So the EU - may it die painfully and rot in hell - commissioned a study on the effects piracy has on Music, Movies, Games, and Books in the EU. The study found and claims that piracy does not affect sales in a negative way and may help games in a positive way. The EU then hid the results because anytime facts, studies, reality differing opinions get in the way of big government orthodoxy - facts, studies and reality be damned.

Hereis a story on the study.

Here is the Study full report in PDF form.

Note: This study is for the EU region only - fairly wealthy and able to afford goods for fun. That does not mean in may be true in other parts of the world.

My take - I think piracy does have an affect globally, but I still say the biggest problem in the west is the discounts games go on sale for and frequency of game sales.

I will not mention post or name, but a person wanted to buy a copy of a game that cost $7 and was hoping it would make the Pinata sale (the game never did) and would not spend $7 on a game they wanted because it had been on sale for $1 in the past. It is only $7 for a product you want - people waste $7 a week in so many ways it is ridiculous - but when you know a game will go on sale again and for such a low price the value because destroyed. The sales discount mentality is devaluing games and really hurting the industry in my opinion.

So, as a US citizen, what's your beef with the EU?

Mind you, unless I'm mistaken the study didn't prove it affected it (for games, it did for movies), but it didn't disprove it either. It's almost impossible to prove that since you simply can't know how much a game would have sold if you had (or hadn't) included DRM.

They didn't do it very well...

Reading the article, it was an EU parliamentarian that pushed for the study to be released, so less "EU trying to suppress study" and more "certain parties within the complex political apparatus that is the EU wanted to not see a EU study receive much attention, while others parties did and it was the latter that won". That's how it usually goes with studies everywhere when people disagree on how the data should be interpreted.

Piracy never affects sales negatively. Someone who does not want to and/or can't afford to buy a game is not going to buy it. The idea that piracy causes "lost sales" is untrue propaganda. They can't lose something they never had.

The only way piracy affects sales is positively, when pirates choose to buy a game after they have first pirated it and liked it. That's greedy publishers'/developers' faults. They no longer provide games with value like they did in the past. Instead of at least 30 hours of gameplay like they used to include as a minimum for every game, now they often include only 4-5 hours of gamplay, and 8 hours is considered "standard." And they also rip off consumers with gambling microtranactions, overpriced DLCs of cut content that should have been in the main game, season passes, one-time-use shaders in exchange for more real money every time, etc. etc.

Scams like that are what cause most games not to be worth the asking price until after they become deeply discounted.

That is to say, if greedy publishers/developers want to fix the "discount mentality" then they can stop being greedy, stop ripping off consumers, and start offering good value again.

I've never been very sure about that theory.

Usually, if someone can't afford something:
- he'll wait for it to decrease price (not by too much, if he really wants it).
- he'll renounce to it.

If, however, he already obtained it illegally for free:
1- he'll wait for it to decrease price (the lowest possible).
2- he'll never buy it (this probably happens the most).

In the first case, he paid less that he would have otherwise.
In the second, people basically worked for him for free.

That said, if companies offered easier and cheaper ways to experience their content, probably piracy would drop drastically.

P.s: I omitted the case in which someone improves his earnings and then buys the content full-price.
This isn't exactly a plausible widespread choice..

I wish they wouldn't use the word "piracy" when they are implying stealing WITHOUT murdering. I mean, nothing against pirates, nothing wrong with that. I can respect the repurposing of the, uhm, valuable resources of murdered people, especially considering murdered people aren't really in a, er, position to make use of their, uhm, valuable resources anymore. It's just "piracy" doesn't accurate describe the circumstances. This is a gaming forum after all, so understanding stories isn't about liking what happens in the stories, but the terminology shouldn't be misleading.

The implication of stealing also doesn't fit with circumstance. If a house or a car or maybe a dog is stolen, then whoever had it before no longer has it. That isn't the case with digital materials.

Instead of trying to blame other people and associating criminal labels with them, I think the sellers should own up to what it is they (the sellers) are actually doing. The sellers are selling opportunities for experiences, with the condition that the means for producing those experiences are not distributed by the buyer. In essence, it's a distribution issue, not a possession issue. And certainly not murders upon vessels of the seven seas.

