In fact the pirating scene hasn't changed, I don't have anything to do with pirating now ofcourse, I no longer have that need as when I was much younger and the days of making copies of C64 games with your HiFi stereo or Amiga copy parties which lasted deep into the night. Back in then it was never a problem to get the latest and hottest release, just as today, sometimes the pirates had the games before the shops had them (including trainers!). In fact you could argue it was more difficult for pirates in those days because they did not have the internet, and games were spread by snail-mail, BBS and copy parties. Even at our young age we figured out a lot of those pirated games must have been an inside job.
So, what has changed? Well, the most important change happened in the industry. Games are big bucks now, and everybody is playing them. Millions are involved and when pirates go ahead and pirate games as they have always done, it is a potential loss of millions that were needed very badly to get the gaming company out of the development costs. Piracy has always been a major complaint and as the stakes rise so does the impact.
Piracy will never be stopped, and game producers will never stop complaining. I wouldn't be surprised if at one point the movie and game industry merged and then it could get real ugly for pirates. Not that I have a problem with that, not anymore at least. And I don't approve piracy either anymore at this stage. I just though it was funny how they tried to turn the news to the pirates while they did nothing new, but the business around it has just changed.
