One might wonder about the ratio of Nintendo’s legal budget to actual piracy losses.
Having been a college student back in the days of Napster (and ignoring the complete dearth at the time in physical stores of the sorts of music I was getting into), $20 CDs with one good track were not a value proposition. So when I downloaded a track, there was zero actual financial hit to whatever label or the RIAA … it’s a sale that never would have happened. You didn’t lose money; you gained exposure.
My last console was an SNES, so I have no horse in this race. But being actively hostile to your customers generally ends poorly.
As a grown-ass adult, I’ve spent more than $2,000 on music on Beatport, mostly $1.29 at a time replacing the stuff I pirated for better-quality versions.
When you have to take away rights that used to be guaranteed by the first-sale doctrine, it’s likely a sign there’s something wrong with your business model moreso than users causing so much chaos (and profit loss) that you have no choice.
This isn’t some fly-by-night AI toaster company that’ll shut down services in a year and leave you fucked. It’s Nintendo. They’re going to survive just fine.
My taste in games is somewhat different. I don’t look for storylines; I look for games with tremendous replay value like Factorio (which has the added benefit of endlessly being able add mods and start a totally new experience). I got it early enough – coincidentally because of an Ars review – that it was still just $20.
Some 800 hours later, that makes it 2.5 cents per hour for entertainment. And I’ll likely get the update pack when I have sufficient hardware, but I get that many popular games are more like books. I don’t tend to reread one as soon as I’m done, but in a few years, I might get a wild hair.
Oh yeah, it totally depends on the game. I do play and love the highly replayable stuff, but those games I almost never pirate, it’s usually something I already bought or would buy.I think one of the few non-online replayable games I’ve pirated was Rhythm Heaven on 3DS.
For quite some time, I’d watch YouTube playthroughs of about an hour and realized that in most cases, that was all I really needed. If shit starts looking grindy in an hour, you likely made a bad game.
I’m grateful for these streamers. They save me from wasting money.