictions in a globalized economy really needs to be cancelled.
My opinion differs....
I think piracy does hurt sales. But i think the numbers that publishers and game devs seem to quote and hang onto is vastly overblown. Dont get me wrong. Piracy was a major issue many many years ago but most of it went away when distribution platforms like steam gained prominence and so many millions of games were made available for everyone and people were able to pick up cheap games in sales (on steam!) that take place quite a few times in one year.
However, you do get those who cant afford to buy the game so pirate it - that is a fair and honest point but I think the total number is vastly overblown.
I wouldnt say that game piracy completely died. Id say it went into more of a dormant state. Then publishers started coming out with games that were half finished and not ready for launch, loot boxes, microtransactions, silly games as 'live services', raising prices of games even higher while quality of games went into the gutter, All the Anti-consumer 'buying isnt owning' attitude and behaviour from the big publishers. Poor writing, forced DEI and destruction of much loved franchises lead to the rebirth of piracy.
Piracy is an issue but the developers/publishers have done more damage to themselves with their own attitudes and anti-consumer behaviours than piracy itself. Not that many games are even worth pirating compared to the days when pirating was rife among the gaming community.
It only takes a few hours or days to crack most new titles that contain securom or other such anti-piracy protection programs.
@@Rose.Of.Hizaki The point of why the EU study was supressed was because it was showing that, at least for games, piracy improved sales.
Something else to keep in mind in relation to piracy, a lot of the DRM in the games make the games slower, because they are constantly checking to make sure its a real version. When pirates crack them, the end product is a better one than one can pay for.
Finally someone who mentioned the study by the EU. So many times i had to write comments to others about it but never anyone talked about when the topic came up.
Neither in comment nor in video form.
I pirated a game I owned. Fallout 3. Why? Because at the time, the DRM literally didn't allow me to play the game I had legally purchased. The only way to play was to pirate what I owned.
I've done that with a number of games. I am currently running linux, and some of the store apps straight up don't work on it.
@@cp1cupcake at least steam is impruving themself for linux gaming
that happened to me with One piece pirate warriors 3. My "demo" version was so much fun, so I decided to buy a version off steam. I scrubbed my computer of the ld copy and downloaded the legit. Suddenly the game lagged terribly and cutscenes were all black screens. It was the drm breaking everything.
Algorithm food to help Sid alpha's channel
I do remember that Darkwood video, a great game with great devs. This is always an interesting topic to me.
Certain game executives said we should be used to not owning your games. If you cannot own something, then it cannot be stolen.
I remember that ZUN, the dev of the Touhou series, came out a long time ago to explain that he was okay with piracy because back then the export market of goods from Japan was only really starting and getting your hands on a legitimate, translated copy of a game from Japan was extremely expensive and hard to do. The Touhou games were especially notorious for this, with the only place I've ever seen them sold was a single booth at a convention. And if you tried to debate with the hard core fans who went out of their way to gain the game legitimately, they would find out to a T which corner of the internet you existed on and harassed you (This was before social media became popular and all we had were chat rooms and forums). If it hadn't been for piracy, I'd have never known the joys of ZUN's music and games, nor would I have been able to tell people about it.
Dude they let you show up in my feed!
Piracy wouldn't be a problem if video games were AFFORDABLE in the first place >
Or, in case of $ony lately, at least available to more than a third of the world.
Affordability isn't the issue.
it's difficulty of Getting the product and the fact that It can be removed at anytime or become unusable.
Piracy solves Both of these issues, as long as someone is able to supply it will always be available. Although the second one is harder depending on the type of product it is.
Anime and Manga is some of the Most pirated content in the world and its Not because of price. It's because its mostly just Not sold anywhere outside of Japan. But people Want it, so if they cant buy it, they will take it.
For all their flaws, VALVE has said sales are always when devs make the most sales and many devs have said they make more money during sales than any other time. More affordable = more sales. But ask yourself, if you made a game, how much would you charge for it and why?
