Check out Franco's full article to find out the social and industrial implications of a nation that finds gaming piracy permissible. (Spoiler alert: It leads to bad things.)
[Via GamePolitics]
Check out Franco's full article to find out the social and industrial implications of a nation that finds gaming piracy permissible. (Spoiler alert: It leads to bad things.)
[Via GamePolitics]
Reader Comments (56)
Posted: May 13th 2009 7:53PM latin trident said
All of those baby pictures are really starting to creep me out.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 9:16PM DeepFriedSushi said
s-holes always have the highest levels of piracy.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 7:54PM The Blank Mage Returns said
Well, life imitates... um.... life. In Brazil. I guess.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 7:44PM Ashkental said
It's 200% of Taxes, a game that you guys Pay 59,99 USS (Street Fighter IV let's say) here in Brazil is costs 289,90 BRL so yeah... that must be the cause...
In my case i import 90% of my things (Wolverine and inFamous are 2 cases that i've imported)
Here in Brazil the prices are so awful that you just enter the Game Store to check new releases, out of 10 games i have i've bought 2 (Killzone 2 because released the same day, and Bad Company to comemorate my 1st salary :P)
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In my case i import 90% of my things (Wolverine and inFamous are 2 cases that i've imported)
Here in Brazil the prices are so awful that you just enter the Game Store to check new releases, out of 10 games i have i've bought 2 (Killzone 2 because released the same day, and Bad Company to comemorate my 1st salary :P)
Posted: May 13th 2009 7:48PM Ashkental said
But a report was released today, piracy has diminished 3% here in Brazil for the last 3 Years, people are starting to Buy from Steam and those things, because the value is much better, my friends are more and more buying from there...
I myself am buy my things from Digital Services like iTunes on my new iPod Touch and PSN (Disc Releases are almost all imported like i've said before)
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I myself am buy my things from Digital Services like iTunes on my new iPod Touch and PSN (Disc Releases are almost all imported like i've said before)
Posted: May 14th 2009 12:30AM Xerloq said
Eu amo Rua Uruguaiana - especially all the messed up pirated stuff. I love my blue "Chicago Bluus" shirt, and my "SQNY" walkman powered by "Panasoinc" batteries. I'd send pictures, but I can't find my "Nikkon" camera. I miss Brasil. Luckily my local supermarket carries Antartica. You want to talk about 200% taxes - one bottle set me back $5 US.
Doesn't PC Gamer Brasil release full games with each issue? Are those games legit or just old?
Seriously, Piracy is so high because the prices are more than the market can bear. Reasonable prices would mean reasonable piracy rates (because some people won't ever buy stuff they can get for free).
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Doesn't PC Gamer Brasil release full games with each issue? Are those games legit or just old?
Seriously, Piracy is so high because the prices are more than the market can bear. Reasonable prices would mean reasonable piracy rates (because some people won't ever buy stuff they can get for free).
Posted: May 14th 2009 8:40AM vmenge said
Prices are ridiculously high, and so is piracy. A game costs more than most people earn each month :/
The only time I used to buy original games was when I had my Nintendo 64, now I only buy original games when I really like them (Zelda, Diabo, and Valve games) or when they're for X360, cause modchipping will get me banned from live.
(I'm from Brazil btw)
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The only time I used to buy original games was when I had my Nintendo 64, now I only buy original games when I really like them (Zelda, Diabo, and Valve games) or when they're for X360, cause modchipping will get me banned from live.
(I'm from Brazil btw)
Posted: May 14th 2009 10:49AM tracer bullet said
@victor:
I saved for almost a year to buy my Wii. I have a separate saving acount where I put every month 20, 50 reais, so I can buy games and keep my computer upgrated.
Lack of money is not excuse for feeding the piracy machine. Save first, buy the legit product later. Is that simple
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I saved for almost a year to buy my Wii. I have a separate saving acount where I put every month 20, 50 reais, so I can buy games and keep my computer upgrated.
Lack of money is not excuse for feeding the piracy machine. Save first, buy the legit product later. Is that simple
Posted: May 13th 2009 7:46PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
Brazil?? Blasted Game Politics....now the Somalians are going to start showing people just how they are REAL Pirates just to keep their "G" status up...
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Posted: May 14th 2009 8:03AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
which one??? damn Weblogs image system has it switching between 3 pics....
