70% of Russian Gamers Are Pirates Following Western Publisher Exodus (torrentfreak.com) 93
According to a new study from online game development platform School XYZ, the exodus of major international video game publishers from Russia led to a sharp rise in the number of video gamers playing pirates games. TorrentFreak reports: Almost seven out of ten video gamers (69%) said they'd played at least one pirated copy in 2022, and more than half (51%) said that they're now pirating more than they did in 2021. As first reported by the Russian news outlet Vedomosti (paywall), the study was conducted across all regions of Russia and took into account all unlicensed game formats, in most cases downloaded from torrent sites. While over a quarter of respondents (27%) said they'd pirated three PC games in 2022, and 20% confessed to pirating more than 10, other figures from the study are more positive. Of the 31% of gamers who reported pirating nothing in 2022, all said that they were opposed to piracy. Just 7% of gamers admitted to buying no games at all in 2022, meaning that 93% bought at least one piece of legitimate content.
According to Alexander Kuzmenko, the former editor of Russian videogame magazine and gaming website Igromania (Game Mania), it's not just the departure of publishers including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo causing problem for gamers. When platforms like Steam and GOG, known for their ease of access, stopped supporting Russian bank cards, barriers appeared in a previously frictionless system. Yegor Tomsky, CEO at Watt Studio, agrees that buying content has become much more difficult. "Players are used to buying games on Steam in one click, and now, to buy a game, you need to perform the same actions as when downloading a pirated version, so everyone chooses to save money," Tomsky says.
As the Russian economy faces huge difficulties directly linked to the invasion of Ukraine, some fear that game piracy rates are heading towards the 90%+ mark last seen around two decades ago. People everywhere are trying to save money and according to Konstantin Sakhnov, co-founder of Vengeance Games, overseas game publishers may see lost profits reach $200-$300 million. A report from Kommersant published today indicates that local companies are also feeling the pain. According to data published by job search platform HH.ru, during the first half of 2023 the number of vacancies for video game developers in Russia plummeted 38%.
According to Alexander Kuzmenko, the former editor of Russian videogame magazine and gaming website Igromania (Game Mania), it's not just the departure of publishers including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo causing problem for gamers. When platforms like Steam and GOG, known for their ease of access, stopped supporting Russian bank cards, barriers appeared in a previously frictionless system. Yegor Tomsky, CEO at Watt Studio, agrees that buying content has become much more difficult. "Players are used to buying games on Steam in one click, and now, to buy a game, you need to perform the same actions as when downloading a pirated version, so everyone chooses to save money," Tomsky says.
As the Russian economy faces huge difficulties directly linked to the invasion of Ukraine, some fear that game piracy rates are heading towards the 90%+ mark last seen around two decades ago. People everywhere are trying to save money and according to Konstantin Sakhnov, co-founder of Vengeance Games, overseas game publishers may see lost profits reach $200-$300 million. A report from Kommersant published today indicates that local companies are also feeling the pain. According to data published by job search platform HH.ru, during the first half of 2023 the number of vacancies for video game developers in Russia plummeted 38%.
Encouraged by the State (Score:3, Informative)
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]
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I recall there being reporting that this was actually legalized in Russia in the wake of many companies pulling out. I.e. if you pulled out of Russia/banned business from Russian residents/citizens, you lost immaterial rights in Russia.
So it's not just Kremlin (Russian executive), but Russian Duma (legislative) that got involved if I'm not mistaken.
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any source to that? bc anything i can find online is just old speculation and no actual citations at all. and that's all mostly about the state reserving the right to control any ip/economic resource in a state of emergency, a prerogative that probably every state in the world grants itself and .,. has nothing whatsoever to do with people pirating games (bc that's the only way for them to get them at present time).
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I recall reading about it back last year. Honestly, I'm fluent in Russian, but I lack the necessary vocabulary (like what immaterial rights as a legal term are in Russian) to search Russian web for this in a few minutes rather than digging into the research for a few hours.
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To explant on my previous post, I decided I could spend 15 minutes searching, but my lack of relevant vocabulary in Russian appears to populate my search mainly with brand protection issues, which is in fact still in place according to articles from april of this year.
I can't find an article about actual intellectual property protections though.
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ok, ok! thanks for the effort! :)
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I likely will be smacked with the [Citation Needed] cudgel, but I did remember reading something similar, where if a company was on the Kremlin's bad list, their IP could be freely copied, be it patents, trademarks, or copyrights. Although directly copying trademarks isn't an issue, other than for some things where a trademark sequence is used for DRM.
