I got out of video game piracy for a while, but I’m coming back. One thing I have been absolutely SHOCKED by is how finding PC game torrents is actually kind of difficult from my normal sources. Now it’d be one thing if I just wasn’t seeing games, but for some reason Playstation and Switch have far more uploaders and seeders on the sites. This is something that would have been unthinkable when I was into piracy. But from a quick glance, it looks like the Switch has a bigger piracy scene than PCs do right now. This was so extreme I couldn’t find a torrent for Minecraft past 1.12. I found a download, but not a torrent. Or I couldn’t find any of the old versions of Five Nights At Freddy’s on PC, but could find them on other platforms. Things I’d consider true PC staples of the past decade with absolutely nothing popping up in my normal sources.
I’m not asking where to find PC torrents (although I certainly wouldn’t mind). Are consoles actually becoming more popular to pirate for?
On PCs (specially steam):
- Games are often discounted, so you can buy them at lower prices
- Games remain available in your account “forever” (as long as the service exist). You can upgrade to new PCs as many times as you want and the games will remain available.
- You can play online for free, you can make cloud backups automatically, you get achievements, tradeable cards and items, extra visuals and fake points for karma.
On Consoles (specially nintendo):
- Games pretty much never get any discount, even after a sequel is released.
- Once you replace it with a new console, you likely won’t have access to games you bought on previous iterations (up until recently you would lose games even by buying the same console).
- You need to pay extra to play online, or to backup your saves, and there’s no extra useless goodies.
So in short: There’s hardly any reason to pirate something on PC other than to avoid paying for it. There’s several benefits to getting the game legitimately. On consoles, getting games from the high seas is actually more convenient. Sometimes people will even buy the game but still play a pirate copy instead.
There’s hardly any reason to pirate something on PC other than to avoid paying for it.
This is literally the most common reason for any type of piracy.
To quote the mighty GabeN: “Piracy is a service issue, not a price issue”
what looks cheap to you in the USA certainly isnt at all in the rest of the planet
Except when publishers don’t opt for regional pricing and games cost absurd amount of money because of poor exchange rates
Yeah, but the difference is on the PC it’s easy and comfortable to buy games if you have the money for it, so piracy is a choice. On consoles it’s often a hassle and the services are shit.
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I tend to see this pretty frequently, games on consoles too not getting any discount.
Based on what do people say this? I use dekudeals and games get discounts on a pretty regular basis. Permanent price reduction more scarce, but definitely discounted (some more some less).
I feel like you’re searching in the wrong places, because I can find literally any PC game I want as long as its not using Denuvo.
Probably. It’s just odd to me that all the ones I use/used a lot have pretty much zero PC games. Torrentleach isn’t really a gaming tracker, still just odd that console piracy has grown so much in the past few years.
Heres my take…
PC are being priced out for people who just want to game. GPU prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic and the quality of prebuilts, in terms of value and build quality, has plummeted.
This makes consoles a much more reliable and better value for the money option. Also handheld gaming has grown exponentially with the steam deck and switch being so good. Which in turn creates more demand for console piracy.
That makes a lot of sense. I thought it was really odd that there were 50+ pages for Switch games but only like 3 for PC games. Reason would say that if you’re buying a $2000 PC, you’re less likely to have a desire to not pay for games. Even I’ve moved away from PCs and switched to Android emulation because of price.
I’d definitely be more likely to buy a Switch or PS4 than a new PC right now. And I’d probably be pirating on them
I still think building a pc using used last gen parts is probably still the best bang for your buck if your starting fresh but its also a huge hassle compared to just buying a steam deck
And cryptocurrency mining. That drove a lot of GPU prices through the roof before the pandemic.
Also, most young kids play games on phones and tablets, because parents don’t need to buy an expensive console or PC.
Check this out this short by a game developer if you want to feel old…
GPUs are dirt cheap right now.
Very recently, and “dirt cheap” is a stretch. Dirt cheap compared to the pandemic years, sure.
All our PCs run linux which is the most unloved, unsupported platform for commercial software and media distribution companies. Can’t watch most streaming video better than 720p so the streaming services can get fucked raising their prices and delivering a shit service. Gabe gave us Steam and Steam sales and made shit just work and he can take my money. There are overpriced games on Steam and there are games that are not available there but that still leaves a lot of good stuff so I can understand why more people are willing to pay than pirate reducing torrent availability and seeders. Also PC hardware can be very expensive and if you can afford a high end GPU you can probably afford to support game development.
Why torrent Minecraft? Use UltimMC (based on MultiMC) if you want a cracked launcher.
How does it compare to PollyMC? It was super easy to use and you can play both offline without an account but also online with a Mojang Account. (Java versions)
Admittedly I didn’t actually try to play it online since I just looked it up for a nephew.
I used the Linux AppImage, just download and run it and you’re good (might have to install new java runtime depending on what you have already), but there’s also Windows and Mac versions.
p.s. I’m not really into Minecraft and don’t know what’s up, but apparently there’s some drama or something and PollyMC (with 2 'L’s) is not to be confused with PolyMC (one ‘L’).
Its as easy if not easier. Download it from github and check it out. Its all the feautures of MultiMC with support for cracked. PolyMC is based on MultiMC so it might have a bit more feautures.
PolyMC is safe. If you read anything else, it’s simply political bullshit.
PolyMC (one L) is not safe, not with a crazy schizo in charge. PrismLauncher is the decrazied fork of PolyMC.
The owner is a schizo depending on your politcal views and principals.
The owner is a schizo regardless.
for anyone curious, the owner seems to be a right-wing shithead
(see how easy that was to say without being ableist and weird about it?)
Recently became an unexpected foster parent. I have my old account, don’t have the money to buy a 2nd copy right now.
As I said, you can use UltimMC, its cracked, meaning that you have everything, but you cant join servers, only cracked ones. Good luck!
The prebuilt binaries are down :/
