this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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I'm with Gabe Newell on this one. High piracy rates indicate a service problem.
I can't find very good data on this, but my suspicion is that PC piracy rates are lower than they were a decade ago. I'm betting piracy of movies and TV shows is far, far higher than it was a decade ago. It's pretty easy to see why. If you want a PC game, you can usually (EGS timed exclusives aside) buy it from your digital storefront of choice, or add it to your wishlist and wait for a sale. Once it's in your library it's effectively there to stay. Game doesn't work on your PC, or you don't enjoy it like you thought you would? No problem, you can refund it. Now compare that movies and TV shows. An ever-expanding range of streaming services that all want $15 a month from you, region locking, staggered release dates. Nothing new you want to watch this month? Too bad, your $15 is now our $15 dollars, and we'll take $15 from you next month too. Movie and TV show piracy provides a more valuable and convenient service, so it wins hands down.
Steam is just better than piracy. With video they made piracy the attractive option again.
I feel fine paying $15 for a game because I could spend hundreds of hours on it and it might have more replayability and allow me to play with friends and family and online. Paying $15 for a month worth of shitty content that is region locked and doesn't think I'm the rightful account holder leabes a bad taste in my mouth.
If I had to put those 15/month somewhere, it's Gamepass
And it always works, unskippable ads for other new releases never pop up, and it doesn’t just disappear when another platform gets the syndication rights for the next quarter.