Why Video Games Need Piracy - The Industry's Preservation Problem

[@EdmacZ]

Nintendo goes to shut down rom sites. So whats their answer? Their solution? Mario 3D All-Stars for a limited time. This company deserves every misfortune coming their way.

[@ShadowRubberDuck]

They want you to purchase the brand new games and release the old ones as an event!

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@ShadowRubberDuck Not happening. There is only so much time in a day and only so many days in my life thus I demand they are well spent thus I demand my games have good quality. The best way to achieve quality is by maximizing competition, thus old games should be public domain so all new ones have to compete versus just playing the old classics for free. And eventually high quality public domain games will become more and more abundant and my grandchildren and their grandchildren will be wealthyer by the buildup of public wealth.

[@sushi_wolf]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714honestly I love the old games but to think 90% of todays gamers would enjoy anything we grew up with would be a far stretch. No matter how much you love these games and how great they are no younger audiences are interested.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@sushi_wolf What do you call younger? Cos Im 22, and many of the games I love are many older than me, from UFO: Enemy Unknown to Master of Orion 2 Battle at Antares.

[@sushi_wolf]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 okay and you’re a rare exception, what got you into said games? I take it your parent is a gamer? Most kids today can’t see past COD and fortnight. As I think they are absolutely missing out on jems I don’t think many kids are even interested. Honestly I love video games but anything before Nintendo and Sega I’m not really interested in. I grew up playing Atari when I was very very young but not enough to get a fondness for it. So plaster an old nes or even snes on screen next to some gta v and sadly I don’t think many kids would play the older games even thought they’re probably way better. I can’t stand to play older games even thought the mechanics might be amazing I just can’t bring myself to waste the time on them when many other games are more suitable. At the end of the day as an adult gaming is about time management, so many great games and some of them take a good while to complete so you have to be very cautious about what you start and is it worth finishing to you.

[@os6829]

If Square's own CEO admits that lost code is a huge problem, especially for old games, then I don't know what else could get the message across.

[@alface935]

Sometimes I wonder if that also applies for Nintendo on the rare cases that They actually want to Rerelease Their Old Games

[@JosephAmodeo-u2n]

in their defense the code was lost in just about the same remote dark ages in which the game was made… the modern company didn’t recently just not care & mismanage old games… they lost it probably before they knew how beloved it would be & when digitization on hard drives was a finicky novelty not a straightforward & obvious thing

[@alface935]

@@JosephAmodeo-u2n True

[@Zman201]

Imagine how much source code is lost for studios that were closed down or went under

[@nimazsheik5152]

And just a few weeks back RE: Village just showed how the pirated copy performed way better than the copy gamers bought! So much so that it pushed Capcom to patch the Steam version, I'm confident it wouldn't have happened if no one pirated it 🤣

[@Goldfire345]

Piracy is an issue caused by the gaming industry itself due to how its built on software that are fundamentally designed to become obsolete

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

And laws that dont realize that there is only so much time in a day and only so many days in my life thus I demand they are well spent thus I demand my games have good quality. The best way to achieve quality is by maximizing competition, thus old games should be public domain so all new ones have to compete versus just playing the old classics for free. And eventually high quality public domain games will become more and more abundant and my grandchildren and their grandchildren will be wealthyer by the buildup of public wealth.

[@tazman5129]

I'm a firm believer that emulation is a good and healthy practice for game preservation. If you are pirating a brand new game, that is a crime, but if you are emulating a 15 year old game that is not available digitally, new physical copies are no longer being produced, and the developer/publisher are no longer actively making a profit off of it, then I think it is perfectly fine.

[@Karthik-pn2yj]

imagine thinking piracy is morally wrong it never is morally wrong by that logic most people in third world countries are pieces of shits do you think that then?

[@-KillaWatt-]

In the age of digital media and the ease as to which a company can upload and store games you would think video game companies would just dump their entire libraries online for purchase. Aside from obvious licensing issues with some games I see no excuse why it wouldn't be this way. Part of me understands that a company like Nintendo wants you to buy and play their newest offering in a franchise but there are a lot of people out there who want nothing more than to play the games they grew up.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

I dont understand Nintendo one bit, they are completely foreign to me.

