Timed Exclusives Will Only Drive More Gamers To Piracy

How The Industry Can Help Towards Fixing Illegal Downloading of Video Games 

August 14th, 2014 By Maya Mayfield

We are not surprised by the shocking report via Gamesbeat of the alarming rate of illegal  games being pirated on sharing sites like BitTorrent. We think as developers continue making deals with game companies to release globally popular timed exclusives like the recent Rise Of The Tomb Raider announcement on Xbox One, will only force more gamers towards piracy.

In Gamesbeat's report we discovered this interesting heat map below courtesy of Movoto showing the most downloaded games per 10,000 people in each U.S State. The heat map showed games like FIFA being very popular in New York, while people from Illinois loved Watch_Dogs.

We can only imagine how concerning developers who have slaved for years on these titles must feel to see this report and while we don't think there will ever be an end to piracy, developers and the gaming industry as a whole can help influence more gamers away from piracy by releasing popular worldwide games on all platforms simultaneously.

Now a few may argue these timed exclusives are integral to the success of each companies console but, we think such practices will not only continue to frustrate gamers but drive more of them towards piracy.

We live in an age were information is King. Those able to share important information first will always win. This is the very reason Google still ranks number 1 when it comes to search engines. To expect a generation of people who want it all and want it now, to either buy every console there is under the sun or wait months to get a game their friends are already playing is not only ridiculous but highly unrealistic, especially as more and more peer-to-peer sharing sites keep springing up faster than they can be found and shut down.

We think the only fix to this level of piracy will be the continued support and development of digital games being released without exclusive restrictions at a reasonable price and accessible to all platforms. It's really very simple when you think about it.