this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Ultrakill dev says it's fine to pirate his game if you don't have money to spare: 'Culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it' (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Gotta love this quote from the article: "piracy doesn't mean a lost sale if the person pirating the game couldn't afford it in the first place."

I've seen this happen time and time again with people I know who simply couldn't pay even a single dollar for a game, and had no other options available. They deserve to experience culture and entertainment just as much as the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The original owner of Galactic Civilization 2 basically said the same thing. He also wrote the Gamers' Bill of Rights.

So of course GalCiv3 did the exact opposite, removed a key feature (milky way map) that was in the first 2 so they could sell it as an overpriced DLC, and made as many DLCs as they could (though not nearly as bad as Paradox or EA).

I don't know who owns Stardock Entertainment now, if the owner sold it, sold out, or got hostile takeovered, but now they're just like all the other big corporate assholes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

The enshitification is a very real thing unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, piracy does drive down sales, as some of the people who would otherwise buy the game do pirate it.

Even still, word of mouth is a great way to compensate for that effect; also, culture really shouldn't be reserved to those who have the means.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, piracy does drive down sales, as some of the people who would otherwise buy the game do pirate it.

Do we know that for sure? If games don't have demos, and don't have pirated copies available, how do you know that people who would have otherwise pirated it are just going to go ahead and buy it?

Also, isn't the opposite true? If pirated copies of games are available, won't some people treat them as demos and if they like the game then they will end up buying it to support the developer and to get official updates for the game?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

It's generally not an accurate statement to say that piracy drives down sales, at least when you look at overall measurements. You're definitely correct in assuming pirates want to support developers (and media creators in general) that they enjoy the works of, because pirates are by far the largest purchasers of content compared to traditional content purchasers