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Posted: May 15th 2009 9:28AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
yea they really need to get they shit together...lol
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Posted: May 13th 2009 7:55PM (Unverified) said
I've been using Steam for some time now. We get the same USD price and most weekend deals are very sweet.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 8:00PM (Unverified) said
i hate that so many steal music movies and games and dont see it for what it is
i for one HOPE they make the laws better its got to stop
and dont get me they cost to much bull games were $50 in the 90s
back at the time the $ was worth way more then it is now
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i for one HOPE they make the laws better its got to stop
and dont get me they cost to much bull games were $50 in the 90s
back at the time the $ was worth way more then it is now
Posted: May 13th 2009 10:50PM (Unverified) said
wow shocks me so many here are pro stealing
kind of sad hope one day you are at the othere end someday
how will you feel if some one stole your car or are robed
and dont tell me its not the same thing
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kind of sad hope one day you are at the othere end someday
how will you feel if some one stole your car or are robed
and dont tell me its not the same thing
Posted: May 14th 2009 12:37AM Xerloq said
Tell you what - you go live in abject poverty for a while and tell me how long it takes you to start stealing. And not the type of poverty we have in the US. I mean, go build your house on top of a river of poo where the John is a hole in the floor to the river below.
Is stealing still wrong, yes. So harsh to judge, no.
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Is stealing still wrong, yes. So harsh to judge, no.
Posted: May 14th 2009 5:55AM Alphathon said
Actually, piracy of media isn't techincally stealing, but breach of copyright. If you steal something, then the original owner no longer has said thing. If you pirate something, they still have the original. What they have lost is the potential profit from the sale, not an item, so that is how it it treated. Of course it is possible to steal media, but that would have to be stealing a phisical disk or whatever, and again that wouldn't be reach of copyright. In my eyes, and in the eyes of the law in most places, copyright theft is a lesser crime than physical theft. That is why to me some of the piracy cases you hear about are so bad - because the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Don't get me wrong, it should be illigal, and should be punished, but only fitting to the crime, and why the RIAA and other bodies are evil. Suing for $1000s for downloading a few songs is more wrong than the downloading itself. How it should be done (I think) is the company gets payment for the media DLed, like compensation, then the government fines the individual, not a suit for $1000s that just goes to the rights holder. Sometimes these suits come to 100s of times the value of the media, which is just wrong.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 8:02PM (Unverified) said
uh, is this really new? Anyone living on S America, or that is at least informed about it, knows how awful/high piracy is. And funny thing is that, from what I have seen, Brazil has even less piracy than most other S American countries.
But yah, like he explains, there are many factors that come into play for such high numbers, not only is the low average income, but also the fact that society accepts it, and as a matter of fact, at times even mocks those that buy original games.
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But yah, like he explains, there are many factors that come into play for such high numbers, not only is the low average income, but also the fact that society accepts it, and as a matter of fact, at times even mocks those that buy original games.
Posted: May 13th 2009 8:27PM (Unverified) said
I live in Brazil so I can say that in here piraty unfortunately is a big thing.
I am the small percentage that only buy originals (I have a Wii and PS3) and I do that because I know how to import games. Retail games are $60 in US, but in here games are 280BRL because of the taxes. That also aply for console, hardware, PC and a very big list of products. Even free hardware is taxed in here. Mario Kart Wii costed more than 300BRL just because of the plastic streering wheel.
I personally blame the government for the those taxes, but I still have hope that someday the nacional market will rise again. I also have a huge interest for game development but the actual scenario of Brazil makes things neraly impossible for that.
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I am the small percentage that only buy originals (I have a Wii and PS3) and I do that because I know how to import games. Retail games are $60 in US, but in here games are 280BRL because of the taxes. That also aply for console, hardware, PC and a very big list of products. Even free hardware is taxed in here. Mario Kart Wii costed more than 300BRL just because of the plastic streering wheel.
I personally blame the government for the those taxes, but I still have hope that someday the nacional market will rise again. I also have a huge interest for game development but the actual scenario of Brazil makes things neraly impossible for that.
Posted: May 13th 2009 8:48PM tracer bullet said
I also live in Brazil, and 100% of my games/music CDs/computer programs are legal, bought in reliable stores, with all documents, taxes, warranties.
However, what I receive in exchange?
I still don't have a clue when ExciteBots will be released here. I try not to have my hope high for games like Litle King Story, that has not a disney/movie character behind it nor is backed by giants like EA.
