Piracy is an economic issue. Want an example?

As we have said several times, if the pirate offers a product superior to the official one, at a more attractive price, the consumer will always opt for the illegal product, especially in the world of gaming, series, and films, where hunting for this type of activity does not yet constitute a threat severe enough to scare Internet users.

But there are very simple solutions. The problem is that there is also a glaring lack of implementing them.

Piracy is an economic issue and nothing more. Want an example?

Piracy is almost always an economic issue! What does it means? Well, it’s simple!

In short, you either can’t buy a game, a film, or a series, because the acquisition cost is too high, and so you’ll try another route. Or, the product is not available in your region (this happens a lot with films and series), and so you will pirate it.

Do you want an example of a strategy that worked and practically “killed” piracy? We had Netflix a few years ago! A service capable of offering tons of content of undeniable quality, at a very attractive price. (Unfortunately, Netflix is ​​no longer an example after the separation of multimedia content between various platforms, and of course, the many subscription price increases).

Want another simpler and more practical example?

We have the game Heartboundwhere the development team decided to make regional promotions taking into account the economic power of each country.

More specifically, one of the developers gave the example of Brazil. Why? Simple, because it is a region where piracy is almost “normal”. But not because Brazilians are idiots and want to have a product without paying for it. The reality is… Economically, it makes no sense to buy games in Brazil. Games are almost always exaggeratedly expensive, and as such, players opt for piracy.

What was the solution?

As the team noticed that many Brazilians liked the Heartbound demo, the team implemented a regional discount of 60%, which brought the game’s price to a very low 20 reais (€3.74). Result? The market accepted, and Brazil now represents 25% of the studio’s total revenue in sales.

Conclusion

Piracy doesn’t exist because consumers are bad and don’t want to spend money. Piracy exists because prices are often an exaggeration of the economic reality of many interested users.

It’s sad, but it’s also very simple.

Source