Lack of Funds the Main reason Behind Piracy says Survey

Cliff Harris, founder of Independent game developer Positech, got fed up with people making illegal copies of its games so rather than report them to the authorities, he decided to ask them why they pirate games.

The informal survey, which started on his blog, yielded some very interesting results. Arguably, the main reason why people pirate stuff is because they don't want to pay for it (or perhaps pay less).

Then there's Digital Rights Management which makes life slightly more uncomfortable both for the users and the pirates, the fact that some games are not worth buying and the general consensus that not enough gaming digital outlets.

It will be interesting to see what Harris's next step will be. Making better games will be one; "My games aren't as good as they could be. Ironically, one of the things that reduces your enthusiasm to really go the extra mile in making games is the thought that thousands of ungrateful gits will swipe the whole thing on day one for nothing. It's very demoralizing." he muttered on his blog.

This could be a one-off like Radiohead's free album in Rainbows, a trial to see whether sales go up and piracy goes down.

Harris has already announced that he will reduce the price of his games - to encourage impulse purchases, ban the use of DRM, try to find out better ways of distributing games online and provide potential buyers with better demos.

Now, let's all hope that amateur pirates start buying games again and that other publishers adopt a more constructive approach to piracy.