Is piracy ever justified?

I would say no. I understand why people do it, particularly if it's a situation in which a certain game is no longer being distributed. Another reason may be that they are interested in a game, but don't like the developer that made that game. I suspect that EA's games are pirated all the time -- for that very reason. A lot of people resent EA because of their love of trying to milk their fans by adding micro-transactions to their games. EA has a long history of making themselves seem like a bunch of money hungry dirt-bags. The resentment that they have towards EA is justified, in my view.

While I understand all of that, I don't believe that one should ever pirate a game. It's part of my own religious convictions. We as gamers need to make sure that people are paid fairly for their hard work. Without our financial support, there would be no gaming industry.

I can think of two occasions:

• Abandonware: when the game is no longer on sale and/or the original dev is long gone and gets none of the money.
• When a game is hampered by 3-4 pieces of seperate DRM (Ubisoft, Capcom) and the cracked version objectively runs better

While I have not pirated games of the latter reason I have downloaded a few bits of abandonware here and there

Yo, not a pirate, nor do I support piracy as a general rule, but exceptions exist. Such as...

...Pretty much this. And honestly? Sort of have a problem with the second; it's more of an ethical dilemma than a practical one, and therefore I think it's best just to not give them your business as opposed to pirating.

Question is: if you have bought the game, is it ok to download/create a ROM?

If you have bought a broken game, is it ok to download the working version through piracy?

For me the moral dilema is not paying people for their honest labour (both as a society problem, governmental problem, and in video games).

And so for me the answer to these two questions is usually yes.

I feel at that point, since you did pay for it, it's not really piracy. They have your money, now it's yours.

This brings us to the whole "well you don't buy the game, you buy the rights to the game" issue and frankly, **** that argument and any publisher that wants to demean their legit consumers by saying they have little to no consumer rights.

I bought the game. It's mine to use. So long as I am not reproducing copies to distribute, I can do what I want with it.

I'd feel better about it if it was easier to rip games and fewer people were downloading, but I think modern piracy takes a fair bit of know-how so that might not be practical. In other words, I wish it wasn't necessary to act like a pirate in order to get a ROM of a game you own, but there it is.

Exactly, I've been buying games since the 90s and nowhere did they make it clear to me that I'm buying a license that is under full control of the publisher, to change at a whim.

Maybe if that was the case, and it was made clear to people: I don't think gaming would be as huge as it is now. Maybe people are less interested of buying 5.000.000 copies of a game and are more interested in buying 5 licenses.

Like I get the Steam rules: if I pass away my library can't transfer to anyone else. Shame, but it is what it is and that has been pretty clear.

But then it brings us to what Ubisoft did the other day: they changed their TOS for all their games after the whole The Crew debacle, that's just low to the ground.

I don't know if "justified" is the right word, but there are situations where I think piracy is not a big deal. Abandonware for sure, and even games that don't ever release in your region I'm OK with. Basically, if the publisher doesn't want to put in the base effort for you to give them your money, have at it.

Ubisoft is really making me want to pirate their shit though. The meme @Willy105: posted might be a bit extreme, but the time has come to set clear rules about what a consumer's purchase entitles them to in the digital age. What Ubisoft did with The Crew is just bullshit no matter how you spin it, and should not be legal.

Justified? Are game developers so vile that piracy is justified? Probably not. Are they role models though? Beats me.

so oddly. i had to arg the fallout series.

seeing the app both on my tv and my xbox series x.

refused to play it in 4k or even 1080p.

with a 1gb connection.

I voted no. But I don’t think the issue is a black and white issue. It’s way more complex than a yes or no query.

When companies hold all the power, I think it is not only justified but a moral obligation to protect the rights of gamers and consumers alike. Even if that means doing something that is frowned upon.

Yes. If a company refuses to or cannot make a game available, then there's no actual harm in it, because you weren't obtaining it without the secondary market anyway, which that is a whole can of worms that depending on the game you're looking for, is a terrible time.

If you made a legitimate digital purchase but the digital purchase content is no longer officially distributed, then I don't see an ethical issue preventing someone from obtaining the content through other means and also defeating any drm to use it.

Yes but only if you have a sturdy ship and a crew of bold hearted but ill-mannered scurvy dogs.

Only if the games are not available for customers, then if you want to play the game, there's no option but to pirate.

I would say that if a game is not available for purchase in your country or region. (Try to buy mother 3, or many of the racing games that are no longer available )

Then yes.

Otherwise no.