In addition, the pirates offer a superior experience. No always-on internet required, no rootkit DRM, etc.
Piracy is mostly a service problem
The only reason i pirated games is because i cant afford to pay and too young to have a bank account, if i do have money i'd definitely pay full price
Less crooks in pirating than wholesalers.
There is your commentary on capitalism for today, courtesy of the game industry.
Bought the game the moment I saw that tweet. Did the same with Darkwood years ago.
Both are games I wouldn't buy usually, but man, I need to support this attitude. Ended up LOVING Darkwood, excited to try Ultrakill when I have some time.
Piracy is an accessibility problem.
I've always used a "try before you buy" system where I pirate the game first, and if I feel like it's a genuinely good game from companies that aren't just trying to make shameless microtransaction cash grabs, then I will buy it. But the games industry is by and large a predatory toxic place and I am very careful who I support
My stance has always been:
"If you can't get it any other way, download it."
This is true of not only video games, but also other forms of media, including the delisted, limited/out-of-stock, and media that - even still, today - receives no official release outside of its country of origin.
The other day, I realized that the movie I wanted to watch wasn't on any of the **FIVE** streaming services I subscribe to. Two of them have had it in the past, but have since removed it.
First time in a long time that I looked into how to put a parrot on me shoulderrrrrr. Turns out it's easier than ever. Your move, Disney.
Companies keep claiming piracy ruins them but they keep making more money per year than any of us will ever dream of. And that is to say, the big companies are always the ones crying about piracy. -- Piracy is a gray area because you can never know the intentions of the person, nor the final outcome. Some people pirate, then buy.
This is literally how I decided to buy Hades. I got a copy of it on a jailbroken Switch, tried it out, liked it so much in only a couple runs that I immediately deleted it from my jailbroken Switch and bought it on my main Switch. Haven't looked back since, merely looking forward to the sequel.
Did the same with Kenshi. Browsed the game on Steam, looked intriguing to me. Had no money at the time, so I decided to pirate it. Tried it out, bought the game a week later when I had money, removed the pirated copy off my system and have put 100+ hours into the game on my steam copy. Basically every game I've ever pirated, I've gone on to purchase at some point in the future. With the exception of games I just didn't like. I'm so glad that some companies, like Capcom, do give demos. Never pirated FF16, or thought about doing it, because I played the demo, loved it, and bought it full price.
7:57
Music: This is fine but less compressed wouldnt hurt
Movies/TV : This content isnt available in your region --> so you cant even buy it
Books: My ebook reader is so more convenient, I dont need a physical boiok and there isnt muchj difference to buy (also potentially as above as IIRC ebook readers do come with walled stores)
Games: Fuck I cant afford that / THERE IS NO DEMO VERSION TO SEE IF MY SYSTEM CAN DEAL WITH IT --> Oh hell yes it can and it is fun! Better buy ASAP
As a Whise Gabe once said : Piracy is an access problem
Honestly that is a good point, out of the medias listed, games are the only ones which the hardware on your pc drastically affect the performance of the media. Part of the piracy may not be people who are deterred by the price but simply do not want to waste their money on product that their computer can't even run. Steam has a 2hr return policy but that may not be long enough for people who want to test differnt graphic settings or games with overly long tutorial sections and unskippable cutscenes. It's also mostly agreed upon that emulation is perfectly fine if you already own the product and sometimes offer better performance and graphical settings, or even mod support.
In the name of the VALVe, the Steam and the holy GabeN. Amen
Tbh, the one I am most bumbed about is books. Although, I think there is a growing number of authors who are basically putting the books out for free and just getting a paycheck from patreon.
Piracy is mostly economics as in some places the game costs an arm and a leg.
Its also a service issue as pointed out by valve. Maybe the game has something that locks it out of your country. Looking at you Sony pushing the PSU requirement which locks out countries that do not have that. There's been some people who lose their EA games due to some BS like using a mod to play sims 4 and Uh oh there goes your ENTIRE LIST of games.
