Yeah well it doesn't help with programs suchas Kazaa being abused by adults...
Most kids and teens don't understand howto program to create cracks and software unlocks, that is oftenly done by highly skilled morons!
Most of the time in the uk the mark down price of £5-£10 oftenly is only on older games to get rid of stock!
with EB and Game who uptil 4month ago were competeing in price wars (even though they were the same company), they're profits aren't actually as large as you'd think.
If they mark a game down £10... that their profit gone!
The profit they make oftenly is surged back into purchasing and contract for reatiling the latest titles - add this to the employees wages ... they're really arn't making a whole hellofa lot!
The profit oftenly software companies are paid per title per year ... like a grant system - if they run out of money then ONLY if the publisher thinks it is worth while they will put more money in. Usually within this budget the company has to purchase new software for their development staff, new computers, licences ... which actually comes out that the developers arn't making much money - althought i admit ALOT of the higher up guys are making stupid money like footballers, i mean they're talented but John Romero on £1.5mil a year + bonuses and his first comeback game was truely nothing compaired to almost every other title at the time!
Alot of thought and preperation does actually go into the box art believe it or not alot of them are done by to graphical engineers designing them to catch the eye and make a style! (which is pretty hard considering more than 150 titles are released per year)
alot of the money is ending up in the pockets of companies like EA and Activision ... yes perhaps alot does go on advertisement - however still when all is said and done the only people who make a true profit are them!
They end up with the money to spare, whereas almost everywhere else the money is spent before it is even allocated!!
And this is the case that you'll find until developers came under the rule and exclusiveness of a publishing house, and they published - marketed and sold to retailers the games we were all paying considerably less!
Take microsoft for example (probably the BEST example) ... now alot of thier software is pirated, why?
because they are the greediest company on the planet!
They are developers, publishers in one package... this in theory should cut down the cost to us no?
WinXP - £110 however if you are a student £50, now this might just be me ... but alot of people i know send off for the student pack because if you have kids then basically your entitled to use it!
So, really they're not making much more money becuase those people who don't qualify will almost undoubtably pirate or just go without ... now imho this is kinda blind sighted of Microsoft as they're killing thier own customer base - however whilst they hold a monopoly over Home Operating systems and companies require Windows to run then they can charge whatever they like and they'll get it!
But your can see they're making 100% more from those who don't have school going kids!?
Add to this that technically anyone who has this operating system on more than ONE pc must buy another copy - otherwise they are ILLEGALLY using the software... and Microsoft have even prosocuted people on these grounds!
I really think the industry has too look up and think hey if people are paying so much money... how come we're not seeing any of it?
Here is a simple example, Tiberium Sun was developed for £2.8Million (this includes the guest appearance of James Earl Jones) - Now the game was marketed for £35 in the UK ... it required to sell 80k copies to break even (worldwide). It sold over 150,000 copies in the UK alone!
Now we tag this up, you'll add £5/copy (rough figure but about right for the machines operation that copies the game) ... say another £2/copy for import to the UK
another £15/copy profit from the Retailers (i'm being generous) - so £22/copy * 150,000 - £35 * 150,000 = £1.95mil unaccounted for!
if it isn't going to the retailers (because it is was £10 less from www.shop.ea.com) - then surely there is only one possible place that it is going no?
and those are just the UK figures, for a single title!
Holy jumping mother of god NOOOO!!!...
