Video game piracy

The use of copy protection has been commonplace throughout the history of video games. Early copy protection measures for videogames include Lenslok, code wheels, and special instructions that require the player to own the manual.[3][4] Several early copy protection measures have been criticized both for their ineffectiveness at preventing piracy and their inconvenience to the user.[3][4] One of the most typical means of copy protection is to assign a serial key to the particular copy of the game, so that it can only be activated by entering the serial. However, this is often circumvented via software cracking, or through the use of a keygen.

More recent attempts to hinder piracy have included DRM tools. This includes video game digital distribution platforms, such as Steam. Steam offers features such as accelerated downloads, cloud saves, automatic patching and achievements that pirated copies do not have, making piracy less attractive. It also allows developers to revoke stolen game keys. Sometimes, games require online authentication or have always-on DRM.[1]

The digital game store GOG.com sells DRM-free games, with the view that players should fully own their games. Gabe Newell, creator of Steam, has stated that creating "service value" discourages piracy more than adding additional DRM.[5]

Historically, video game companies have blamed video game emulators for piracy, despite the fact that anyone can create their own legal ROM image from the original media.[6] Video game historian Frank Cifaldi blamed the demonization of emulators on the Connectix Virtual Game Station, a commercial emulator that was easily cracked by hackers to play pirated ISO images of PlayStation games, leading to a lawsuit from Sony. Companies continued to fear that emulators would encourage piracy.[7] This has created a long-running debate over emulation, since many out-of-print video games can only be played via ROM, and emulators are the only replacement for defunct video game consoles. Additionally, even modern remasters and remakes of older games can often be heavily altered, sometimes in a manner that changes the entire gameplay.[7] For example, Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy had a rewritten physics engine, requiring players to make more precise jumps.[8]

Some companies still consider emulators copyright-infringing, as when Atlus attempted to take down the Patreon page of a PlayStation 3 emulator, RPCS3, after arguing that allowing Persona 5 to be played on it made it illegal software. However, Patreon disagreed with the company's stance and allowed the page as long as references to the game were removed.[9]

Despite longstanding criticism of emulators in the game industry, companies themselves have used emulation to run commercial games. Nintendo operates the Virtual Console, allowing people to buy and play certain games via emulation.[7] Hackers discovered that PaRappa the Rapper Remastered was actually the 2007 PSP version running with upscaled textures on an "official" emulator, which they later reverse-engineered and used to play other PSP games.[10]

Modded consoles have been blamed for allowing piracy by circumventing DRM, despite also allowing legal homebrew video games or backup copies to be played on a modified system. Companies such as Nintendo coordinate with law enforcement agencies to track down and seize modchips for their consoles, such as in the 2007 Operation Tangled Web.[11] The same year, Nintendo also began a crackdown against merchants of R4 flash cartridges, which could be used to play pirated ROMs on the Nintendo DS, and in 2009 the device was declared illegal to sell or import into Japan, amongst other countries.[12]

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