Two videos in less than two days, I feel spoiled!
“The doom clone ULTRAKILL” is like saying that fortnight, destiny, and broaderlands are doom clones.
Indeed, though looking at the gameplay in the video it shouldn't be that surprising of a mistake.
Since doom clone transformed into first person shooter over the year literally the genre definition went from doom clone to fps
Edit: not actually saying your wrong their is definitely plenty of differences between the games just pointing out that doom was one of the first big fps games and that depending on what your view point is/ how old you are doom clone is accurate
As a person with 300+ hours on ultrakill, it's a pretty common mistake, hakita said he didn't want to copy doom but the similllarities were huge
Sometimes piracy is necessary because it's literally the only way left to use a piece of software or play a game. The product you own could be so old that the activation key won't work because the company either discontinued the product or simply no longer exists. Trying before buying or circumventing a bad company's services may be the common reasons for piracy, but the sake of preservation is and will always be the most legitimate use case.
My current computer can't run some of the gamestore clients because I am not using windows. The only way I can play some games is by piracy. Not to mention the ones whose support is so bad that they won't change accounts with defunct emails to new emails so I cannot access those accounts.
much like Blur, game is no longer available on any known store now, used to be on steam..
I am not paying 200$ for a 20 year old 6th gen game that cost 40$ at launch
But how are those poor, starving execs gonna have yet another caviar and coke-fueled party on their multimillion dollar yachts? Think of the needy!
I remember when that study was published and I couldn't help but stop laughing, because it was released when I had to do a research paper for college over the topic.
Please give us pirates hat ! They're cool !
Lmao fr
Sid, your more than a mook with a mic, you’re doing great work exposing these idiots.
Our studio has exactly the same policy. A pirated copy isn't a lost sale, it's a potential fan and potential buyer in the future if the game is ethically priced.
So that's our mission -- make a great game, price it ethically across all regions, and provide players with demos/information to prevent any misunderstandings about what our games are.
"Theft" implies depriving the owner of their property.
Software piracy is a copyright violation, and *usually* just a civil liability issue, unless the scale is massive.
Nobody is deprived of property because I copied their computer file without permission.
Sure, as compared to me buying a license to do *that exact same action*, they're losing money, but often the alternative to piracy is to not play the game.
As a teenager, and well into my 20s, I was both an enthusiastic gamer, and poor. I "stole" piles of games.
The alternative was never to buy them. There is no way I could have afforded even a fraction of them.
My "theft" enabled me to be involved in gaming on a much larger scale, and as my economy improved, that lead to me buy a lot more games than if I had spent my time knitting sweaters instead.
I've since bought the ones I really enjoyed on GoG, but that's entirely besides the point.
Yarr Harr Fiddle Dee Dee
I love the fact that Google tries to translate this to English.
Darkwood developers made a similar statement many years ago "3:00" Haha, preempted that one. I was one of the people who pirated the copy they themselves had recommended. I bought that game so fast after I became an adult with a real job. Always support developers who make games you love.
For me, what baffles me is that there are common people defending things such as intrusive always online DRM with every fiber of their being when they have nothing to gain from it and will actively taunt those who have issues with it.
To them, there mere idea of voicing discontent is to admit that you are "a filthy pirate" and that as they have had no issue, the problem does not exist.
Thanks for the upload Sid.
Hearing that an official dev studio had pirated their own game for people to play in case of lack of funds, is actually surprising.
My philosophy is and will always be: Pirate it to try it, if I like it buy it.
You can condone video game piracy completely, and still be 100% against theft. If I pirate a game I have taken nothing from nobody.
I didn't steal a copy off a shelf, in no way shape or form has someone lost anything but an opportunity. And if I'm kot going to pay for it anyway, it means nothing that I pirated the game.