[@morpheus_uat]

they dont have a problem about preservation, they straight up dont want to preserve games, they think if they kill the old games ppl will be forced to buy the new games, thats why they are actively killing games they dont care about the games, they dont care about the art, the message, or the enjoyment people had or could have with those games, they only care about selling the new need for speed or fifa or whatever, i bet if they could they burn all shakespeare books so you buy the new bestseller, video game indistry is the killer industry imagine if stadia was succesfull, all those game would've born dead

[@naikou1633]

Now I understand why Drakengard isn't available anymore. Guess I'll be pirating it. Thanks for this informative video.

[@chadisnotachad]

If Nintendo would sell me Mario Kart Double Dash on Switch, I'd buy it. They won't, so I pirate

[@straightfrommissouri]

Ahhh, I'll never feel bad for pirating games from these companies. One game I love to pieces is the original Diablo for the psx. 🤟😎

[@heavensea141]

Awesome video! Video games preservation " Both digital and phycical ' Equal importent!

[@jackelvey7963]

Good argument, and with the evolution of the Xbox Game Pass it's definitely going the way of Disney plus. Who knows how long before console games release exclusively digitally through the' 'streaming subscription' model. Future releases could be lost forever at the whim of Microsoft deciding to pull a title for any reason, we'd lose ownership

[@oriongear2499]

IDK if anyone's mentioned this yet, but another way games, big and small, can be lost to time, is for the platform holder (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo etc.) to make the decision to close down the storefront(s) for their older consoles. Nintendo did this with the Wii U without telling anyone, and this year, Sony almost pulled it off with the PS3 and Vita storefronts, but chose not to after public backlash.

[@Vidzette]

Closing down the Vita's side of the PS Store was going to be the end for that console, simply because most of its games are digital only. Thankfully that didn't happen... Yet...

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

And my Morrowind copy doesnt work, time to get a new one, ty free internet. (I have no idea why the character creation for pick a sign has no ok or back buttons)

[@MacCekko]

An interesting video which I absolutely agree with. It's all in the passion, it has nothing to do with greed (but if it has, the former is - and always shall be (!!) - victim of the latter). It is not really a matter of copyright after all: that would be just some kinda legal 'layer' that has been spreaded on the whole thing to wrap it up, so to speak, that is litterally preventing a game to be played (and more importantly enjoyed) again. And since I think that video games ARE in fact a form of art, I think that they HAVE to be preserved endlessly, rather than not (and THIS would instead be a crime, again, so to speak). It's a simple as this. At least in my (simple) mind.

[@_icey]

Open source does what nintendon't

[@ParanoidThalyyMVS]

Games getting lost is a thought that scares me so much, I feel like we are in a pretty good state with roms and unnoficial emulation but, what about games with updates and DLC on newer systems? There is so many extra content, in-app purchases on video games on mobile and, PC, those aren't as popular and, easily shrugged off by the community but, they're still games, when their servers go down, how will you get them? How can those games be preserved? How can extra content on it be preserved? About online-play only games, not always do fan-created servers get created and, when they do, sometimes they lack content and, still need a server to be running on, what if the fan server just dies? It's terrifying...

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Im really contemplating making a video about nihilism right now, how everything weve ever found important will eventually be destroyed. Very depressing.

[@ParanoidThalyyMVS]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 I notice your latest video features Noire, she's very very cute.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@ParanoidThalyyMVS Thats Uni! :D Funny how if Id have to pick a Neptunia waifu it would be Noire, yet in any video thus far Ive only referenced Uni because the inspiration had hit. Uni is no dout very very cute. They bough are, best neptunia song is no dout this absolute cundere song kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6q7fJujpd98fZY&ab_channel=SatoshiMatrix of the Lastation sisters. When it comes to Hyperdimension Neptunia and lack of longevity. Yea for PC only Steam has DLC, the GOG version is DLCless, so should something happen with the Steam very important game features like bikini outfits for the girls would be lost to history. (Dont know other platforms)

[@ParanoidThalyyMVS]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Ahh silly me, not a Neputunia expert but occasionally play the games and really enjoy em, very funny, cute games.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

Makes me remenber of Caravaneer 2, they almost shut down during the end of flash and all their DLCs were lost online with only the base game alive, at least they are on Steam.

