Piracy Business

Recently, computer and video games piracy has been running rampant and had eventually made it in the headlines. 

Despite the fact that piracy is an old business, the escalation and the illustrious yet desperate technical campaigns of publishers, game designers, and authorities to  halt the "black market's" propagation and distribution of illegally reproduced game software are proliferating at unimaginable speed.

Most game makers, just like other software companies, had devised all means so as to prohibit and reduce the likeness of copying the original identity of the games. Some had utilized 'restrictive protection schemes' that inhibit counterfeiting and distribution of electronic data. 

However, as long as incentives for creating copycats still exist, getting rid of piracy would be next to impossible. This means that if there is still somebody who patronizes counterfeit games, he / she is contributing and promoting piracy even unconsciously. 

On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves why most people favor imitation rather than procuring the original ones. 

One reason is the exorbitant cost. Not every game sold in the shelves is a good game, so players just get them safe - they just test what is most suitable to their taste, and that means trying the games at the lesser price from the sidewalks and online shops that provide cheaper or free downloads for the same game that costs much higher if bought from the accredited distributors.  Who wouldn’t be happy if such games will be provided for free? 

A way to do it is to give games away at a lesser cost and offer  a range of smaller down-loadable purchases at various prices. The customer would prefer this way rather than a one - time deal of a thousand bucks for a single purchase. An example of this is the social network game “Farmville” where the game costs nothing, unless you want to go to the higher level and choose to buy some additions. 

Another reason is that game titles should be made widely available anytime. Since there are a whole wide variety of games that you don’t even think exist, it is much feasible to sell a lot of copies at cheaper prices in order for it to be profitable. 

In general, the two mentioned ways in order for the game to broaden the market and increase profitability will do more than stamping out piracy by litigation or other technical campaigns.