TLDR, piracy is damn near the farthest thing from theft. People that cry about it can get bent.
Piracy is not theft, it's copyright infringement. Theft deprives the victim of something real. "Potential sales" is a fictional simplification, a prediction - not a fact.
Copyright infringement is not a good thing, but neither is denying the less fortunate access to culture.
I'd argue it is not copy right infringement either, depending on the situation. Fair use can only be decided by a court, but depending on the situation of the piracy, it is possible the pirated software would be found as fair use. Critique of art is usually considered fair use for example. So if a person pirates, because legit sale was cost prohibitive or denied to them, for a critical analysis; it is quite possible a court would deem it fair use.
@ktosoX genuine question why didnt akita published the game for free it would be the same as a pirated version dont it?
@@asuchanowo I'm guessing cause he expected monetary compensation for providing something of value? Better question - why would you ask me that?
Based hakita
'based chopped'
When buying isnt owning piracy isnt stealing.
I can personally attest that using temporary piracy as a way to demo a product that doesn’t otherwise have a demo available, has led to quite a few purchases for me. Some cases that’s borrowing a friend copy, which is something that no longer exists in most cases, and in some cases it is, outright piracy. With the number of publishers that do not respect their players time and money, and with increasingly fewer games having demos available, I don’t see myself stopping this practice anytime soon.
I'm a "Try before you buy"-er here and I can say with certainty that if a game is good, and I see myself wanting to go back and play it. I always end up buying it. I grew tired of the marketing BS of trailers and such. Gameplay cannot be doctored like a trailer so I often base my purchase on if I enjoyed the "demo"
See, you're discussing Piracy.
All I can hear is... Shareware.
Just goes to show that perhaps Doom did it right all along! Or at the very least, it does show how important a good demo is to the popularity of said game, maybe.
My team released a game on steam and we feel the same way. People pirate for different reasons, some to try the game, some because they can't afford it and others are just have a drive to own every game they can. Most of these people are not "lost customers" and we don't view the piracy as lost sales. Most of us on the team pirated games when we were younger and now that we make money we buy games. It's how it works and getting bent out of shape about it shows one knows nothing about the facts of the industry. We put no copy protection on the game.
if you dont own your games anymore then there is nothing wrong with piracy
Most people don't own their houses.
@@Niemandzockt Time to steal houses
@@retroicdescent Difference being that if I come home to find my yard empty, with no house on it, that actually impacts me.
Copying a computer file does not deprive anyone of the original. It's not theft.
@@NiemandzocktAnd that, in itself, is a fucking travesty
Sid, my music collection came from finding bands I would have never lisseded to or even known of on Napster.
>... the DOOM clone Ultrakill...
I mean, I can't say that's wrong, but...
There are other questions that need to be asked as well:
What happens when a majority of the industry itself doesn't even allow you to own a copy, only a license that can be revoked at any time by the maker of the "purchased product";
What happens then? Is it still wrong? Is it still theft? And who is the real thief?
Reminds me of Australian comedian Randy Feltface whose popularity SOARED outside of Australia after one of his dvd's got pirated and posted on this website. I watched that video, found out who he was and now thoroughly enjoy his comedy style. Definitely agree with Hakita on every word.
I'm glad you brought up the lack of demos... apart from figuring out if you might like the game or not, figuring out how it will run on your PC before purchase is a pretty big thing.
If non indie games were more affordable, didn't have microtransactions shoved everywhere and had demos then piracy would probably be lower lol
If buying a game doesn't mean you fully own the copy then pirating it isn't theft
Back on Second Life, my business partner and I usually had a very hard stance on pirated (copybotted) work. We mostly targetted the copybotters, since not much could be done with the pirated copies. That said, I hung around the main store often and sometimes would find people who just can't afford the avatars we sold. I'd often ask them how much they were willing to spend, and manually process the sale in the system, which entitled them to free updates. This was so our legit copies were more out in the wild, and a person who had a good experience will usually talk about it.
