Honey, Johnny's a Thief

New study suggests that piracy is rampant amongst teenagers, and they don't care either. Whatever.

Teenagers don't want to wait for games, they don't want to put any effort into buying games, and they sure don't want to pay for games. These are the findings of a small-scale study by the School of Business and Management at Brunel University into the ever-increasing problem of video game piracy.

Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas were on
the internet before they were even in stores

The researchers surveyed 217 gamers and asked them about their history with illegally copied games. Nearly 80 per cent of all responders said they had played pirated games at some point - a figure that jumps to 84 per cent for 15-18-year-olds.

But while the results will make cringeworthy reading for game company bosses, the study does reveal two interesting points that they might want to heed.

The majority of responders that played copied games said they did it because they didn't want to sit through the long wait between the release of games abroad and their release in the UK.

While the problem of delayed releases does still exist, publishers have made huge strides in this regard since the days of the Super NES and the Genesis, and these days many top games hit shelves worldwide within weeks - if not days - of one another.

Another popular response in the survey was that the convenience of being able to download games.

Publishers are just now starting to explore the idea of offering legal game downloads - and even then a solution for console games is a long way off. The best example of legal downloads done right is Half-Life 2, which developer Valve released through its Steam download service.

Piracy is a growing concern to everyone involved with the business of making games. Companies are losing sales of up to £2 billion per year, according to the UK industry group, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.

ELSPA has largely focussed its attention on hard goods, going after people selling counterfeit games at car boot sales and those selling copied games on auction sites such as eBay, but the group is keeping an eye on online miscreants as well.

Games companies should learn from surveys such as this to give gamers what they want, says study co-ordinator Alex Dodge:

"The message to manufacturers is clear: to minimise illegal downloading, ensure worldwide product releases, lower prices, and make it harder to pirate. Finally, work on a piracy education programme to engender a feeling amongst the young gaming community that piracy is wrong."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games