[rabbitc]

Realistically your talking 7-10 days max that a high amount of traffic would be downloading the game. And then nowhere near the first 24hrs of traffic. Your logic for coming up with them money figures are way off and make no sense tbh.

Actually - they're probably short as piracy grows exponentially as source copies are replicated.

And just because someone doesnt agree with your little 'poor big billionare companys losing pennys' boo hoo attitude doesnt mean we need to STFU.

If you had read my reply properly in the first place - you might recall that I was highlighting the danger for emerging development companies who could not bear the loss easily absorbed by larger companies such as Take Two and EA. FACT: there are far less development companies around nowadays than there were in the late 90's - why? Because piracy killed quite a few of them off while others were absorbed into swollen pigs like EA to manage the risk. Emerging companies gave us games like Wing Commander, Fallout and Doom - critical industry-defining IP that is still used in content today. What have we seen in recent years that has really changed gaming apart from what R*N has delivered through GTA? Sure, games are more flashy, higher spec and bigger in every possible way - but the creative pool is still joined at the hip to the old ideas that are now over a decade old.

I have been a gamer for a very long time - and I've noticed far less diversity in the gaming market then there was years ago - and that's a real shame because the technology now has so much potential. Don't forget - GTA4 was hailed as one of the first and ONLY titles to really grab hold of the power of the X360 and PS3 - consoles that have already been on the market for years. Most publishers and studios are too swollen under their own bureacracy to provide the creative freedom and atmosphere developers need to explore their ideas, the technology and take a few risks. Piracy created this debacle which is why companies like Microsoft and Steam are trying to kickstart an indie gaming sector where up-and-comers can have that freedom yet still benefit from a robust distribution model that doesn't put them at financial risk.

BUT once the game is realised anyone who wants to play online(which would be a majority) would buy the real game.

Don't be so sure - in the case of GTA4, there is a signifigant offline value - the multiplayer is just a small aspect of the game. We also assuming that there's some sort of repurcussion for using a cracked version online - to date, I am unaware of any thus far.

And I dont think you brought into account the fact people who have cracked 360's for d/l'ed games would be aware of the game being up for download, and highly doubt any of that audience would wait 149days to download it.

There's two problems with that thinking - first, if people only bought games within the first two weeks then sales would be far less than what they are. In fact, the larger, greedy publishers (cough-EA-cough) are currently banging heads together to figure out how they can get a piece of the multi-Billion resale market. While that in itself is insanity, it is an affirmation of the longevity of game sales far beyond the release date - so the fact that it's 149 days later is irrelevant. It could be 3 years later and still have an impact.

Second - downloading is merely one option in this scenario - why download when you can score a copy from your local bootleg reseller/mate/cousin/whatever. The PS1 was a clear example of how dramatic this can be (and also secured Sony's marketshare for many years) - you look at any game that had weaker copy protection and you'll find that the game in question had a much farther reaching distribution than the legit or hard-to-hack games - even if they were crap games....all this when downloading wasn't even really an option back then. Fact: The easier it is to cheat - the more likely people will rip off said product and in greater quantities.

Ignorant much?

This coming from the guy who wanked on a bus???

If you've bothered to read my reply - I think you'll find that it is you who is ignorant.

but since i'm a retarded American, from Texas, don't take too much stock into that.

...at least you know your role..