For whatever $2 or $3 we didn't make, it was made up with other sales. I can't say for certain if that was what my now ex-business partner did, but this was my own practice I followed and it worked well.
Most devs that have made the public stance that they dont care about piracy, had a THAT WAS A PRODUCT I ACTUALLY WANTED TO GIVE THEM MONEY FOR.
Imma go buy darkwood now
TWICE
I bought it soon after they made their announcement, it was the reason I chose to do so. I mean I was interested in the game but what they did, got me to buy it.
Hakita seems like a genuinely cool dude. His fanbase (and even the small voice cast) is full of sh*tposters but there is also a weirdly wholesome undercurrent to the whole thing.
I have some disposable income, but can't properly play ULTRAKILL - I just do not have the reflexes to keep up with anything shooter-esque much less a game that moves as blazingly FAST as UK does. I am enamored with the lore and worldbuilding, though, to such a degree that it's become my newest special interest in spite of my complete lack of skill. My constant talking about it lead a roommate to buy a Steam copy of his own to play on VR through mod support, so I've technically 'done my part', but I'm planning to also purchase a copy of my own down the line, once I have struggled my way through the freely accessible demo version or found that I REALLY need access to the easiest difficulty settings. The demo version has some accessibility options, but it doesn't include the two lowest difficulties (Lenient, and finally Harmless) which I might fare better with as a non-gamer. I'll have to buy the game and see if I can work my way up to at least surviving on Standard!
I'll never be able to play it to it's fullest, which I don't mind - I don't know how the wizards that consistently play on Brutal manage that mayhem, but I'll give it all I have and enjoy viewing better players' playthroughs to see the content I'm not skilled enough to reach by myself. That's also something which comes with the added bonus of getting to hear other peoples' thoughts on this game I love, no matter how terrible I am at it, so nobody is really losing! I get to interact at a pace I can actually process, even if some people might always believe that I'm 'cheating myself out of' experiencing the game 'as it's supposed to be played'.
Piracy isn't theft, if you had a dog and I cloned it and kept the clone, I didn't steal your dog, piracy's biggest relation to theft is its name.
Id say its more a Quake clone, Just with quadruple the speed (like playing against pro people), WITH a PARRY ability, Bulletstorms skillshot system AND secrets and weapon alts
Remember when mcpixel released the dev actually put the full game free on a pirate site.
He gave it away free and yet he made a profit on steam. In fact he had a surge of more purchases since he put it on that pirate site, almost as if ppl bought the game after they pirated it.
I thougt there was anogther earlier study by the EU which also got suppressed because they accidentally proved that "westerners pirating anime they can't buy actually helps the anime industry grow" or something?
Ubisoft's statement about you not owning your games from them, has helped pushed Piracy. Because when you start telling people they don't own their games anymore even after they paid for them, then I doubt they're going to feel bad when they pirate your games. This though can a wider effect though and hurt other companies who are not pulling this stuff, and more importantly it will hurt the smaller developers/publishers. All thanks to Ubisoft who created this environment by their terrible actions again.
I agree that if I buy a product I own that product, if game devs take that away or regional block 180 country’s from buying that product, look at helldivers 2 3 months after lunch Sony took the game from those 180 country’s and refused to do refunds I say piracy’s very warranted, like when destiny 2 removed paid for story dlc you had to pay for and never gave it back, I’ve never pirated anything before but if I owned something and the took it away and I wanted it back bad enough I would.
Games as a service is them saying oh you only get access for a limited time then we are taking it away, way I see it is is their scamming people, you don’t buy a car just for them to take it away a year or a few months later do you, the old saying goes you screw your customers they screw you.
On the flipside: they tell you, you don't even 'own' the games that you buy. Games can get removed from a platform even if you paid money for it in the first place (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft and The Crew).
If buying isn't ownership, then piracy can hardly be considered stealing.
