• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    And I imagine a fair number of those who pirated also bought the game legally, either to have a digital backup or to run on a PC emulator.

    So your main groups pirating a given game are:

    1. people who never would’ve been customers
    2. actual customers who own a copy and want it on PC as well
    3. pirated first, and ended up buying the same later
    4. actual lost sales

    I imagine #4 is such a small percent of the total number of downloads that they probably help more than they hurt (e.g. word of mouth advertising).