It isn't equal to total illegal downloads, but it isn't equal to zero either. It's probably also not uniform across different game genres.
There isn't really such a thing as "enough" customers either. The more you sell the more budget you have to produce the next game and the more confidence you have that it could be successful.
I cannot put into words how profoundly this line of thinking upsets me. It is, quite literally, the antithesis of Western society.
US companies make drugs. They patent them wherever they can. Places that don't acknologe the patent get the benefit anyways. And the drug users in the US bear the brunt of the costs.
I like being on the other end, too. If there's more than enough to go around, I state that it should.
Can you explain this to me? It looks like trolling, but I'm trying to extend the benefit of the doubt.
What does "Western society" mean? I'm both curious what countries or cultures qualify as Western for this purpose, and also what aspects of those countries/cultures you see as being the essential ones.
How do you equate the "accepting some free riders as long as some people pay" idea with the antithesis of Western society? Are you claiming that the fundamental premise of "Western society" is "don't let anyone have anything without paying for it"?
What does "quite literally" mean in that sentence? Is there some non-literal sense that you wanted to disambiguate, or is just an intensifier?
What a wonderful way of completely deriding any meaningful discussion possible.
The question game developers should be asking is not "How many people will illegally copy it?" but "How many people will buy it?"
It doesn't matter if there are 100 free riders for 1 customers, as long as you have enough customers.