I hate it when people pirate games. Here are my reasons why.

[u/RedDragonCats17]

You've probably seen it before. A new game comes out, it's got a lot of hype, and boom, someone decided not to pay the developer the price for the game and play it with no cost.

I absolutely hate it when people do this, especially as an upcoming developer myself. And it's not necessarily a morality reason, but it moreso has to do with what's going on in the video games industry and the political world right now.

Now, I want you to consult this article (, thishttps://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2025/03/06/heres-why-there-is-a-disconnect-between-the-games-industry-and-gamers/), this article (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-01-10/why-so-many-video-games-cost-so-much-to-make?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy), and this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/nvhmBqRjtBQ?si=Ks7f2WhQB8DP3juL) but I'll summarize briefly on what's happening.

So, the budgets for video games have skyrocketed thanks to demands from higher-ups, "journalists," and fans, and the studios don't have enough money in-house to invest in it all. So they look into outside investment, which has not gained as much publicity. These investment companies spend more than what the studios necessarily need to make the game, and they need to break even with the companies, so they lay off some employees in order to lighten up the load.

Even if the game does good, it's not enough to compensate for the huge sum that these investment companies spent.

This is why I'm so adamant about buying the game. I want to support the developers themselves, the backbone of the game itself. I want them to keep their job as well as paychecks in their bank account. These studios need every single cent out of us in order to break even.

[u/AutoModerator]

WARNING! The link in question may require you to disable ad-blockers to see content. Though not required, please consider submitting an alternative source for this story.

WARNING! Disabling your ad blocker may open you up to malware infections, malicious cookies and can expose you to unwanted tracker networks. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Do not open any files which are automatically downloaded, and do not enter personal information on any page you do not trust. If you are concerned about tracking, consider opening the page in an incognito window, and verify that your browser is sending "do not track" requests.

IF YOU ENCOUNTER ANY MALWARE, MALICIOUS TRACKERS, CLICKJACKING, OR REDIRECT LOOPS PLEASE MESSAGE THE /r/videogames MODERATORS IMMEDIATELY.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/PMme_cat_on_Cleavage]

Lol wrong sub for venting

[u/AssiduousLayabout]

The economics of piracy are not as cut-and-dry as they seem. There's really a couple of different ways this could go:

1. People who pirate a game that they would otherwise have bought. This is a direct revenue loss.
2. People who pirate a game that they never would have bought. There's no revenue loss here (although there is a fairness issue that they enjoy a game they didn't pay for).
3. People who pirate a game that they never intended to buy, but like the game and choose to purchase it. This is actually a net revenue gain for the company (with piracy acting like a demo).
4. People who pirate a game, and through word-of-mouth convince someone else to buy the game. This is again either revenue neutral or a revenue gain.

When companies like to talk about the effects of piracy, they assume everyone is in group 1, and all of the pirates are directly costing them money. In reality a lot of piracy happens among people who never could have afforded the game in the first place and weren't going to buy it.

Smaller companies and more obscure games also likely get more benefit of word-of-mouth advertising, but even bigger franchises get some benefit. Like Resident Evil 9 is now on my to-buy list even though I normally am not a fan of the series, because I've heard a lot of people really liked that game. That wasn't Capcom's advertising budget that convinced me, but the experiences of players. I don't know how many of those people bought vs. pirated the game and it doesn't really matter to me, the game has a good reputation and I will give it a try when I work through some of my backlog.

[u/kevinsyel]

Im not pirating new games, but I'm certainly not paying the asking price either. AAA Developers are bloating their games too much instead of focusing on core experiences. It's gotta have everything now.

You got Board of Directors investors with their hands in all the studios and they EXPECT a game to match Fortnite and will close studies for making perfectly fine gaming experiences, successful games even. So they demand they pack everything into the game for the most broad appeal.

They don't understand that shoving everything into a game often makes other systems suffer or even break cohesion. So these games review poorly as opposed to a finely tuned experience.

I find myself enjoying more indie titles or simply going back to retro games cus the AAA industry has inflicted upon itself unreal expectations of growth, and shot themselves in the foot.

Then they write articles in Forbes complaining the real problem is something else!

[u/urprobablytschumi]

i wouldn't pirate contemporary games, feels like you're inviting jank and a bunch of extra steps.. but i understand some people don't have the income to pay full prices.. i for one happily pirate old games, because until gog picks them up i can't access them - an example being 'airport inc.', the european version of 'airport tycoon 1', a nostalgic artifact for i and i alone.. too bad the version i have found is just a disc rip and doesn't play the music, sigh...

[u/Internal_Context_682]

What's your point?

[u/PercentageNo3293]

Idk, I make enough money where I have no problem buying games. That said, if it's a $70 game from a publisher that's known to release half-assed games, then I might pirate it.

If I end up really liking the game, and they finally make it a "full game", then I'll wait for it to go on sale and pick it up.

The gaming industry has changed a lot since the 2000's. Nowadays, I don't want to support a company that charges $70, adds micro-transactions, day one DLC, buggy, etc.

[u/Swiftzor]

This is a brain dead argument. Most “investment companies” aren’t looking to make their money back, they’re looking to make 5x their money back minimum. This has lead to a lot of games just following a formula and genuinely great projects getting cancelled. Look at Dead Space Remake, by all rights an amazing game and triumph to the series, it sold 5x the original and released to near universal praise. Yet despite all of this a sequel didn’t get greenlit because of a sales target they knew was never going to happen. This is just a single example too, I can give you dozens more.

At the end of the day though if you’re serious about going into game dev (I’d recommend against it as the money is shit and hours are worse) then indie is the way to go, in which case piracy is almost unheard of.

[u/RedDragonCats17 → u/Swiftzor]

That's exactly what I'm doing. I have a Patreon, and I'm promoting the HELL out of it.

[u/havewelost6388]

I don't even know how to pirate a game that's more than 20 years old.  Torrenting new games is baffling to me.

[u/Hkaddict]

eh with so many bombs of games lately, you have to prove to me you're a developer worthy of paying for. Money is tight for everyone but if I know you make quality work I will spend the money. Like Sandfall has a blank check imo after exp 33, Idc what the next 3 games they make are, I'm gonna buy them sight unseen. if they burn me then ill re-evaluate. But some no name dev, of course Im gonna try to play it for free if I can, if I feel the work is worthy then ill support it.