It is a common belief that piracy has an effect on product sales. For example if you were to illegally download an album instead of buying it, it means that the record label has sold one less album that they could have otherwise sold. The same can also be said for video games, but apparently that isn’t necessarily the case.According to a recent report published by the EU Commission (via Games Industry), it seems that they have found no evidence that piracy actually affects video game sales. The EU Commission acknowledges that piracy does exist, but whether or not it prevents consumers from purchasing the game legally later on is a different story.
The report reads (in part), “In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements. That does not necessarily mean that piracy has no effect but only that the statistical analysis does not prove with sufficient reliability that there is an effect.”
Basically it suggests that even though some gamers pirate a game, it doesn’t mean that they might not buy the original later if they enjoy it. After all piracy is a way for gamers to experience a game in full that sometimes a trial version might not. The report also found that techniques like cutting prices do not affect the propensity for piracy either. It’s an interesting read and the findings do seem controversial, but what do you guys think?