It seems more an excuse to me than a real reason. I'm guessing its more the limited 3DS adoption than the piracy.

Just to be clear, Watsham is referring to Piracy on the DS and its alleged effects on the sales of their game. This has nothing to do with the 3DS' adoption rates or any other kind of 3DS-centric data yet because the cracking of the 3DS has only just occurred (assuming the reports are accurate).

What limited 3DS adoption? The 3DS has sold more units in North America than the DS had at this point in its life-cycle (7.38 million vs 5.90 million) and more in the rest of the world other than Japan and NA (6.88 million vs 6.13 million). It's not done as well in Japan, but since Watsham appears to be talking primarily about Europe, the adoption rate of the system doesn't seem to be an issue.

A W, do you have any links to studies supporting the notion that piracy is rampant in those age groups? I ask, because anecdotally, I can tell you that I know adults (myself NOT included) who pirate games and movies, with no remorse. Furthermore, these are well-educated adults, with an income that would allow them to buy retail games. I have even pointed out Steam to these individuals, in an effort to highlight the fact that there are plenty of great games at low prices, and the high-profile games with large sticker prices come down drastically after a few months.

No I don't have any links but I can tell you its very rampant in those age groups. I deal with kids mostly and I can tell you that they have more knowledge of pirating than ever, and that it not that big a deal to most of them. I can also tell you that the friendly pirates can make good revenue by just being the middle man between the gate that leads to the information on how to do it. I can also tell you that teaching kids about copyright is now a Common Core Standard benchmark in learning from a third grade level and up. So yeah the industry knows which age groups are doing it and they are setting the standards and punishments to curb the effect.

Well, they had to develop and test a game to pass Nintendo's certification and develop a game for a unique system (dual screens, stylus/touchscreen, 3d)... (that takes time and money) and they have to pay royalties back to Nintendo...

So they should be fine with Nintendo allowing pirates to circumvent there security and get their game for free?...

He doesn't seem to be ranting, but rather hoping that Nintendo can close the holes (through updates and whatnot) so they don't let all his cattle out through the "open barn door". (At least make piracy more difficult, so that users can't make off with his goods without having to incur some type of sanctions or penalties)

I mean if you brought your wares too a market, had to give the folks running things a kickback, you'd hope that at least they could provide some level of security that thieves wouldn't make off with a large percentage of your goods...

F2P also has very serious side-effects on design that make it pretty poorly suited to a studio focused on product-based games such as Mutant Mudds. When piracy has such a nebulous impact, recommending a fundamental change of business model specifically to avoid it seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

@Alexander

True. I meant with future designs. Not redesigning a game to fit a freemium business model. That's usually a disaster. *shutters at the thought*

"It's a well established fact that the R4 cart on DS caused software sales to halve."

Could you provide a source for this 'well established fact'? All I could find was: http://www.gamesradar.com/drop-in-nintendo-software-sales-not-due-to-r4-c ards/

You've not provided any context for this fact. Was it worldwide? When was it? Was it 100% of all DS titles, or a specific company? What on earth are they using to be able to verify as fact that lower sales are a direct result of piracy(and more specifically piracy via the R4 cart) and not waning interest or other competing technologies?

I can agree, there are a lot of people jamming a lot of BS about piracy being good for developers, but jamming in a whole pile of counter argument BS doesn't improve the conversation.

There are TONS of reasons why a certain game/platform can succeed or fail and piracy is only one of them. The DS is not special in that it can be hacked, and Dementium is not special in that the sequel sold much worse than the original. He even mentions he doesn't have solid metrics on users using pirated versions, and so doesn't know how many people even pirated Dementium 2. He's taking an unfavourable outcome, and instead of treating it like the complex combination of internal and external factors it is, trying to blame it all on a single, unverifiable external scapegoat, and then putting the onus of an impossible solution on someone else (Nintendo). There is plenty of constructive conversation about piracy, but Jools Watsham did not in any way contribute to it with what he mentioned in the article.

Nobody here has said piracy isnt a problem, several people have specifically made the point that they recognise it is a problem before calling this load of clap trap out for what it is.

Dementium was released 2007 through to 2009 this was so far past the point where DS piracy had become trivial that to suggest that Dementium IIs sales were crippled to the point of leaving the platform in comparison is laughable.

Nothing happened to DS piracy between Dementium and Dementium II that would have had a significant effect. The R4 cartridge you are trying to pin this on was on the market for going on a year by even Dementiums earliest release date.

Incidentally DS sales were in decline in 2010 across the board quite likely because Nintendo had just announced the 3DS.

That is an incredibly bad idea imo.

Companies that have done that, have been bombarded with horrible review scores, because it turns out pirates will still review a game. They don't know it's specifically because it was pirated, or if it was a bug in the real version as well, so you end up with lots of 'Buggy and broken' reviews. I can't recall the game name, but one game specifically shortened your jump just enough that a mid-game jump could not be made. Going further and bricking devices is incredibly dangerous, as you can't be sure they are not customers via other products, or someone who bought the game and pirated it (rare, but it does happen, especially if the game has heavy DRM, and a single false positive when it comes to bricking people's computers is really bad).

Not to mention, that attempting to trick people into downloading malicious software, even if those users intended to pirate something makes you culpable. They never actually pirated anything because Sony, MS, Nintendo uploaded the broken version themselves, but now Sony, MS, Nintendo would be responsible for deceiving people, and damaging their property.

Edit: Also, no company gets to decide who 'deserves it', that's the job of the legal system, hence the RIAA/MPAA's current heavy focus on lobbying for much more rigorous digital IP legislation around the globe.

My history teacher used to say that instead of an airbag, car manufacturers should simply install a spike in every steering wheel. Then nobody would speed and anyone breaking the rules would get what they deserve.

@Merc - I fail to see how a video game console and piracy equate in any way to death in a car. If your analogy was along the same lines maybe it might have some strand of validity.

In easier terms, in a car someone else could do something stupid and force you into the spike. In video game piracy there is no such thing. If you are holding a pirated game you bought it, you downloaded it, or you tried to use it in some way. No one pushed you into it. Completely different cases.

Good to see the educational system continues to employ fools that use scare tactics to prevent social norms from changing. The benefit of those that actually follow the system is constantly held back due to the pirates.

@Tom Well, the good thing about piracy is no one ever actually gets caught right? No one would even have to know they were bought and paid by the publisher.

Good communication could be used to mention these specific problems and if it happens you to how the company would take corrective action for them. Send us in the game, we will send you a copy back, with a bonus or something - pirates wouldn't send anything in hopefully, knowing full well what they did, others you can then inform them about piracy or add them to a list of potential pirates to turn into the authorities...

And I find it funny you still think the legal system works... We don't need more legislation or rules, we need to punish offenders. Once people see the offense as more problematic that the solution (actually buying it) the problem goes away. All at the expense of the pirates for a change instead of the other way around.

The fact people still dismiss punishing the offenders as a viable option to piracy is insane.