NTSC-RePlay 014: Avast Me Hearties!

[Neon Ignition]

Given the cyclical nature of much of the gaming discussion that goes on, centering on topics such as new consoles and industry practices etc we're now making heavy progress through the years as we move from subject to subject in our journey through the sites past.


This isn't NTSC-UK... it's NTSC-RePlay

The date is 05 November 2007 and Dirty Sanchez posted following up on a discussion about a user playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on release via iso. The discussion centred on the widespread avenues to consume pirated media both within and without gaming and its place within discussion on the forum. The industries were making loud movements to curb the piracy of games, movies, films and TV shows.

Fast forward 15 years and piracy isn't what it once was. Whilst it's still possible to pirate console and PC games the practice is a very small niche of what it once was, companies have stopped making as much focus on it with the most notable likely being Nintendo due to a working emulator of their current system already existing.

With the public facing less money to go out and entertain themselves thanks to a cost of living crisis and dark months ahead, accepted or not, does piracy still have a future and in hindsight was its decline a huge win or proof of its real level of impact on industry earnings?

[Asura]

With the public facing less money to go out and entertain themselves thanks to a cost of living crisis and dark months ahead, accepted or not, does piracy still have a future and in hindsight was its decline a huge win or proof of its real level of impact on industry earnings?

This is a source of much debate.

Part of the discussion has to involve how we consume content (I feel dirty just for saying that) now vs. how we did in the 2000s.

Question - when was the last time you were actually bored? And I mean the full-on, stark, "trapped at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere for four hours with no phone and utter silence" bored? I was thinking about this a couple of days ago, when my phone battery was low, and it occurred to me it's comparatively rare.

This is mainly because due to various services and smartphones, I suspect that most of us are 4-5 clicks/taps away from enough content to literally not stop watching until we're dead. I have such a long list on Crunchyroll the phone app used to crash before I could scroll through it all.

Ultimately though this has changed how videogames work because every from of media - book, YouTube, game, board game, movie... They're all competing with most of the media mankind has ever made. This is different to even in ~2008 when you maybe had your book/game/DVD collection and the current offerings on television, and that was it.

So we used to pirate media just to have something to watch. I used to do it in Japan purely because I didn't have much of an alternative (though I did it less once I'd found a local DVD rental place that had English materials). These days, that's not an excuse anymore because you can fire up any service, and while you might have to pay, <£10 for a month is basically nothing for what you get.

I haven't pirated any media now in quite some time, apart from anime, and even then, I'm subbed to multiple services and still buy Blu-Rays of anime - I've only pirated stuff where I've absolutely exhausted any and all means to legimitately buy it (there are still many releases which are region-locked and exclude European customers).

As to earnings, that's a thorny issue. The argument is still, often, that those who pirate something are unlikely to have ever bought it anyway, and I think that's true. Certainly people should always ensure their products have very good branding and good indicators of their official sources, as I'm sure piracy creates some customers who later go seeking the official product (though you can't easily measure that traffic).

But you do still see some people saying "50,000 people downloaded my game on a Russian warez site! I'm gonna sue them for 50,000 lost sales" and that's just straight-up idiocy.

[wakka]

In the 2000s, although I used to buy lots of games and DVDs, I also used to pirate an awful lot of stuff.

Part of the reason why is because delivery mechanisms for content had failed to catch up with technology. I was a teenager living with my mum and dad, in a rural place with zero shops in walking distance and the nearest town a 20 minute walk on a grassy verge along an A-road and then a 75+ minute bus journey.

If I wanted a game or a film or a TV show, there and then via digital delivery, I could get it - but only via illegal means. Faced with a choice between a multi hour schlep into town in the rain and a speedy torrent and a cup of tea, it wasn't exactly a tough decision!

These days I would never pirate stuff. Now that I'm not a feckless teenager I know it's morally wrong, but there's also no reason to if you are fortunate enough not to be very hard up. Subscription services offer more than I could ever watch or play, and faster than ever, and what isn't available on them can easily be purchased for an additional fee.

[Asura]

but there's also no reason to if you are fortunate enough not to be very hard up..

And that's the thing, right? I mean you'd need to be very hard-up. Last time I got made redundant, I immediately cancelled nearly everything; gym, phone, etc. - but I kept Netflix, because back then it was £5 a month and honestly, with the amount of hours I suddenly had free, it seemed an absolute no-brainer. What else can you spend £5 on that gives you that much entertainment? You can barely buy a meal at KFC for £5 these days.

[dataDave]

I pirate mainly for demo purposes. Elden Ring being the most recent. I’m really glad I didn’t waste money on that, which I very nearly did.

Spite and/or entitlement is another valid reason. I’d pirated PC Skyrim for years due to paying full retail price on launch day for the utterly whacked 360 version. I don’t think I’ve ever been offended by software as much in my life before, so bollocks to giving them even more money. I think I spent something in the region of €100 donating to various mod authors instead. Of course, after a few years the people who wrote the script extender made the Steam version compulsory, so I was forced to finally cough up. Even then I went out of my way to purchase the key from a dodgy Russian site for a tenner.

[Neon Ignition]

It feels like each branch of media has refocused its delivery and priorities to mitigate most of piracy and that seems to have worked really well for the most part.

Music - Has swung its focus to advertising, cross media contracts, albums and touring. As a result sales of singles are abysmal and there are many avenues for people to get hold of songs for free but the money lost is likely not worthy companies crying over anymore as the split and impact of other avenues such as Youtube etc have spread earnings so widely and thin. The days of everything being centred on the race to Singles No.1 is long gone, someone can take that title and still turn no money if they can't build a tour, merchandise sales etc. Looking at this weeks Top 10, Harry Styles takes the entire Top 3 spots, Sam Ryder has one, Lizzo has one, Ed Sheeran and Camilla Cabello has one then Jack Harlow, Cat Burns, Fireboy DML and Tion Wayne make up the rest. Switch to albums and Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran pop up but after that it's a completely different list: Kendrick Lamar, Everything Everything, M Huncho, Florence and the Machine, Little Mix, Olivia Rodrigo and N-Dubz... N-Dubz!

