Seeing that pirate store over at the shopping mall makes me wonder... how do these pirates exist? I mean some of them charge 1% of the price of the original game (yes, 1%, not 10%!) and that store's made enough profit to run 3 different branches in the same mall. They hire with 40% more pay than the government.
Why can't the game producers at least charge an affordable rate? CD manufacturing should be even cheaper for the publishers with big CD making factories. Manuals? Just release a lighter (cheaper) version of the game without the box and manual. How much does the worthless security on the CDs cost?
Maybe most of it is just to cover the cost of developing the game. If so, I guess it's kinda sad. Perhaps games are doomed to be eternally pirated by poor countries (and China/Russia). Especially when they charge 100 times the price they could.
Maybe one day I should try to start a small business publishing original games here, instead of having them imported. Could do wonders for the international game industry and kill a few pirates while I'm at it...
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
They charge more because people buy games that cost that much. Charging less wouldn't have a major impact on piracy. People either have jobs and can afford games or they don't, or they have a mindset that things should be free anyway. Unless publishers sold at a loss, things would remain the same.
There's a law in this country that music can't be sold over a certain price. And it was suprisingly successful. Within a year, most record stores stopped selling pirated products and started selling the originals. The people stopped buying the pirated ones coz they'd rather pay 30% more for the originals of musicians they love.
The government doesn't bother to do the same for games as there aren't many game publishers in this country that don't work online. Now if original stuff didn't cost 1000% more than the pirated versions, I think more people would buy them.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
no, if you told, youd just be a dick. youre alreay sinbinned. thats why you dont have any stars
n/a
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
6th September, 2005 at 05:23:38 -
Muz lives in Malaysia, I've been there many times as some of my dad's side's family lives there. One of the things I love about it is the piracy . I came back to Australia at the start of this year after a holiday there, bearing $50AU worth of pirated software (half the price of a fullpriced game here). $50 Au bought me about 40 games, some costing more for multiple cds or dvds.
I also however own an xbox, unmodified. The reason I haven't modified it to play pirated games is because I enjoy the fun of xbox live in which you need original games to play online. (Although I have softmodded before - google it).
And so basically I don't know what I am trying to say, nor do I have a point. Only that Malaysia is a great place for a holiday and some new software.
Another random thing about malaysia, it's interesting that the real music cds have stickers on them saying "Genuine" with a little signiture, sort of like the stickers on microsoft products.
Tenerife however sucks for buying cheap games because they're more expensive than I would pay over here in the UK. Also they almost only had gameboy advance games. Infact everything is more pricey because they think us taking a holiday can't understand conversion rates.
Yes, software is ridiculously expensive... especially programs like 3D Studio Max or Macromedia products. I think that Adobe, Jasc (now part of Corel), and other companies have become a bit more reasonable, however.
Still, that doesn't change the fact that piracy is just plain wrong.
If wishes were fishes then we'd all smell like ladies' underwear.
Some of the companies that make thousands of dollars of profit per month actually should pay a lot for hi-tech programs like 3DSM. Which is probably why the government only opposes corporate piracy, but the cops only raid pirate stores to get free games & porn.
LOL, I haven't realised that it's wierd that the government hands out stickers to genuine products. Those stickers are cool. They've actually got at least 3 images melded into one sticker.
But like AA said, pirated stuff is just WAY too cheap. Not that I'm promoting them or anything. It's just that I think some of the games companies should sell games for cheaper, and get the rest of the money from sponsorships, endorsements, royalties, merchandise, etc...
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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. I came back to Australia at the start of this year after a holiday there, bearing $50AU worth of pirated software (half the price of a fullpriced game here). $50 Au bought me about 40 games, some costing more for multiple cds or dvds.