Ironically, Russia used to have the best DRM on the planet with StarForce. Now, they probably will have the best DRM crackers out there, for those who are n
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I likely will be smacked with the [Citation Needed] cudgel, but I did remember reading something similar, where if a company was on the Kremlin's bad list, their IP could be freely copied, be it patents, trademarks, or copyrights.
yes, i know these sources, they talk about intentions or possibilities, but there is no follow up. beyond the "concern" the issue dries up, there is no mention anywhere to actual laws being passed. that would have been news, but if it happened nobody bothered. that's why i asked.
Although directly copying trademarks isn't an issue, other than for some things where a trademark sequence is used for DRM.
Ironically, Russia used to have the best DRM on the planet with StarForce. Now, they probably will have the best DRM crackers out there, for those who are not being sent to the front lines.
that's a bit too technical for me ...
(Russia's strategy is really simple... keep things at a standstill until Trump gets into office in 2025, then when Trump pulls out of NATO, then seize Ukraine and pay a visit to Western Europe.)
more or less, except russia doesn't really need trump, nor is u.s. domestic political scenario meaningfully connected to foreign policy in the first place, trump couldn't possibly exit nato. it c
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they definitely don't like that, but they have more pressing matters right now.
they didn't like estonia and letonia getting in either but they were far too weak at that point to do anything about it.
however none of those territories has the strategic importance of ukraine, they don't pose the same existential threat, they aren't powerful enough and also don't have a sizable russian population. ukraine is really a critical spot for them, just the threat escalation was enough to send in the tanks. i don't thi
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100% down to 70% (Score:1)
As 30% were killed in Ukraine. Surprise, it's not like a video game. Game over for real sukkaz.
Re:100% down to 70% (Score:4, Insightful)
Russian piracy went from 100% down to 70%.
Came here to say this, in all likelihood piracy in Russia was high to begin with. Piracy has always been huge there, even after the fall of the wall and they've never really been that bothered about copyrights. Especially since a large archive of... erm... gentlemen's special interest literature can be found on Russian language sites.
By and large, I don't think the loss of Russia will be a huge loss for western companies, especially as it's galvanised most of Europe, especially eastern/central Europe towards the west.
NO. 70% of people who responded SAY they are (Score:4, Insightful)
People who respond to the poll are not representative of the whole, unless proven otherwise.
People who respond are not answering truthfully, unless proven otherwise.
Stop reporting nonsense.
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People who are polled are not representative of the whole, unless proven otherwise.
People who respond to the poll are not representative of the whole, unless proven otherwise.
People who respond are not answering truthfully, unless proven otherwise.
So you don't like the result?
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he doesn't like polls or surveys, and i would agree, except if they come with full disclosure of method and samples, if those are rigorous and proportionate and the questions unbiased. none of those guarantees is readily provided so this one might as well be complete hogwash.
anyway, astonishing news: publishers stop selling games in russia, people start to pirate games in russia, mind blown!
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he doesn't like polls or surveys, and i would agree, except if they come with full disclosure of method and samples, if those are rigorous and proportionate and the questions unbiased. none of those guarantees is readily provided so this one might as well be complete hogwash.
Well then he's pretty dumb. Most serious polls do provide all this information.
Game piracy in russia isn't one of them of course but the OP provided no actual data to doubt these numbers either.
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Polls, psychological studies, nutrition warnings.
All quoted by newspapers and used by politicians to direct people's live as if they were science.
They are not.
People's lives are being fucked up by bullshit.
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A kind of people that would that thumbs being fingers implies that fingers are thumbs.
The science can be as good as it can get, and those groups will twist it out of context to whatever suits their purposes to manipulate other scientifically illiterate people one way or the other (making people distrust science by making it sound ridiculous).
And you'll never know any better if you're giving in to the anti-science FUD, being int
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I am not giving in to FUD, I am pointing out the FUD.
The statement "70% of Russian Gamers Are Pirates" has no basis in science.
Science can only win if it is actually science.
The term is meaningless if non-science can be passed off as science.
Support science. Fight fake science.
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Torrentfreak in general are pro-copryright infringement anti-intellectual property, so of course they have an incentive to put a certain spin on whatever they report on.
You did fine pointing that out for the article here on Slashdot. But discrediting the science that such a misinterpretation is based on, that is part of the growing anti-science stance people are develo
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Fighting anti-science and fighting FOR science REQUIRES pointing out nonsense masquerading as science.
