I love how they estimate every instance of piracy as a lost sale. Like oh, you can guarantee that every person pirating your content would have bought it if they couldn’t pirate it? No? Then its not a lost sale.
They like to claim that 40% of pirates would actually be paying customers if not for piracy. I know the number comes from an EU study, but i also know the number is insane bullshit. No way can they actually study that effectively and no way does it translate from the very narrow context (blockbuster movies, which makes the study even more ludicrous as big name movies usually suck) into a wider context.
In the context of anime I’d say piracy is a major positive influence on sales, considering it’s the reason why anyone watches anime in the west to begin with.
Def Leppard also noted that piracy usually leads to fans that pay more than people that don’t pirate at all.
For many, people can’t afford to just spend what might be a lot to them right now for something they don’t know if they will like it or not. Its a risk not worth the cost, and not every library has every new book/manga/movie/music album/video game/etc. Since most of these don’t have adequate “demos” for them to try out, they either:
A) Don’t buy it ever B) Pirate it
The ones that pirate might find out they actually like the thing, and when their fortunes turn around they end up being the biggest spenders that shareholders dream about. Is every pirate that way? No of course not. Most pirates download the data just because they can with no intent of ever buying it (IE, NOT a lost sale). But a sizable number of them go on to spend more than they would have if they didn’t pirate.
I will throw myself under the bus and admit this about myself. NieR Automata. I heard positive things about it, but at the time it was a lot of money for me to risk if I didn’t like the game. When it got cracked I pirated the game and played it. Loved the game.
Loved the game so much I bought it on Steam (at full price). Then I bought it on Xbox. Three times, twice as gifts for other people. Then I bought 2 gift copies on PS4. Then I bought NieR 2010 on the Xbox store. Then I imported a Japanese copy of NieR Gestalt. Then I pre-ordered the White Snow edition of the 1.22 remake. I even spent money on the mobile gacha game NieR Reincarnation (which was actually a fun game, I will add). I even bought copies of the Drakengard games to play those. And I eagerly await another chance to buy another Yoko Taro game. I don’t even like Square Enix. I just like Yoko Taro’s games and I want more of them.
All because I pirated one copy. That’s 12+ sales from a single vector of piracy. That’s a shareholder’s wet dream. They don’t realize I am only that way because piracy allowed me to take a risk on an experience I didn’t know I would like or not. By taking away my opportunity to play the game at no cost of risk, they eliminate people like me that turn into 12+sales from a single vector of piracy.
But I suppose they wouldn’t be businessmen if they weren’t bending over thousands to pinch pennies.
guess y’all should get faster translators then.
piracy is an access problem.
piracy is an access problem.
Tbf, not entirely. I used to use KManga and Shounen Jump, until I realized each of those services had more trackers than fucking Facebook. You shouldn’t trust paying customers like that
ODA as in “Official Development Assistance”, not as the One Piece author, if anyone else is as confused as I was
Does not help the thumbnail is one piece either. I was like “why are they weaponing Oda. What is he gonna do about it”
Counterfeit character goods? They might manage to get rid of that issue, since those can’t be created without an entire factory supply chain.
Online piracy? Get real. At most, they might be able to trace the ad payouts for sites whose owners are trying to make a quick buck. Stuff that’s being uploaded by actual fans without any hope of payback? That isn’t going away any time soon.