The target audience for UltraKill (although they want as much sales as well of course)
are pretty dedicated to these kind of genres, it's not like this current path of DEI that needs a particular audience to like a game beyond the game-play.
games like these are game-play, people like to support that even when tried it first by other means.
Hey, an interesting Dirty Devs idea. Dirty Devs: Valve Software's mishandling of Team Fortress 2, DOTA2, and CS2. Valve allows cheaters and bots to run rampant in all three.
Well none of these other companies "stop cheating" either - they just brick your CPU and steal your personal files. BTW: "serverside" anti-cheat is incredibly possible but for some reason nobody wants to do it.
gl taking down Valve ;)
*sea shanties intensify*
On that note, the best way to handle piracy is simply to make legitimate access as simple as possible.
Every additional layer of security or red tape you add just makes piracy more appealing.
We dont own our games anymore after all, so its not stealing
The older I get the more selective I am about what I buy, so I can see the idea of something as a replacement for a demo being a good plan.
As a guy who is raised by pirated copies of games and movies and animes since i was a wee lad in South East Asia, i'm fine with piracy. If anything this means Hakita has enough confidence for his product to be good, and that's saying something.
I can't talk about games, as I have never done that, but I have "Sailed" for music on YT. Most of the time it was either for ease of access (records not being sold in all countries) or to mainly try new artists. I have a massive collection of CDs from artists I have found on here where I never would have heard of them before including backing many IGG/KFs for more lesser-known bands.
Was it wrong to listen to a full album? Yes, but I still supported way more than I gave up on. I can also understand it from an artist's side, such as the outrage from OTEP when the album was on YT before release.
I think the biggest issue is that there's zero proof a pirate would buy a game if he can't pirate it. DRM doesn't convert pirates into paying customers, it just creates a worse product for those who do pay and drives more of them to desire piracy.
Case in point, all the third world countries where a new AAA game cost half their monthly income. If they cant pirate it they will either skip it, wait until the game is 80% off years later when sales dont matter anymore or they will just pay $10 to play it on gamepass. Either solution generates a fraction or no profit for the company
people have been saying for years that if companies would only just compete with pirates instead of trying to destroy them, piracy wouldnt really be a thing anymore. the age of streaming kind of proved that people will allways choose the most convenient option. if a game costs $75-$80 from a company that boasts about record profits while at the same time laying off large portions of their workforce to apease the shareholders and to "make line go up", then its most convenient to buy a second hand key from a shady site and risk it getting taken off you. its either that or pay for a game that is apparently worth a months worth of food shipping.
when netflix had EVERYTHING, i didnt need to pirate anything, i had netflix.
pirates wouldnt be able to compete with companies. if companies did, piracy wouldnt be an issue.
Got a ton of C64 copies from my brother back in the days. All exchanged in the school yard. Piracy is such a misplaced word, sharing always been a part of gaming.
A lot of my steam games went through this process.
Download the pirated game to try it and then buying it later on sale.
"Ultrakill dev says it's fine to pirate his game if you don't have money to spare"
Wow, I heard about that study a while ago, but thinking about it now it's impressive how accurate it is in my case.
I'm from the gaming age that allowed not just one game but several on a floppy disk and sharing those were very prevalent as they weren't available for purchase in any way.
But now I can get those games that I had in my gaming youth and/or I've been a long time supporter of a gaming franchise that I first was introduced to by people sharing the first game in that series.
Yes, I wasn't in a situation where I could buy games, I bought my first game on my own with money from my birthdays and that was around $40-50 in 1995 or 6 money, if we exchange it to dollars that is.
Since then I've accumulated a large library of games, most are physical copies still, and it's a extremely high percentage that was introduced to me through unofficial means at first but now I own them.
Granted, some games has never been accessible for purchase for me at all, but they've fuelled my interest in a genre that have resulted in several purchases since then.