Film - I'm sure there's still a portion of it but much like how physical media sales have dropped off, audiences seem to have gone to the cinema/streaming service split which given the short window for most films seems to have negated a lot of the demand for pirating.

TV - Presumably the one with the highest demand. The old thing of it being the only way to get certain episodes or access to ones before the internet is riddled with spoilers etc is still going to be true. Streaming services likely lowered demand but I'd imagine that the continued fracturing of content between more and more services will drive demand back up to an extent as whilst services are cheap it's not too practical to subscribe to a dozen of them as your shows move home, especially as some aren't available in the country your in recreating that earlier scenario.

Games - Really hard to quantify this one. I'd hazard that the jump in digital earnings from big games companies is one indicator, also the much tighter security to disc copying etc modern consoles have. Also, things like Denuvo that have been cracked to a large extent but the noise around it etc is so subdued and slow moving that it feels like it again falls under the small percentage.

It definitely feels like it's a much less common and less problematic issue to the media industry compared to past years and the other difficulties they now face

[QualityChimp]

I still tape the Top 40 and try to stop before the DJ speaks, so I'm still a pirate.

Nah, I can't remember the last thing I pirated.

I pay for Amazon Music, which has almost everything I could wish for, so no need for Napster.

Streaming services, I have all but Shudder and AppleTV, so have more than I could ever hope to get through, so the last thing I watched unofficially was a download of Chernobyl, and it felt quite anachronistic to get something illegally.
Things might change when all these streamers continue to splinter or change their revenue methods (no sharing, lots of adverts).

Last films I got were obscure martial arts films about 5+ years back, but I'm hoping Eureka/88Films continue to explore more unusual films alongside Jackie Chan staples.

Games - I haven't pirated anything for years as it's so hard to do these days.
I guess I looked into how easy it was to copy Dreamcast games when I got one within the last decade, loooong after it was Sega's current console.
I keep looking at getting something for emulation (Miyoo Mino, Pi or Anbernic), which will definitely involve some form of piracy, if I'm honest, even though it seems acceptable these days.

[Asura]

Music - Has swung its focus to advertising, cross media contracts, albums and touring

I remember reading a few years ago about someone who did the music for the Jon Lewis Christmas ad earned more money than they had for all uses of that song prior.

TV - Presumably the one with the highest demand. The old thing of it being the only way to get certain episodes or access to ones before the internet is riddled with spoilers etc is still going to be true. Streaming services likely lowered demand but I'd imagine that the continued fracturing of content between more and more services will drive demand back up to an extent as whilst services are cheap it's not too practical to subscribe to a dozen of them as your shows move home, especially as some aren't available in the country your in recreating that earlier scenario.

The increased effort involved, now it's less common, plays a factor.

I'm a massive Trek fan and I haven't seen Discovery S4 or the new show, purely because they're not available here.

[Neon Ignition]

The Anbernic angle is interesting. Say you go on Era or elsewhere piracy will always be derided but at the time there'll be popular threads acting as a love in for such devices that are based entirely around it

[Brad]

[phillv85]

I used to download all sorts, but these days I don't have the time or desire to do so. I think I gave up downloading movies about a decade ago, music around the same time. TV shows I used to download a couple of shows each week until about 6 years ago. Games, I think the last system I did any piracy for was the Xbox 360 in its early days. A bloke at work modded my first 360 to take burned discs, but that system inevitably red ringed and I never bothered doing it again. Around the same time I had one of those R4 cards for the DS. I actually got the DS because you could get those R4 cards and then went on to buy dozens of new DS games.

[wakka]

The Anbernic angle is interesting. Say you go on Era or elsewhere piracy will always be derided but at the time there'll be popular threads acting as a love in for such devices that are based entirely around it

I think it's natural that people would see a difference between loading up on ROMs and ripping off the latest games.

[QualityChimp]

I think it's natural that people would see a difference between loading up on ROMs and ripping off the latest games.

This is something that's always a grey area for many people and doesn't seem to apply to every form of media.

Robocop (1987) is about £1 in CEX on DVD, but it's just been back on the cinema and it's just had an Arrow 4K release, so it still has value to people and the studio.

The Ninja Warriors (1987) is on the Play Store for £5.79. Although I'm curious to replay this game, I don't think it's worth that price, but obviously Sony do.

It's interesting to see what our minds say is acceptable piracy.

dataDave demoing Elden Ring and disliking it is reason enough for him to think it's OK, but that's definitely piracy and definitely theft!

[wakka]

For me it comes down to the resources expended to create that particular version. Sony have expended money and resources (not a huge amount, granted) to get The Ninja Warriors onto the PlayStation Store, so I'm fine with paying for the convenience of having it on my PS. If I want it on PS, I actually have no other options, and I think that's fair.

But by the same token, if I download and emulate the ROM on my PC, that's also fine in my book - the original developers have already been paid, many years ago, after all.

In your film example it's the same thing. Arrow have expended a huge amount of cash and resources to get Robocop onto 4K. That is an expensive, labour intensive process. So for me that's absolutely worth £30 (especially as I want to support them in doing that great work). Downloading that 4K version would be 100% wrong.

Absolutely nothing wrong with purchasing the DVD version for a pound, though. Everyone who worked on that was paid long ago.

None of this is hard and fast, but it's all just what feels right to me.

[dataDave]

I wish I could pay for the Star Wars Despecialized Editions and have them in a nice case.