Why do People Pirate Games?

Lack of demos, to see if it's shit or not.

I havent given so much thought about it but after taking a while to think i come to 3 reasons
1) They are ignorant that they actually do harm to their favourite hobby (reason for that is great studios closing from bankruptcy , or heavy drm systems that can tempt legit users to play the pirate version, lootboxes in videogames, zero effort from companies to make a single campaign good but focus on the online part that pirates cant play i can go on but i will stop here
2) They have serius money issues and even sales could be a lot to them and they have to play a game given their computer can handle it ( it raises the question how can you run a new title even low if you have that much money issues did you invest in a computer but not buying games ,easily answer yes bying a 500-600 euros computer every 4-5 years so you can play new games at medium -low settigns its nothing you cant afford that you dont play games period)
3)Lastly i believe a lot of them are kids that their parents wont buy them the game cause reasons or they just discovering the internet , I believe that most of us computer users when kids we all pirated a game saying you didnt is either lie or just an elite few that had too much allowance, now having said that seeing that piracy hurt the industry i doupt most of them are kids, most pirates are adults

To conclude we all like stuff for free , videogames arent free and if we pirate them its like we are stealing them but with 100% sure chance in mind we wont go to jail or getting into trouble so it can easily mistaken as getting a game for free , then it can turn into a addiction getting games for free

I personally dont pirate games, at my 16-18 years of age i pirate 10-20 games i believe then there was a time when i attended univercity get my first silly job just to have money , focused my life in partying , girls and friends so i went back to gaming at 22 or 23 more matured i bought all the games i ever pirated and went from there to today

I just downloaded an expensive game

Well people who don't earn money, don't have value for it. So they pirate things! :/

1. Can't afford it. If it raises a price promotion in the future, they might buy the game back.
2. Didn't know if the game fit your expected. If it makes me feel disappointed, just drop it.
3. In some special situation, pirate version offered a better experience! Some bug and restrict had been repaired or unrestricted by the community so that players would not have to face these unpleasant problems, but at the same time, players who stand by DRM have to face these problems.

Bad DLC Practices, DRM and fake reviews portraying them better than they are.

Pirates are just Linux users trapped in a Windows user's body... :P

But seriously, one perspective that I think is not mentioned so much in these threads, is that some people just like to feel like they're getting over, like they are getting away with something sneaky. It's fun. Same with copying music or VHS tapes in the '80s, trying to get free HBO from the cable guy or removing the filter from the lines, copying music CDs in the '90s, copying DVDs or downloading MP3s or XviD movies in the '00s... :) It was the same with copying floppies in the '80s, and downloading software in more recent times. Most of my co-workers download Game of Thrones...

Also, back in those days, honestly, piracy was often a better experience as a customer. Computer shows and flea markets usually had whole booths of pirated software, you could go and browse through thousands of titles! Compared to the local software shop which maybe had a couple dozen games at the most. Or, later on, browsing millions of MP3s available online on sharing services. Now, of course, with streaming services and digital distribution, it's very convenient to legally enjoy or purchase or license... things rather than to pirate them. You no longer have to go into the shady areas of the Internet to have thousands of choices before you -- just scroll through Netflix...

There could also be a social aspect of it if you have friends who are into piracy as well, you trade and share with each other (and online, having a BBS or forum or IRC channel or whatever). Communal piracy. Now, perhaps, rather than making a copy of an album that you really like for your friend, you'll send them the link to the soundcloud or spotify page instead so they can listen. Or whatever.

Back in the '90s I used to do in-home PC support, go to somebody's house and get their computer all fixed and set up, teach them how to use the internet, that kind of stuff. It was mostly the ultra-conservative gray-haired church-going ladies who wanted me to install Office and Photoshop and etc. for free on their computer, and when I told them that software costs like $1000 they were incredulous. Because, you know, back in their day, people helped each other out! Now everybody's just trying to make a dollar off of them!

