Federal Agents Make Some Big Raids on Pirates . . yarrgghh

WASHINGTON - Federal customs agents Wednesday raided more than 30 businesses and homes in 16 states, looking for devices that allow pirated video games to play on Wiis, PlayStation 2s and Xboxes. . .

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_hi_te/customs_gaming_raids

I always like to hear about this kind of stuff. It'd be nice if less piracy resulted in cheaper games, but I suppose that's pretty much just a pipe dream.

Aye, its too bad that games wouldn't become cheaper from reducing piracy, either way the prices will remain the same, and keep going up.

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

Well, if people pirate a game, the company loses money and then they have to highten video game cost in order to make up for the loss. schoeffmaster

That's their excuse. In reality we'd probably only be talking $5 off at most if all piracy was eliminated (though I'd be surprised if it exceeded more than a dollar). It's just like in-game advertising: the companies say it keeps the cost of games down yet raise the price by $10 at the same time.

Lossescaused by piracy in the US are insignificant compared to elsewhere in the world.

Aye, its too bad that games wouldn't become cheaper from reducing piracy, either way the prices will remain the same, and keep going up.

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

Old_Gooseberry

I totaly agree, too bad devs are always money hungry.

Good

Good!
The cost of it is not what bothers me the most. I'm sure they were making forgeries and selling them for full price and not discounted bootlegs.

Its because of these kinds of **** heads I cant make a back up copy of my legally purchased video games. Thanks to them if I scratch one it costs me 10 dollars plus postage and I have to wait 3 or 4 weeks to get it replaced assuming the company even offers that service.

Like movies (and as dchan01 mentions) its a much bigger problem outside the USA.

I seriously doubt that if piracy went away here that pricing would be the slightest bit different. When they say the cost to consumers is X amount what they really mean is it costs the industry that much in profits. The big manufactures would love for you to believe that if piracy was stamped out tomorrow they would charge less in the USA for a game the next day but its simply not true. New games would cost exactly the same. Would they pass along the costs to the consumer if the market were flooded with bootlegs? Sure. Would they pass along the benefits of a reduction? No way.

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

Old_Gooseberry

I don't think that's true at all. When I was first introduced to emulation and pirated games when I went to college in the mid 90's, NES games were about $5 in bargain bins, and plenty of PC software could be found for $20.People were still downloading those games.That's pretty much the case today.

There may bea noticeable percentage of people who pirate because they can't afford much, but generally I think the people who pirate games do it because they want it for free period, and they have no qualms about stealing or just don't consider it stealing. It doesn't matter if it's $50 or $20.

[QUOTE="Old_Gooseberry"]

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

Robio_basic

I don't think that's true at all. When I was first introduced to emulation and pirated games when I went to college in the mid 90's, NES games were about $5 in bargain bins, and plenty of PC software could be found for $20.People were still downloading those games.That's pretty much the case today.

There may bea noticeable percentage of people who pirate because they can't afford much, but generally I think the people who pirate games do it because they want it for free period, and they have no qualms about stealing or just don't consider it stealing. It doesn't matter if it's $50 or $20.

I agree with that... compare this to music piracy, and CD's are already below the cost of $20 yet how many people download music instead saying it costs too much to buy?

And new games at $20 probably wouldn't even cover development costs...

[QUOTE="Old_Gooseberry"]

Aye, its too bad that games wouldn't become cheaper from reducing piracy, either way the prices will remain the same, and keep going up.

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

The_Rayzor

I totaly agree, too bad devs are always money hungry.

Well, making money is the goal of running a business. Just in case you didn't know.

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"][QUOTE="Old_Gooseberry"]

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

MyopicCanadian

I don't think that's true at all. When I was first introduced to emulation and pirated games when I went to college in the mid 90's, NES games were about $5 in bargain bins, and plenty of PC software could be found for $20.People were still downloading those games.That's pretty much the case today.

There may bea noticeable percentage of people who pirate because they can't afford much, but generally I think the people who pirate games do it because they want it for free period, and they have no qualms about stealing or just don't consider it stealing. It doesn't matter if it's $50 or $20.

I agree with that... compare this to music piracy, and CD's are already below the cost of $20 yet how many people download music instead saying it costs too much to buy?

And new games at $20 probably wouldn't even cover development costs...

That's an excellent point. You can download a song for $.99. That's loose change in the couch. And yet people still download music.

[QUOTE="Old_Gooseberry"]

Aye, its too bad that games wouldn't become cheaper from reducing piracy, either way the prices will remain the same, and keep going up.

High prices encourage piracy, if games were only 20 dollars, nobody would waste time and money trying to rent a game, than get spend an hour to copy it, than another to burn it to dvd, than having to drive back to drop off the game, costs 20 dollars to go through that whole process, with the gas money, rental fee and dvd cost.

Affordable games would reduce piracy

The_Rayzor

I totaly agree, too bad devs are always money hungry.

Yes, Heaven forbid someone makes a return on their investment, eh?:roll:

look at it the other way. More piracy equals free games.

just kidding.