The market becames so small, due to people buying pirate copies, that becomes very hard to find a good, legal title around.
A shame.
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However, what I receive in exchange?
I still don't have a clue when ExciteBots will be released here. I try not to have my hope high for games like Litle King Story, that has not a disney/movie character behind it nor is backed by giants like EA.
The market becames so small, due to people buying pirate copies, that becomes very hard to find a good, legal title around.
A shame.
Posted: May 14th 2009 12:42AM Xerloq said
@ Seph and Tracer - good for you. I'm fairly certain everything I bought while I lived there is legit - the cases are covered with those little holographic stickers. I think the obvious (but less important) problem are the feiras and other stores where you can easily find low quality pirated stuff. The bigger problem are the high quality merchandise that might be stolen or counterfeit. Some of that stuff makes it into the stores.
Once I saw a guy selling sheets of the little stickers they put on CDs, so even then there's no guarantee. I do miss being able to listen to a disc before buying it, though. Do they still do that?
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Once I saw a guy selling sheets of the little stickers they put on CDs, so even then there's no guarantee. I do miss being able to listen to a disc before buying it, though. Do they still do that?
Posted: May 13th 2009 8:31PM Bitter Kevin said
This must be why I keep getting Brazillian hosts in Gears of War 2. Thanks a bunch for that region filter, CliffyB.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 9:15PM Vaitork said
Heh, you should check things up here in Venezuela.
I have just ONE friend who was on that very small percentage of people who had everything legal... until he realized he was going to be broke pretty soon unless he started torrenting his stuff. The rest simply think of it as something normal.
The worst part is that we, as a whole mass, are already USED to that. Dammit, the biggest mall in my home city has a videogame store that sells pirated games. In a mall! Not an undercover, shady business or anything, right there where everyone can see it. As a matter of fact, there's this store that has both legal games and R4 cartridges on display. I know, what the heck?
"But hey, why don't you guys import your games then?"
Yes, that WAS an alternative at some point, but it so happens that we Venezuelans have a credit card limit on internet business. We can spend $400 a year on the internet. Yes, $400 for A WHOLE YEAR. That includes Steam, Amazon, eBay... You should see my Steam transactions, full of 50-75% discount games. It's really the only option to support game devs in here. Oh, and off-internet transactions? Just $2500 a year. With hotel, food and other stuff to pay, videogaming loses its priority quickly.
As a side note, the only "remarkable" thing about pirates in here is that they apparently take efforts in protecting national material. Heck, if you try to search a copy of "Secuestro Express" (a quite decent movie about a kidnapping in Caracas), you won't find it on the streets. I'm baffled at that. Kind of a pirate code. Who would have though?
At least Brazilians have the option to go "clean". Then again, this is Venezuela we're talking about...
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I have just ONE friend who was on that very small percentage of people who had everything legal... until he realized he was going to be broke pretty soon unless he started torrenting his stuff. The rest simply think of it as something normal.
The worst part is that we, as a whole mass, are already USED to that. Dammit, the biggest mall in my home city has a videogame store that sells pirated games. In a mall! Not an undercover, shady business or anything, right there where everyone can see it. As a matter of fact, there's this store that has both legal games and R4 cartridges on display. I know, what the heck?
"But hey, why don't you guys import your games then?"
Yes, that WAS an alternative at some point, but it so happens that we Venezuelans have a credit card limit on internet business. We can spend $400 a year on the internet. Yes, $400 for A WHOLE YEAR. That includes Steam, Amazon, eBay... You should see my Steam transactions, full of 50-75% discount games. It's really the only option to support game devs in here. Oh, and off-internet transactions? Just $2500 a year. With hotel, food and other stuff to pay, videogaming loses its priority quickly.
As a side note, the only "remarkable" thing about pirates in here is that they apparently take efforts in protecting national material. Heck, if you try to search a copy of "Secuestro Express" (a quite decent movie about a kidnapping in Caracas), you won't find it on the streets. I'm baffled at that. Kind of a pirate code. Who would have though?
At least Brazilians have the option to go "clean". Then again, this is Venezuela we're talking about...