I pirated because I had no money but was quite addicted to gaming. And it was soo easy with loads of people around me to exchange games with. (Talking mostly about the Amiga 500 years,early 1990's).
Havent pirated a game in many many years though.

here, read, 300 pages long!
https://juliareda.eu/2017/09/secret-copyright-infringement-study/

some are poor some are rich,,, accept it

aaa game =60 dollar
minimum wage in Turkey 1.400 TL = 375 dollar

27 years old guy from Romania here.

In the past, I did it because I was broke. Until a couple of years ago I was very poor and the fact that I live in a "2nd world country" didn't help. Minimum wage back then was around 220 Euros (economy is crap here, I know). My first job payed minimum wage and I had to afford transportation, food and a drink once in a while. I wasn't going to pay 60 Euros for a game! I found it unfair that Russia had preferential prices while we were being kept in the "European Union" price range.

Nowadays I earn much more (around 700 Euros) and I manage to buy the games I want so that I can support the developers I love. But when I learn of those crappy get-rich-quick schemes that some companies pull, I just don't feel like handing over my money. So nowadays, I pirate because I don't support shitty anti-consumerism tactics or I want to have a demo of the game before buying For example: I pirated Witcher 3 and then bought it after 3 hours. I pirated ME: Andromeda and I uninstalled the pirated copy in 3 hours, never to touch the game again.

First reason is price, People are ok with the main game price, but there are those gold/mega/giga/ultra editions that no one likes and are priced double the price of the original game and they add only 5-6 missions at most and few outfits, most people pirate game because of these stuff.
Second reason lack of Demos - as simple as that, I want to try before I buy, If i like the demo I will buy the full game, if not I will skip it
Third reason also Devs - for example PES and Konami, year-in, year-out, PES is not available in sooo many regions so people are forced to pirate it because game is not available to buy.
Also
I understand why people dont buy games with Denuvo, there are a lot of reasons but mainly: Devs by implementing such hard protection are treating legit gamers as pirates, Denuvo activations work in weird way and you can use activation easily, so a lot of times if you are offline you cant activate game which leads to inability to play it, or what happened to me is, my PC is always connected, I bought Fifa and played it, after launching it five times, i`ve got the denuvo activation error, even tough hardware wasnt changed, software wasnt changed or updated, even PC wasnt restarted or shut down. So yeah, i feel those people.

Not to mention fake reviews and marketing lol

a wild clicky appears

Because it's region restricted >"<

I guess the biggest reason is having something for free over paying for it
The moral conflict is obvious so I won't get into that

Other reasons I personally find:
to test if the game runs in your rig before you buy:
to test if you like the game before you buy: sometimes trailers and reviews are not enough
to play the game now, and support for cheap later; this is pretty big one in today's market, in my opinion.

In terms of the whole piracy scene, I think that, thanks to bundles and Steam sales, piracy is really low. My friends list in Steam is packed with 1K-2K game libraries, and a bunch of over 4K. I don't know about real piracy figures, but at least in my environment, everybody buys almost everything, except the occasional known-as-buggy release, or controversial game (like the shadow of war p2w stuff)

I used to pirate games for demo purposes. If I liked it and it worked fine, I'd buy it. Otherwise, I'd delete it.

When my Steam library started growing, however, I stopped, because I didn't want to risk a ban.

Because in some countries (like mine) you can't buy games using a legit way.

I don't pirate anything, i don't trust downloading things from sketchy sites. Plus, if I wanted to protest, I would just stop giving the company money or playing their games. If I really wanted something, it might show up on humblebundle or bundlestars, and if not, I have plenty of other things to play anyway.

When I was younger, i was pirating most games. For the past 10-15 years, I haven't pirated a single game. I can eventually find deals on games I want and I don't mind paying for my entertainment. I have a lot of disposable income that I didn't have when I was younger.

So In my case. It was definitely money related.

i guess some people want to try out the games first before buying it, like whether they can run it properly with decent fps etc

imho excuse like "i have no money" is pretty dirty, like it's a game, nothing necessary for living

Money.
Bad DRM.
Region Locking.
Payment methods.

times are hard
no monies

Because they can.