I compiled the results of a recent game piracy survey I did on a very large site devoted to warez and wrote up a small report. It's a pretty tiny sample size, but it just seemed nobody wanted to help me with it (I guess everyone's too cautious around there to click on links like that... understandable though I guess).
It's definitely not a formal survey, so don't look into the results too much. I did my best to get rid of the incomplete/spoiled entries, but there could have been more I didn't catch. That and added with the sample size issue, I'd say the results are pretty unreliable. Still, it was pretty fun and interesting to do.
Here it is:
A majority of the participants are unemployed (students or otherwise), accounting for 72% of the results. This corresponds with the fact that 80% of them are in the 14 to 25 age range (43% overall are aged 19-25). 87% earn fewer than $30,000 per annum, with the majority of them not having any income at all.
As for game purchasing behaviours, the average participant was estimated to have bought 1.09 games in the past 30 days at around $32 per game. However, 54% did not buy at all. For the game pirating behaviours, an estimated average of 3.54 games was pirated per participant in the past 30 days. For every game pirated, 0.13 of them (estimated) would have been purchased if piracy was unavailable.
Furthermore, 57% of the participants have a paid membership for any of the various file-sharing sites. This suggests that the individuals are willing to pay to pirate, but perhaps not willing to pay full-price for games. In fact, this is stressed several times in some comments made by a few participants – games are too expensive, and that it’s also difficult to know if they’d be getting the full value out of a game that may cost up to $60-70 US. 58% also said that they would buy MORE games if they had a larger budget, which again, may be equivalent to saying that they would purchase more games if they had the same budget, but cheaper games. For another question, a third replied that they were looking forward to the Steam holiday sales, with 23% responding that they would not purchase games even with price-reductions.
Other comments include:
- Only buy console games.
- Use pirated games as demos.
- It’s free!
- Much more willing to pay for online games while pirating single player games.
- Buy indie games; don’t agree with the greediness and policies of many major developers/publishers.
In conclusion, a great percentage of individuals who pirate video games do purchase, but perhaps not willing to pay so much since most of them do not have too much disposable income. The $32 average for games spent by these participants show that when games are $60 to $70, they may prove to be too pricey for most of these people. So why do people pirate? In my opinion they’re young, poor, and games are too expensive. It may be easy to say “if you can’t afford it, then don’t play it,” but considering the average age of these participants, not playing video games would be a VERY tough thing to do, especially if the means to do it is right in front of them. Not that they're right in doing that, but it's somewhat understandable.
It's definitely not a formal survey, so don't look into the results too much. I did my best to get rid of the incomplete/spoiled entries, but there could have been more I didn't catch. That and added with the sample size issue, I'd say the results are pretty unreliable. Still, it was pretty fun and interesting to do.
Here it is:
A majority of the participants are unemployed (students or otherwise), accounting for 72% of the results. This corresponds with the fact that 80% of them are in the 14 to 25 age range (43% overall are aged 19-25). 87% earn fewer than $30,000 per annum, with the majority of them not having any income at all.
As for game purchasing behaviours, the average participant was estimated to have bought 1.09 games in the past 30 days at around $32 per game. However, 54% did not buy at all. For the game pirating behaviours, an estimated average of 3.54 games was pirated per participant in the past 30 days. For every game pirated, 0.13 of them (estimated) would have been purchased if piracy was unavailable.
Furthermore, 57% of the participants have a paid membership for any of the various file-sharing sites. This suggests that the individuals are willing to pay to pirate, but perhaps not willing to pay full-price for games. In fact, this is stressed several times in some comments made by a few participants – games are too expensive, and that it’s also difficult to know if they’d be getting the full value out of a game that may cost up to $60-70 US. 58% also said that they would buy MORE games if they had a larger budget, which again, may be equivalent to saying that they would purchase more games if they had the same budget, but cheaper games. For another question, a third replied that they were looking forward to the Steam holiday sales, with 23% responding that they would not purchase games even with price-reductions.
Other comments include:
- Only buy console games.
- Use pirated games as demos.
- It’s free!
- Much more willing to pay for online games while pirating single player games.
- Buy indie games; don’t agree with the greediness and policies of many major developers/publishers.
In conclusion, a great percentage of individuals who pirate video games do purchase, but perhaps not willing to pay so much since most of them do not have too much disposable income. The $32 average for games spent by these participants show that when games are $60 to $70, they may prove to be too pricey for most of these people. So why do people pirate? In my opinion they’re young, poor, and games are too expensive. It may be easy to say “if you can’t afford it, then don’t play it,” but considering the average age of these participants, not playing video games would be a VERY tough thing to do, especially if the means to do it is right in front of them. Not that they're right in doing that, but it's somewhat understandable.
ing over developers and publishers.
