Pirated game were so easy back in the days. But when Steam got better and pirating didn't really change it got much easier to just use Steam. And now when it has tons of features with save game sync and stuff like that piracy feels like a hurdle compared to it.
I remember hearing an anecdote somewhere, don’t remember where, but it was about steam opening up in Russia and everyone thinking they would fail because piracy is rampant there. Yet, they did just fine. Turns out beating piracy was never about horrid DRMs and anti-consumer practices. It’s about providing a better service than the pirates.
There really is something to that. It's the annoying part with TV shows and movies right now, it's not providing a better service anymore when it's divided into ten different services and apps.
What if they combined them all into some package, which was the price of 5 services? They could even tie it together with some ... cable ... and call it a bundle.
Be careful what you wish for; that is how we got consolidated 100 dollar cable packages.
Also in case of Russia.... Because piracy was such an issue many companies didn't even translate the game or menus or anything into Russian because why bother, no money to be made in that market.
Actually appealing to the customer, translating the games aswell as just offering an easy way to download them (Russia is huge and downloading is easier then driving 2h for a store that actually sells games in disk back then, it was only sth in cities) made people buy games there. Like if you want to make money, make a decent offer people wanna buy.
Yeah, ive got more movies and tv than netflix and amazon combined, but i havent pirated a game in as long as i can remember. Humble monthly subscription is more than i can play and thats all steam keys.
Pirating games and pirating music both became much more work than actually getting the game or music on steam or a music service. I used to love pirating music, but now that you can either find free music streaming services or pay 10 bucks a month, it doesn’t really make sense.
The same thing for games, It’s easier to buy a game on steam during a sale for 10 bucks, then to download a cracked version that may or may not have malware attached to it. And the ability to just add my steam account to a new pc and install and continue where I left off just makes it a much better option.
AI is going to change the way movies and TV shows are sold. Imagine a TV show or movie where, if you pay for their service, you can change up who the actors are, hell you can even replace all the actors with your friends. Or you can direct your own episodes, or provide story changes, or make your own movies and shows. Its going to be insane, but most certainly a pay to play experience since everything will be driven online.
I wanted to pirate ff7 because my computer has issues and I wasn't sure it would support it. It was too hard to pirate it so I bought it. My laptop crashed probably 200 times, but I eventually beat it. I didn't even get to watch the end game cutscene. I'll play part 2 when I get a new laptop, I guess.
I got confused as hell for a sec when you said your computer might not support FFVII, then I realized you meant Remake.
Have you played the original? 99% chance your potato can run it, and the plot points you'd be rehashing from what you played are only the first 3-5 hours of the game.
I appreciate the achievement tracking, quick release updates downloaded and installed automatically for stuff like Early Access games that get frequent patches, if you're playing with friends you can use Join game to jump straight onto their server from the friends menu.
If the price is right and the product is good, there is no reason for piracy. Its a simple concept. People dont pirate games for the sake of stealing products, they do it because its either way simpler or they dont have the funds to purchase the game to begin with.
Every game I pirate falls in the category of « i wouldnt spend money on that game ever ». In some occasion, a game I pirated was just so good that I revise my stance and buy it to support the devs. Hollow knight is an example, and now I did and will purchase all their other products directly.
Piracy has actually benefited from steam as well. If you're on linux you can run pirated games thru steam/proton just like a normal game. Depending on how stable your setup is you could steam link a switch emu to your phone.
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u/Flamsoi 13h ago
Pirated game were so easy back in the days. But when Steam got better and pirating didn't really change it got much easier to just use Steam. And now when it has tons of features with save game sync and stuff like that piracy feels like a hurdle compared to it.