[@arc8216]

I remember a Cartoon Network game called Fusionfall that was an always online game back from about 2008. The game had a big world and I loved it as a kid. In 2014 they shut it down. Years later they brought it back and planned to produce a new game based on the old one. They actually had contact from people from CN and for a while they had permission from the network for about two years. Sadly, and frustratingly, Cartoon Network changed their mind on the game because of something with their parent company not allowing it. It costs them practically nothing because fans ran the servers.

[@MarshallSambell]

This is a good video, your production quality is high. Keep up videos like this and your channel will do well.

[@andreas_aqua]

you know what? you're right, i wanted to play Gow ascension, but the game is only available through sony's streaming service, and we all know how good it is to stream a game, especially if you don't have a good internet connection , it's not even downloadable , if it was downloadable I'd pay the subscription and download it on my ps4 to play it , but it's not, it's only available for streaming, then I had the 2 choices, buy it second hand or pirate it, and you know how rpcs3 community reacted when they found out that i pirated the game as i was asking for help with the settings for rpcs3 ? they ''warned me'' i guess it's like now everyone of them know that I'm pirating games , and the guy that was helping me when i kept asking for help , he said that I shouldn't come asking for help , because it's illegal, well yes it's illegal , but sony doesn't care, and they said it's like going to a mechanic with a stolen car, well no, it's not stolen if the owner doesn't give a fuck, i guess they have to be like that because of sony, well do you know what every single company that makes games earned with all of that ? another pirate

[@straightfrommissouri]

How ascension is a really good game, definitely should be enjoyed by more gow fans.

[@Soulcatcher30]

Yes, it's a major issue and it's frustrating that not a whole lot of people point this out. Ross Scott (Accursed Farms) really made me aware of this.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

I think games that are too old like 15+ years should have their source code released, at worst is training for people starting in programing at best keep the game alive.

[@MCHH-ml2qq]

Back in 2005, I remember desperately attempting in the years after hurricane katrina destroyed everything I owned to get back the technology and life that I had which was so suddenly taken away from me. At the time in the mid to late 00s, original PS1 and even PS2 games weren't that expensive or in demand because they were either only recently at their end of life or in the case of the PS2 still had a few more years left even into the 7th gen era (i still remember walking into a gamestop back then in 2005 picking up a complete PS1 copy of MGS1 for only $15 from the store bargain bin because no one wanted it and they were desperate to get rid of it to have more store space to sell and promote the upcoming Xbox 360 and PS3 at the time). However, I've slowly come to realize in the past few years recently that was what once simply attempting to recover and return the life I had slowly became a ridiculous library of vintage games and technology which has since skyrocketed in price and significantly decreased in accessibility. Some examples are of when I picked up reasonably affordable PS2 copies of SH2 and SH3 over 10 years ago when the HD remaster came out so they weren't in that much of demand which have now become some of the most rare and expensive PS2 games as well as buying Xenosaga 3 off a friend brand new 5 years ago for under $100 which has now skyrocketed to now being worth over $400 and climbing. Several PC games I kept from back then over 20 years ago have now also become abandonware such as the Vietcong games and Area 51 due to Pterodon and Midway being long since defunct from bankruptcy so its nearly impossible getting them running unless you either have an older PC from that era or scour the internet searching for community made fixes which even then may still not run correctly on a modern PC due to older games being developed with older hardware of that era in mind (a PC game Incoming from 1998 while being available on GOG is still virtually unplayable due to modern hardware simply running the game too fast to be playable). While I hit a stopping point in collecting and refuse to preserve console hardware or games released after 2019 (unless released digitally on PC or Switch), I think the moral of this story is to never trust the media you love to be around forever because you never know when one day you end up with some of the only copies still left of that media and the life you had before.

