Video Game Piracy: The Widening Problem and How to Stop It

[PS3 News]

iTWire of Australia thinks they have found the best way to limit video game piracy. Upon checking the top sellers list, they found it was dominated by Wii games such as Mario Kart, Wii Fit and Wii Play... all of which come with some kind of peripheral.

So they feel that as the games require the hardware, then people are less inclined to pirate the games. Moreover, special editions can still make a difference with nice little gifts inside such as key rings, extra content discs, etc.

To quote: See a trend? Sure the top three are games for the Wii, but more importantly, four of the top 5 have some sort of peripheral hardware associated with the game. This trend continues when you break it down across platforms - at least at the console level.

Guitar Hero: World Tour and its associated microphone, guitar and drum peripherals hold down two of the top ten Nintendo Wii sales chart positions, features in both PS2 and PS3 top ten and along with the Karaoke game, Lips (and its microphones) also appears in the Xbox 360 top ten.

Nintendo have released a bundled pack with Animal Crossing for the Wii, with the Wii Speak peripheral. I think they have cottoned on to it, avoid game piracy by packaging your software with a new piece of hardware, whether the game actually needs it or not.

Actually, there doesn't need to be an actual gaming peripheral as part of the offering, even 'normal' games can be more attractive at the sales counters given the right trimmings. Sure there are special editions (usually limited, or costing another 50 percent) for most blockbuster releases today, but what about good old in box goodies, like we used to get?

I believe there is still a place for the odd cloth map in an RPG, or stickers, key rings, extra content discs or similar items that make opening the retail box more attractive.

Digital distribution will ultimately take over, as it almost has for music, but until then game publishers will need to look to other, more tangible ways to elicit the honest dollar from an otherwise tempted wallet. More PlayStation 3 News...