GP writer Marcus Estrada discusses the question of why indie game developers are embracing piracy on PC as big companies like EA continue to fight it.
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Piracy hurts the big companies "bottom line". In their eyes anything that has an effect on your bottom line, no matter how miniscule, it is a cancer that must be eliminated.
An indie dev has no bottom line, in fact they have NOTHING including a reputation, because they aren't established. To an indie dev having their game passed around, legally or not, is good because it gets their name out there and gets them something that not just money buys -- a reputation. Once they've grown and gotten picked up by a big publisher like EA or UBI, then piracy would be seen as a threat, but again this is more from the publisher's perspective, not necessarily the dev (he/they may or may not have the same opinion).
What big companies have not gotten through their thick skulls though is the more you fight and resist piracy the more it will occur. If they'd stop jacking prices on games because of "piracy" (so they say) and tracking down Tom and Jane and the backwoods of nowhere and slapping them with unrealistic lawsuits, you'd see less piracy and more people buying. No piracy will never go completely away, but at least you can minimize it by not feeding people anger and frustration that drives them to pirate over buy in the first place.
The industry has tied itself down with all sorts of things when it comes to the distribution of games, particularly on a global level.
The indie devs don't have the time or the resources to deal with that.
I can think of three reasons. One is they like the exposure. Indie developed don't have the same type of budgets for marketing. A lot of people will try the game out and if they like it some will buy a legit copy.
Another reason is they validate the piracy if they view these big corporations as having lots of money. Piraters will support the smaller developers instead.
Indie games also take more risk and are often made of pure love for gaming and not created to sell millions of copies. It's more about the passion than about the money.
Because they can't. How exactly do you expect them to fight piracy? Besides the people who claim that they embrace piracy only say that because it is too hard or expensive to fight and get pleasing results. If every game company could find some way to kick out every person who can copy their game and keep them out forcing them to buy the original they would do it. But they can't so you either accept it or spend a lifetime trying to keep them out.Helplessness leads to acceptance. If I didn't have a gun or security to keep out the intruders would you just let them come in or helplessly fight them knowing it isn't doing anything?
Because Indy devs recognize that most pirates are people who wouldn't have gotten the game any other way?