Games from 30+ years ago are now available again for purchase, some by the original devs, and I've wholeheartedly purchased several at full price the moment I saw them.
One example are the game Ports of Call, it was never available anywhere I could get it, but now I've got a license for that and it's current revamped version in 3d and it's the original devs that put the original up on Steam.
Now I'll have to check for the games in this video and get myself a license for those I don't have that for yet, just for the stances their devs stand for.
I would help if steams refund policy wasnt so strict. Only the other day they told me , im not supposed to use it to try out games, so its less risky to pirate , since i dont like a lot of games i try. I always pay for a game if the price is reasonable, especially indy ,fostering a agreeable customer base is defo helpful
There was one game dev, they made a game about making video games. They created their own pirated version of the game and released it on all the places that like to host pirated content. Except the pirated version of the game was coded to have random pirate events. The first time it happens, you lost something trivial like 1% of a games sales, then the next time it's 2%, then 4% then 8% etc. Eventually you release a game that has a 100% piracy rate and because you made no money, your company is forced to shut down, ending your progress.
I always thought that was a funny way to deal with pirating. If luck was on your side, it was possible to reach the end game but most of the time, you straight up lost.
When I was younger I used to pirate a lot of games. At the time my choice was pirate it and play it, or don't play it. I couldn't afford to buy them at the time. Now that I'm older and much more financially secure, I pretty much exclusively buy the games I want to play.
Piracy isn't theft. It's pretty distinct from theft. That's why it's covered by counterfeiting laws rather than larceny laws. If I steal from you, you lose something and I gain it. With Piracy, I'm making an identical copy of something you have, but you still have your original copy.
Wasn't going to buy Ultrakill, not my style of shooter. But I'm going to now. Even if I never play it, this dev deserves the love and support after a take like that.
Piracy is your moral obligation when those in power (devs) put their pocket linings over their customer's needs.
And this is how ULTRAKILL is one step towards Diamond grade, by SidAlpha standards. ;)
I bought the 5e DnD player's handbook because I felt like I owed them a sale for enjoying the game that they've benefited from updating and keeping in circulation for all these years. Then they tried to shred the OGL and nickel-and-dime creators depending on the OGL. Now I owe them nothing.
4:35 in that situation I wouldn't call it piracy. If a developer is willing to give their game out for free it's not stealing
Good to see that you brought up that study on piracy regarding games, movies, etc.
It is a perfect example showing that piracy rarely if ever hurts game developers making it. Most people who pirate their games are the type of people who would have never bought it anyway realistically. Meaning no loss in revenue.
And your point is true about turning illegal customers into legal paying ones, is good, people tend buy a pirated game if they view that game being good.
The thing with piracy is that people equate piracy and stealing to one another. Which is wrong and also not how it works.
Stealing is you stealing and removing the original, with piracy what happens is that someone makes an illegimate copy of the original and shares it forward.
Stealing would be basically me going into a museum and taking the Mosa Lina off the wall and running.
Piracy would be more akin me going into a museum, pulling out a painting stand and canvas and then painting a perfect identical replica of Mona Lisa and then walking out.
Stealing the original removes it and then bars others from experiencing it, piracy on the other hand just makes an identical copy, people can still go into the museum to see the original Mona Lisa, I just have my own personal copy on my own wall.
Also in the immortal words of Gabe Newell, piracy is a service problem.
The reason why many people resort to piracy is because lot of modern games are plagued with shit like DRM and antic-cheats which lot of the time can make the games worse due to making the performance worse. The problem only getting hotter when you introduce shit like DRM or anti-cheat that has a kernel level access to your PC, which is bad because if it is ever compromised as a program it can wreck havoc on your computer by stealing sensitive information and whatever.
Ultakill is one of the (many) games I've pirated first and ended up buying later simply because of how based the Devs are.
honestly, steam's refund program makes me just return anything I don't like and I keep recycling the store credit to demo games.
does it need steam to run
@@omegadragons321 No, just to download and install.
