Software Piracy as Price Control
Software Piracy as Price Control is a school of thought that says that Software Piracy in moderation is a good thing, as it keeps prices down by providing a rival product (i.e. a pirated copy) to compete with the official version provided by the software company in question.Given that every piece of software is unique (e.g. you wouldn't want a game that was roughly like Tomb Raider - you would want Tomb Raider itself) it could be the case that each piece of software is a Monopoly, as the only method of getting the game is buying it from the publisher - apart from Software Piracy. Piracy therefore prevents a monopoly and hence stops software publishers from charging too much for their software.
There is evidence to back up this school of thought:
- Back in the early 90s, the game Street Fighter 2 was released on the SNES, a fairly unpiratable format, for £65 (an unimaginable price by today's standards). No cartridge manufacturing prices (and certainly not before 10 years of inflation) could account for this cost.
- Early in 2003, the game Metal Gear Solid 2:Substance was released for the PC, XBox and Playstation 2. On the XBox and Playstation 2, where games are not yet easily piratable, the cost of the game is £40. On the PC, where the game can easily be pirated, it is £30.
- In July 2003, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was released for the PC and Playstation 2. On Playstation 2, still fairly unpiratable as of July 2003, the game costs £40. On the PC, just as easily piratable in July 2003, it costs £30. The extra costs involved in producing the Playstation 2 version (programmers who can program efficiently in the console's more difficult architecture and Sony's licensing fees for producing copies of the game) do not amount to an extra £10, plus there are some things that appear or are needed on the PC version of the game (for example the installer) which weren't needed or implemented in the Playstation 2 version.
