Piracy is piracy. It is not a tool for anything. Yeah, people pirate for what ever reason, but lets not sugar coat it and portray it as having some high and mighty purpose.
Given any reason, would a person still have pirated if say there were a 99% chance that they would be caught and put in jail for an year or two and have to pay a hefty fine? I guess not.
The average piracy level for games stands somewhere between 80~90%. i.e. Out of every 100 people playing the game, only 10~20 people have bought it. The purpose of DRM is not to make 90/100 people buy it, but to make 20 or 25 people buy it instead of 15. For a game that costs $100m to make and returns $150m. if 5% more people were buying it instead of pirating, it might mean an additional 50m in revenues. That kind of money can make a lot of difference to a studio and its employees.
Game studios are tedious places to work with employees putting in anywhere between 15~20 hours a day. Some times, (Ex: GoW 3), they shut the doors and work for week or two at a time without coming out. They also have every strict revenue targets to meet to deem a game successful. Even with a popular title, 5~10% less piracy can mean the difference between getting a bonus for the hard work they put in or losing their job.
Given any reason, would a person still have pirated if say there were a 99% chance that they would be caught and put in jail for an year or two and have to pay a hefty fine? I guess not.
The average piracy level for games stands somewhere between 80~90%. i.e. Out of every 100 people playing the game, only 10~20 people have bought it. The purpose of DRM is not to make 90/100 people buy it, but to make 20 or 25 people buy it instead of 15. For a game that costs $100m to make and returns $150m. if 5% more people were buying it instead of pirating, it might mean an additional 50m in revenues. That kind of money can make a lot of difference to a studio and its employees.
Game studios are tedious places to work with employees putting in anywhere between 15~20 hours a day. Some times, (Ex: GoW 3), they shut the doors and work for week or two at a time without coming out. They also have every strict revenue targets to meet to deem a game successful. Even with a popular title, 5~10% less piracy can mean the difference between getting a bonus for the hard work they put in or losing their job.