Recently because of my tight budget I've been using piracy to try games that release in a very early access state, then as those games update and near a gold release I'll pick it up on Steam or GOG. There are certain types of games this couldn't apply to but I typically play long survival or action adventure games. In the last year I've pirated 3 such games and bought 2 of them, the 3rd is on my wishlist as it's a solo developer I'm giving it time to cook.
I don't think fraudulent sites that buy with stolen credit cards and such would count as grey markets. Unless I'm confusing it, but grey markets in this context generally get their keys from less expensive countries and such. But being grey market, you can't really go "oh yea, definitely not stolen" cuz you don't know for sure.
Gray in the context that they MAY be fully legit, but there is zero way to prove it for any given site.
When I was young and broke I pirated games. As soon as a strat making money I started buying the games and sequels from my favorite games and studios. I would never had played them were it not for piracy. I haven't pirated a game in over 15 years now.
Plus these days even in the incredibly rare chance that a game's actually good and worth the asking price, half the time the publisher still ends up doing something dumb like sticking live-service into it, or malware, or insulting 99.98% of your country's population. To the point that you don't WANT to financially encourage their behavior and pirate out of spite / boycott.
with 1000 games on my backlog I see no reason to pirate a game. But I cannot condemn it because of all the actions of publishers and shady key resellers.
The only thing I'd say is: if it is a smaller studio or publisher, please support them when you can.
Not suprised considering they added but plug support
Back when I couldn't afford many games, I pirated most of what I played. I still regularly bought games and later when I could afford to buy games I would buy them and have bought most games that I thought were good, some of them I bought 3-4 times, some even more. The point is that if I can I will always support the people making anything, but if I feel have the money, or in some cases if I am unsure if I will want to support them I will find other means. That being said, I really haven't pirated anything in quite a long time, most of the time lately if I am unsure or can't afford it, I just do something else.
Speaking about piracy,in early 2000s,it is almost impossible to buy a legitimate game in my country due to its high price and so i was on the 'high sea' for a while while i was still in high school.
Once Steam updated their pricing to my region area and now as a salary man,i immediately bought so many games i pirated in the past and nowadays,eventhough most of my purchase went to indie and AA games,i do occasionally 'go to the high seas' to check out the game before i fully purchase it.
See how well you can run the game to the end without that 2 hour deadline and most importantly,if the game gets censored,removed or outright brick my system,my 'high seas' copy are still around for me to enjoy it.
Piracy is also,funnily enough,the only way for you to preserve a videogame since i see most of publisher nowadays could care less about games they publish and only serve to satisfy their investors annual report.
I personally believe once all contracts for all licensed things in a game is gone the game should be put out for free. At some point in time it belongs to the communities.
I'm that old that I remember when Demos was a thing, wish that devs did this more often.
lotta demos on steam
@@fmo94jos8v3 Not enough from bigger studios, sure many Indie devs.
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He's kind of right. I pirate games to get a feel for them, but at times when I enjoy the game I play and the developers are good at keeping their words and not abandoning a game or making awful choices, I can look back and wishlist the game on Steam and then buy it then or later. However, some games out there are not worth any amount of money, or are a cash grab or a scam depending on how one person may view it and it's why bother giving them anything of value. The sole other reason I pirate games is because the game itself is almost 20 years old, and I no longer have the CD to play it anymore, if it's not on Steam for nothing (under a few bucks) then I ain't forking over good money either.
Him bringing up that it may add a sale or 2 to a game when people may not know is kind of right in a sense. Steam may refund you a game at 3 hours, but they may not. Why take a chance assuming a game works after 3 hours and it doesn't and then not being able to refund gets you fucked over when you could pirate said game enjoy it find the bug or whatever after a few hours and then delete the game from your hard drive? No one loses anything and you're not fighting someone for a refund. It's just not black or white. Good video.