To me, the sellers come across as sort of selling secrets. Information about the experiences can be shared, even the experiences themselves, but no one else can have a copy (of the copy sold…) of the means of producing the experiences. So, reviews can be written and people can spread the word of its existence and how to buy it. This seems faulty to me because it means a lot of the information about the experiences will be inaccurate for lack of a copy for reference. And that's why it seems to me the sellers are sort of selling secrets, because the sellers are impeding the dissemination of accurate information about their products.

Nothing wrong with that, and I totally respect it by simply ignoring their products because it would obviously be a waste of my time to learn their paid-for-secrets. If the sellers don't want many people to know about it, then it seems to me there will be very few people who will know enough about the products for a discussion. So what could I do with their information that would be worth my time? All of my own talk about their product would end up being free advertising for them since practically no one else will have experienced it to have any thoughts about it themselves to share with me.

Additionally, digital materials already are hindered by their own lack of substance: they can't be shared as easily as physical materials, if at all. A book made of paper and cardboard is more readily shared than a digital file because the digital file is not enough: an electronic device is also required to view it. I can use a notepad of paper to write a message and hand one of the sheets of paper to someone who could read it then or later, but sending an email requires someone else to have a device for their own use.

Anyway, I think they (the sellers and distributors) ought to reevaluate the circumstances and take note of what they've gotten themselves into with the digital medium. Maybe they'll finally figure out how to fit with the medium, for now they might as well be trying to paint upon a canvas using a block of marble. Those aren't physical products they are managing, their products aren't usable by themselves. It's a whole other world, and seems to me rather unsuitable for ocean terminology.

Yeah, its the Cold War-like censorship that will kill EU (or in fact, any political system that claims to be democratic).

Its very weird, because EU core values are exact opposite of that.

And no, I don't believe that its kind of separate issue, the lobby is and was there. For example, during unrelated Ukraine maidan, EU politicians triggered the country revolt by requiring Yanukovich to sign an agreement (association) which would outright destroy its the economy. And it did right now. And EU press has kept publishing pretty biased reports on the situation as it escalated and is still doing it.

So, the EU is corrupt to the core, unfortunately, but it seems that if your request does not collide with a group lobby, it will be reviewed and handled "proper" in Brussels, aka "the EU way". This thing definitely looks like collision with industry interests and they do not want people to research into this topic.

Personally, I can confirm that piracy helps product marketing, although its rather one of the factors than a single solution. The product must still be affordable, or it won't help much. For example, Windows was extremely often pirated in ex-USSR block, even after official channels established. And often, as a Linux user, I have met people who use "easy availability of Windows" as an argument against using Linux, which is not far from original way Microsoft has marketed its first product - MSDOS, by essentially bundling it at extremely dumping price, essentially killing the concurrency.

Also, - "politics, politics" warning flag! Its called corruption.

"Piracy" is a fallacy. The people that cry about it came onto the internet knowing two things: it would increase sales, and it would mean less control, given it's openness. But because of their greedy nature, they do everything in their power to turn it into a closed environment so they can maximize their profits. And to a great extent they've killed it, with their incessant efforts to control and monetize every square inch of it. Much like the trolley system was killed in the US to increase sales of automobiles, which gave rise to gridlock and other social ills.

Saw this from Sargon of Akkad, he commented his opinion that anyone who pirates content probably wouldn't have paid for it anyways. And that's probably 90% true.

I don't think the piracy is so huge problem as some companies and politicians paint it. Hiding a study is bad, however I still like the EU. It's less corrupt than my own country and it's either EU or Russia. And we've had Russia before, thank you very much.

Ever heard of a nation called Greece? o.O

EU or Russia -- or Trump or Clinton -- equals death. Just like cyanide or hemlock.

Well, EU haven't invaded us yet, still better than Russia then ;)

Give it some time. ;p

I agree. AAA games should cost $10 day one with all future expansions included. Then I'd even preorder them.