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You don't fight anti-science. You're spreading anti-science.
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Psychology is not a science:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18248
Again again, fighting anti-science and fighting FOR science REQUIRES pointing out social "science" studies masquerading as science.
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The cure for junk science is to do better science instead, not less. Do more replication, like that meta study, which then through evidence finds out which is junk and which not. Dismissing things upfront b
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People who are polled are not representative of the whole, unless proven otherwise.
People who respond to the poll are not representative of the whole, unless proven otherwise.
People who respond are not answering truthfully, unless proven otherwise.
Stop supporting nonsense.
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News articles written by whoever are not science in themselves. If that is what you try to say I agree. But it looks more and more like you don't know anything about how science works. It doesn't even look like you've read past the headline of the article.
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Well, I'm giving up because either you're a troll or irredeemably ignorant within this context here. Hanlon's razor suggests it's the latter.
In other news... (Score:2)
In other news today, the entirety of the social sciences laughs at forum post displaying complete ignorance of said field.
We get it, anything you dont understand must be false. You're probably also bitter because opinion polls dont always support your beliefs. It must be rough being you.
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One doesn't need to be a part of the social sciences to be aware that they get pretty good results from polling. No, polling is not a crystal ball with 20/20 vision but it's reliable enough to where every major government or corporation on the planet uses it for a variety of decisions.
Love your attempt to discredit here though with the whole scientist in quotes thing. You don't even understand the tool well enough to critique it so you go after the creditials of those who use said tool the most. What a stro
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Point to the factual errors in my three initial statements.
You can't.
Science wins.
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Look at what you've just done. You've literally declared the illegitimacy of an entire field of science that is widely used in complete contrast to reality. I have no desire to waste my time going through your arguments, doing research, and citing contrary sources when reality has already come to the conclusion that polling data is meaningful. This is near universally accepted science and just like a flat earther you're making absurd claims that I shouldnt have to spend my time debunking.
Perhaps take some c
Not necessarily torrenting (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a view from the inside.
The authors of this report are seemingly unaware of two very popular avenues of buying games semi-legitimately:
Both methods are super inconvenient and involve certain risks but for players who care about game achievements they have become indispensable. The first method is especially dangerous as it may result in your account being terminated and it does happen.
Re: Not necessarily torrenting (Score:2)
If you're going to game the steam store you should open a new account for each game. That way not only are you protected but you can sell the account
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I think it's a missed opportunity to be honest.
Because pirated games are now a way to get messaging to Russians - whether it be pro-west propaganda or news or anything else.
I mean, if most of the games are pirated, then the easy solution is to work with the publisher to ensure those pirated copies have special messages and other things in them and let the get distributed through Russia by Russians.
I mean, having Putin try to ban Call of Duty because all the missions show Russia is bad and he is evil will pr
Getting ready for conscription (Score:3, Funny)
As Russia runs out of manpower for its invasion of Ukraine, it's resorted to mass conscriptions. These folks are merely boning up on their combat skills through simulations in preparation for their arrival to the front line.
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They are also saving money for bribes. You know, for half a million rubles, one can avoid the frontline (but you didn't hear that).
Isn't it closer to 300 000 hryvna nowadays?
Stopped selling (Score:3)
If the publishers stopped selling games in Russia then how are they lost sales?
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They could have continued to sell in Russia, keeping the sales?
What part of the logic eludes you?
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Then the lost sales are not due to piracy, they are due to the decision (likely compelled by law) to stop selling in russia.
The piracy just means that the number of players hasn't decreased as much as the lost sales. Or in other words, if not for piracy these players would have found other (russian, chinese etc) games to play instead.
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I'm unaware of any major state that forbade sales of games in Russia. Sanctions are in fact often sold specifically on being targeted.
Most people tend to forget that one thing that surprised Russia and utterly shocked China is that in the wake of Russian invasion, sanctions actually lagged severely behind companies pulling out of their own volition, without sanctions involved. It's why in many places, regulators were very worried about unintended consequences, (some of which we're seeing now). Because regul
Re: Stopped selling (Score:2)
This is about piracy pay attention.
Re:Stopped selling (Score:5, Insightful)
Every unlicensed copy is counted as a lost sale and as stolen profit. Because you know, if people couldn't have gotten that annual reskin of Battlefield for free, then they would certainly have paid the full price for it, even if you don't offer it for sale at all. There is no other possibility!
