Comment Re:News Flash (Score 1) 383
If they sold 500,000 at ~$50 , but could have hypothetically moved 3 million at ~$10, they might have come out 5 million dollars ahead (negligible per-copy cost incurred, so volume can pretty well be adjusted at will without repercussion).
That's way beyond unrealistic. I don't believe even half of the pirates would pay $10 for a game, let alone 80%. By that logic, video and music -- both almost universally available for download at pretty darned reasonable prices -- piracy wouldn't be a booming business (and it is a business for some pirate sites).
That's not to say that I disagree that price reductions could be implemented that would benefit the video game industry (there's probably a sales-enhancing middle ground between $10 and $50 per game) but given that video game prices haven't changed significantly -- compared with inflation and considering increased game development costs -- in 20+ years, I think we're dealing with a situation where most people who pirate won't pay any price for what they're downloading. Of course, that means that annoying DRM practices are still an exercise in futility.