Pirating is a difficult issue and as a gamer and game developer I sympathize with both sides, and here is why! I have lived 25 years in a post Soviet Eastern block country and the past 5 years in Canada, which has broadened my opinions on things. Now In the West if you make at least $20 an hour at your job, I see no reason for you to pirate games, unless you are just super into getting shit for free and couldn’t care less about the devs (especially indie devs who aren’t Toby Fox, tho he needs money to make better games too, I suppose). In the ye old Eastern Block, pirating is rampant and socially highly accepted. This is not because everyone from there is a thief, but because economical development is 50 years behind the West. E.g. an average salary of 80%, not even mentioning the minimum here, of my old countrymen is about 600 EUR (670 USD / 880 CAD) per MONTH that’s 3.4 EUR an hour (3.8 USD / 5 CAD). At this point you may think “well shits cheap there”, No! Most of the Ex-Soviet block countries are now in the Euro zone and prices are mostly balanced out, some thing are a bit cheaper, some dare I say more expensive. So extra money is rare. When I was working there most of my colleagues would run out of funds a week before payday…we cant talk about a “spending money” here. Now we have a dilemma, people want to game, but cant afford to pay 10-60 EUR for a game. So at least there pirating is not because people are assholes and want shit for free, tho there are those in every country, most who like the products they pirate, but they cant afford it. Some buy an original copy later on sale if they have the extra euro. Also this is form my experience so not to take everything at face value, nor am I defending piracy, just there are two sides to every coin.
Recently, I’m not hearing much talk about pirates, it is rumored that they are no longer able to hack the new games that are coming out, well, it was not an answer to your question, but it’s important to know.
Yes , I agree with him jocab . Because your question answer is very difficult because no one has support the piracy of the games.