Posted: May 13th 2009 10:20PM RodrigoCard said
WOW! That Chavez guy did this to Venezuelians? =(
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Posted: May 13th 2009 10:29PM Vaitork said
Well, our currency has been devaluating since God knows how many years, and people were buying EVERYTHING outside (US, Colombia, Panama) because everything is so expensive here (I should know. It's been years since I bought a pair of shoes here). It's sort of a measure to avoid our market to come to a full halt.
It is somewhat understandable honestly, but still, it's very far from pleasant.
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It is somewhat understandable honestly, but still, it's very far from pleasant.
Posted: May 13th 2009 9:46PM JoshMilewski said
Yeah, it's the prices.
There are so many fucking problems like this in South America.
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There are so many fucking problems like this in South America.
Posted: May 13th 2009 9:59PM (Unverified) said
Well, Mexico pretty much pwns everyone when it comes to piracy (and H1N1)... it makes Brazil look like a kid discovering Napster back in 1999.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 10:21PM RodrigoCard said
Mexico has much better Taxes for games... so...
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Posted: May 14th 2009 12:13AM (Unverified) said
Totally, I agree... but still, we've got high taxes. $100 for a $60 360/PS3 game, more when it's a AAA game, $500 for a $250 dollar Wii, $700 for a $400 PS3 and $450-500 for a $200 XBOX (in dollars). Hell, even the PS2 goes for twice as much down here.
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Posted: May 14th 2009 12:26PM RodrigoCard said
U$450 for a wii or U$700 for a PS3 IS a good price in Brazil... looking to "official" prices... this is the prices we pay in Grey Maket :P
But the problem is warranty:
I spend U$550 in my North-American xbox last november... only one year warranty from the importer... if i get 3RL or e74 after next november... then i will be fucked =P
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But the problem is warranty:
I spend U$550 in my North-American xbox last november... only one year warranty from the importer... if i get 3RL or e74 after next november... then i will be fucked =P
Posted: May 13th 2009 10:37PM (Unverified) said
That picture of Jesus and um Pirating, and the implied statement is just immature and insulting.
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Posted: May 13th 2009 10:43PM tracer bullet said
Actually, Velstar, the Cristo Redentor is our version of the Statue of Liberty. Most don't see it as a religious simbol, but as a country landmark. Imagine the pirate baby talking with the Statue of Liberty: nothing offensive, right?
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Posted: May 14th 2009 2:16AM (Unverified) said
Glad to be part of the 6% share of the market.
Taxes are high too high in here, but another problem are titles that actually don't get released at all in here and piracy is the only choice. For over 2 years Rock Band haven't been on the store shelves and other games takes way too long to hit the shelves. I've bought pirated games myself but stopped it as it was damaging my console, got me banned from live and was also not being a cool thing with the developers I admire.
But the thing is, yes you can be part of the legal 6%, but it's TERRIBLY annoying to import a game from the US (mainly thru ebay), wait weeks to arrive and pay other 60% tax fee because it's an 'imported good'.
40% on taxes is way too much, but we believe that with Meebo launch (a national videogame with 3G and some stuff that I'd like to see on Xbox/Wii/PS3), the government might start giving more attention to gaming and start diminishing painful taxes.
R$ 220 on a game is way too much! (that's around 100 US Dollars, yes, it's almost the DOUBLE price games are in the USA).
And you know what? My congratulations to Steam, XBLA, PSN and WiiWare, at least in those places I can buy legitimate games in here and not pay uber-painful taxes. :D
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Taxes are high too high in here, but another problem are titles that actually don't get released at all in here and piracy is the only choice. For over 2 years Rock Band haven't been on the store shelves and other games takes way too long to hit the shelves. I've bought pirated games myself but stopped it as it was damaging my console, got me banned from live and was also not being a cool thing with the developers I admire.
But the thing is, yes you can be part of the legal 6%, but it's TERRIBLY annoying to import a game from the US (mainly thru ebay), wait weeks to arrive and pay other 60% tax fee because it's an 'imported good'.
40% on taxes is way too much, but we believe that with Meebo launch (a national videogame with 3G and some stuff that I'd like to see on Xbox/Wii/PS3), the government might start giving more attention to gaming and start diminishing painful taxes.
R$ 220 on a game is way too much! (that's around 100 US Dollars, yes, it's almost the DOUBLE price games are in the USA).
And you know what? My congratulations to Steam, XBLA, PSN and WiiWare, at least in those places I can buy legitimate games in here and not pay uber-painful taxes. :D
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