[@megacide84]

Years ago, I came to the same conclusion and offloaded my entire retro-game collection for a good sum of money. Not to mention the bonus of more free space in my home. I now emulate all the retro-games and systems from my childhood and teenage years on my PC and smartphone. Instead of my room being packed wall to wall with rotting physical copies, I now have everything stored on a few external hard drives. Much easier and more convenient.

[@supermahmoud]

Man... I want Soul Blazer and Terranigma SNES carts so much ! but I can't reasonably spend 400€ on 2 games.

[@Zoza15]

If it takes privacy, then so be it!!!!.. I'm NOT against privacy, but if video games aren't being respected for its historical impact on the gaming industry then gamers themselves have to take action against bigger companies not giving a flying shit about preservation.

[@DDevilized]

You're against privacy?

[@HellBoy-tl8oc]

@@DDevilized rich folks ……

[@GameMaker3_5]

​@@DDevilizedMF couldn't spell piracy...

[@kukukachu]

You'll own nothing and you'll be happy. The problem with all these businesses is that they only see videos games as a product they can profit off of... HD versions of games are also just soulless cash grabs. I figured that out pretty fast. It's definitiely not usually the definitive way to play as there's either something wonky with the visuals of the sounds...it's just sad seeing how much disrespect these pieces of art get, all the sake of money...and ripping people off.

[@Vidzette]

Awesome editing, great script and outstanding topic, keep it up!

[@mikecastimore45]

Very well made video

[@austinreed7343]

1:00 There are also several things unavailable outright, such as many TV shows, Song of the South, etc.

[@mariohoopedme]

So if a games is discontinued that entitles you to a free pirated copy of that game

[@RailheadProductions]

Yes, especially if the company doesn't give you a legal way to play it

[@I.C.Weiner]

I'm my opinion games and other media that are out of print should be put into the public domain.

[@MilgoIsDumb]

I rlly glad this was in my reccomended

[@blakegriplingph]

Not to mention the lawsuit faced by those who reverse-engineered and made source code recreations of GTA 3 and Vice City. Which is even harsher when the so-called "Definitive Editions" of those games were released in a pathetic state due to developer ineptitude. Actually, Disney isn't solely to blame with the copyright extension law as several other entities have lobbied so much for it. Mickey Mouse is now free real estate for shitposting, sure, but that only applies to his _Steamboat Willie_ rendition; trademarks for the character are still under Disney for perpetuity.

[@MrThemarine145]

I think there should or should have been a "archival" company that worked along side these gaming and film companies to perserve their original source codes. And this company could have notified xyz company of their licensing expiring and such.

[@jescis0]

The copyright law I'm not 100% against, as a song writer I don't want anyone using or singing my song unless I get paid/published… but I believe I'm on the fence because I don't want to pay uo the nose for something that I have bought already, but I don't think software should be held captive when abandoned by the publisher!! It's very frustrating and confusing for sure… OSs(MS-DOS) and utility software(QUICK BASIC, QBASIC, GW-BASIC etc…) are abandonware as well…

[@spartaninvirginia]

Wings, the first movie to win the Oscar for (what is now known as) Best Picture, was a lost film for roughly 50 years. If something like that can become lost media, anything can. Piracy is the only way to preserve history at this point.

[@warforlightstudios1372]

What game is this at 14:59? It looks super fun

[@MildConviction]

Custom Robo for the N64.

[@austinreed7343]

Another factor: people are much more jaded today and may choose not to preserve lower-quality games. This was less of a problem even among platforms that skewered older for their demographic such as the Amiga as back in the day developers were much smaller; modern dev groups are megaliths often devoid of soul, resulting in much scorn against these corporations, leaving to them not having any desire to protect newer games and doing the bare minimum at best. Not helped by the increasing file sizes of games, the “cloud” concepts, etc.

[@btbsquad2147]

INCREDIBLE!!! Keep up the good work, Thank you so much

[@gabrielandy9272]

i acctualy belive any gamed not legally sold by the company should be allowed to have piracy (meaning the company should have no right ot take it down)

[@jhonmacraimbanajokora8657]

Don't get me wrong cause I also pirate sometimes. Piracy is good torrents are bad. No seed=dead media same issue

[@PoutingTrevor]

This was a great discussion of the importance of video games preservation, and very well researched.

