Gaming: a luxury in Asia that leads to piracy?

Developing Asian countries with low income citizens are charged more than the developed world for all things video games. In a place where a single video game costs an entire month's pay, is the industry setting itself up for piracy? Does making gaming such a luxury shoot the industry in the foot?

[sphinct]

Interesting. I never agree with piracy, but I see why the writer asks the question.

[xhedleyx]

Piracy kills.

[pangitkqb]

Never thought of gaming in those kind of monetary terms. One game can be an entire months salary?!?!

[AIndoria]

I do not condone piracy, however, the situation in Asia is extremely suitable for a piracy-scene to develop, and that's probably the only reason that piracy is a huge hit in those countries.

[pat_11_5]

I remember seeing consoles when I was on vacation in Mexico. The prices were absolutely insane!

[Eu]

While I do agree that the companies are trying to make as much money as they can, we have to understand that each country has its own tax's laws that make the price go even further up....So, its not ONLY the industry, but the governments of these countries being their greedy selves.

Here in Brazil, for example, gaming devices have absurd taxes imbued in their final prices, so much that when launched he price goes up to 10x the final price already converted in BR Real. There are some loby already to make the taxes less abusive on the soft and hardware wise, but god knows how long it will take them to pass...

Piracy is never the solution. It may be a paliative for a problem, and as such, it never resolves it.

[AIndoria]

Agreed. However, it's not only the taxes and the government. In India and China, electronic items are expensive, however, console and game prices are especially over the top because of cultural issues. You'll never see someone over 25 playing video games in these countries, hence widening the gap between convenience and price.

[Somebody]

I still have friends who look in astonishment whenever I told them price of games that I buy every month. Although they don't cost as much as a month's wage but they are still considered a luxury. Last year I told a friend about the cost of a genuine Windows 7 that I planned to buy for BF3. He barked at me that it would be better to give that money to my parents instead of wasting it on genuine product. Honestly, I was saddened to hear that. Another friend kept "borrowing" my genuine games for year. Account based Steam and Origin DRM rendered his habit useless though. I never told (or ever will) him about Steam's ability to copy and paste folders to any PC.