Piracy Issues Facing The Gaming Industry
What is piracy?
Video game piracy can be defined as the downloading of a game, where the only purpose is to get it for free with no intention of paying.
How does it affect the gaming industry?
Illegally downloading files from various sources or websites, such as torrents etc - One example of this is with PC gaming, where some companies, such as EA Sport, now deem it too risky to produce games for this specific platform as they tend to be easier than with consoles to torrent and download the files illegally, making it less profitable for them. Many programmers, and various other people who work on the production of these games, loose out on their fair share of what the profits for the total sales should have been. Because of piracy production for certain games on certain platforms has been stopped, and future titles will not be released on them, as it is no longer profitable to make them.
Another example of this comes from the 'modding' of Xbox's, which allows gamers to play pirated games. Modding has become easy and convenient, so that many people can now illegally download and play games, no matter what their background is, resulting in a loss of profit and sales for Microsoft.
How can piracy be combated?
When Microsoft recently unveiled their plans for the new console, Xbox One, they intended to make games only available through download from the online Xbox market place. This would totally eradicate hard copies of games from the shelves of stores, which would in turn combat the idea of being able to lend and share games with your friends. However, after realizing how ludicrous an idea this was, they listened to the response that they had been getting. Many people who play games do not have access to an internet connection, or perhaps can't afford Xbox live. How would they, then, be able to download games? This idea of downloading games is not a very practical idea, and so it may be near impossible to stop piracy.
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