[@NotKnafo]

its not developers its conglomerates the devs are salaried dont own the game just worked to make it so dont even feel bad for not paying for the devs because you are not

[@CookyMonzta]

20 years wasn't long enough! 🤣 Mickey is now wide-open to _anyone!_ 😁☀️

[@gilanggilang9859]

Good video

[@Deliveredmean42]

Yeah, that copyright law extension really screw things over not only films, but a lot worse with games, given how new they are.

[@frizzyrascal1493]

Three years later and Disney is (finally) crashing in spectacular fashion and people are fed up. I don't wish for people to loose their jobs over it, however Disney's strategy and output has lead to a demise in quality.

[@austinreed7343]

For example, they are now rushing sequels to market in order to attempt to recoup costs.

[@nexusprime2487]

I remembered a star wars online game based from the clone wars cartoon it's unfortunate it was shutdown years ago.

[@HandheldGamer1991]

What is there to preserve if the games that come out nowadays are unfinished pieces of shit that need 20 patches to run decently.... Think about it what will you do in 10 years when you try and replay a ps4,5 ,xbox game? They either will not work or be broken to the point that you would rather do anything else but to play them. I like to think that the avgn would just label that whole generation as a bunch of shitty games at least 99.98% of it because they are. I dont even bother buying physical games if i know that i have to download patches (or the other half of the game!) for it to run i mean whats the point i wont be able to play it when the servers change etc. Thats why i encourage piracy as of late...

[@austinreed7343]

Yea, a lot of games are seen by today’s more pessimistic crowd as unworthy of preservation.

[@vishizzy]

Silent hill 2 and 3 are both $200 on eBay. Had to emulate it

[@neotron6490]

If you really hate gaming companies because of "mistreat or never listen to you at all" and you don't wanna buy the game they made? Piracy was the great place for ya as the cost of damaging the companies and its intellectual property at the same time, and its safe here from everything you despite about gaming companies too (until the corporate went out to nuking them all...)

[@mondodimotori]

If you pirate any piece of software that can be bought from the devs, you are stealing their work hours. That's not preservation. It becomes preservation when the devs decide not to sell it anymore.

[@austinreed7343]

Most, however, view it as stealing from the executives, with the devs as collateral damage.

[@fanaticalplel1003]

Agreed

[@MrJemoederopeenstokj]

'..waiting for konami to make a remake..' you lil troll

[@slapshotjack9806]

lets just enable law breaking actions to save our stupid "history" that ages like spoiled milk

[@Goldfire345]

How so? This is still a problem today. how has this problem been solved in a way that has caused his arguments to age?

[@ThrashMetalWolf666]

History is valuable regardless of how you feel about it. Doesn't matter if older games don't age well. They should continue to exist because history should not be lost. If you don't want to do something about it then you're a part of the problem of why piracy is a thing.

[@ThrashMetalWolf666]

​@slapshotjack9806 Then why do you care if people try to preserve, or pirate old games that are no longer supported? Why do you want to take away people's enjoyment of something just because the company's that made it don't care about it?

[@ThrashMetalWolf666]

​@@slapshotjack9806Many people do care. Again this is just a you problem. You just want to rob people's enjoyment of things that don't effect anyone especially old games. Yeah people will take preservation seriously, because video games are still art. Same thing with movies, books, and music. If a younger generation wants to experience something of the past there's nothing wrong with that.

[@ThrashMetalWolf666]

​@@slapshotjack9806Companies don't lose money on a game they don't sell anymore. If I buy a copy of a game that's been out of print for years that money is not going to the company but rather the person who's selling it. If I buy a delisted game on Steam by buying a Steam key that money is not going to the company either. If the companies want to make money from old games they should re-release it instead of taking down preservation efforts. If you're just a casual who treats games as nothing more than disposable entertainment then fine. But you have no business taking about a subject you don't know or care about.