Pirate games... (Score:2)
Pirate games are pretty good. I've always loved Pirates of Caribbean series games. Half adventure and half action. I'm a fan. What's wrong with it?
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I wondered the same thing, I didn't realize the genre was so popular. I thought most of them played World of Tanks.
Either "journalists" invest most of their time in witty word plays or are just dumb as fuck.... or both.
Who cares? (Score:1)
Why on earth is this news? Who cares about a decline in Russian gaming profits? Aside from the gaming tycoons, this news barely registers in the wider context of the world. Why get tangled up in a trivial drama of digital pirates and profiteers? In the grand scheme, the profit margins of game publishers aren't significant. Let's focus on the real issues instead.
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Let's focus on the real issues instead.
which are?
btw, fyi: you're free to skip any content you deem uninteresting in any news/gossip/clickbait aggregator site like this. otherwise maybe you'll need to adjust your expectations.
This is good news, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
The article proves that the sanctions work, at least to some degree.
We the west should not sell ANYTHING to Russia or Russians until the war / invasion ends. No games, no platform services (AWS/Azure/...), sofware, anything.
Are Russian games and publishers also banned from Stream, Google and Apple app stores and other sales platforms? As we should not buy anything from Russia either.
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We the west
who the what?
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the west
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It's weird how badly propaganda has swallowed some people. Listening to you, you'd think that there's no trade in either direction and that at least some people who matter are pushing for it, like perhaps the Ukrainians themselves.
Meanwhile in real world, a lot of trade is ongoing. Heck, the much maligned Russian oil and gas exports? Biggest avenue of export of those remains... through Ukraine.
That's right. In an artillery war that's over a year old, one of the primary antagonists is shipping oil to allies
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I guess this is the norm of propaganda bots nowadays. Ignore the actual post and reply to it with a copypasta that has no relevance.
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No surprises there.
But why are Russians like you so shocked that Ukraine doesn't harm the innocent 3rd parties relying on that gas? You can't even comprehend how civilized countries work can you Luckyo?
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Gotta say, it's getting funny how I keep getting accused of being American and Russian in the same day by butthurt propaganda victims. While being neither.
Re: This is good news, right? (Score:3)
Oh God, are you French? :-(
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Russian gamers still get their games, it's just that they're not paying for them anymore.
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In fact, we ought to be giving them the Internet Death Penalty. No IP traffic should route to Russia other than news... Which presumably Putin will block anyway.
And that should include ordering VPN companies to discontinue service to Russia.
They invaded a sovereign nation unprovoked, twice, and show no signs of stopping. They can rejoin the civilized world when they stop that and start reparations. Which would ideally involve Putin's head delivered to Ukraine as a peace offering.
malware paradise (Score:1)
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Piracy has been cleaned out of that decades ago. Nowadays there are high quality sources of direct downloads for pretty much everything that built good reputation over a decade or more. The main problem nowadays is direct download sites often serving you two or three downloads of various adware packages pretending to be your download before letting you access the actual download from a free account.
They'd rather pirate than stop the war (Score:2)
more piracy in Russia = more available elsewhere (Score:2)
Maybe I'll get to play the EA games I've been locked out since
EA upgraded their online distribution. Note -- these are games I've
bought and have been locked out since EA made their changes.
Similar dynamic happened when the games first came out and EA's
DRM was a nogo. Wasn't until pirated copies came out of Russia that
I could play games I'd already purchased. Seems like EA supports piracy by locking out legitimate users who are ignored by EA-support [sic].
Not pirates (Score:2)
They're privateers. They're operating under letters of marque from their government.
https://www.ign.com/articles/r... [ign.com]
So when do we launch the ICBMs? (Score:2)
If there is no legal source (Score:1)
Then piracy is ethical.
Um, ok (Score:2)
Enter Valve (Score:1)
Guess who's still making bank! Oh yash it's that fat fuck Gabe Newell keebler smelf looking motherfucker!
Where's an errant MOAB when you need one.....
A lousy survey. (Score:2)
How can you have a decent survey/discussion about piracy and not talk about free and/or open source games. https://store.steampowered.com/search/?maxprice=free&category1=998&supportedlang=english&ndl=1 [steampowered.com]
Steam has more than 11,000 titles that come up as free. Yes, some have in app purchases and are pay to win. There's still a lot of good titles that really are free.
Good (Score:2)