According to the UK Interactive Entertainment association (UKIE), for everyone game sold in the UK, four are pirated. According to GameIndustryBiz UKIE bases this estimate on information received from various publishers.
The UKIE did not specify which formats were most affected, but it is generally believed that PC and Xbox 360 are the worst hit by piracy.
The announcement was made in order to clarify a BBC report stating that piracy amounted to around £1.45 billion in lost sales in 2010 in the UK alone.
“We took a conservative position of saying if this is only 1:1 across all titles it would have a retail equivalent value of £1.45 billion. We did not say this was the loss to industry,” said a UKIE representative.
“What is clear is people who ‘share’ games via P2P networks or buy illegal copies are not buying the real product, and this reduces retailer sales. It can provide the consumer with a sub-standard product and money paid to illegal traders does not flow back to the creative.”
“In turn, investors see higher risks/lower returns, and this in turn will undermine confidence in the sector and lower the amount of money invested, reducing the developer’s chance to create new products.”
UKIE plans to conduct further research into the matter, but for now is sticking to its 4:1 piracy to sales ratio. Tracking piracy is tricky business, and although these figures are not difficult to believe, they should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Loading ...
