Tears Of The Kingdom Was Pirated 1 Million Times, Nintendo Claims In Lawsuit
Tears Of The Kingdom Was Pirated 1 Million Times, Nintendo Claims In Lawsuit
The Mario maker alleged that the emulation software Yuzu ‘unlawfully circumvents’ the Switch’s protective measures
You're viewing a single thread.
Don't be fooled. The real issue here is that Nintendo is trying to use this case as a wedge to eventually outlaw or effectively ban all emulation software because they think it somehow massively affects their bottom line, or they want to have a scapegoat for weak profits.
I've never once in my life had a Gamecube, for example. I never will. So if I wanted to pirate Gamecube games and play them on my computer, it is literally victimless, and has zero negative affect on Nintendo's profits. In fact, I might love the games and decide to buy official merch. Same with the Swtich. I haven't pirated either, but you get the idea.
Even if you can somehow prove how many people pirated a game over the years, that tells you absolutely nothing about lost potential profits, because people that pirate probably never had the money to buy your hardware and games to begin with.
This is all just corporate propaganda.
And I imagine a fair number of those who pirated also bought the game legally, either to have a digital backup or to run on a PC emulator.
So your main groups pirating a given game are:
- people who never would've been customers
- actual customers who own a copy and want it on PC as well
- pirated first, and ended up buying the same later
- actual lost sales
I imagine #4 is such a small percent of the total number of downloads that they probably help more than they hurt (e.g. word of mouth advertising).