We don't have hard data. We have instead multiple actual situations and trends that together can point to a fairly accurate situation. I already said some people would of course buy certain games if forced. But most would not. They simply won't play that particular game. People that have always pirated are not among your customers as a publisher. They're not lost sales.
Thats incorect on all accounts. First, we don't have actual sale numbers, konami din't provide any. We only know Konamy shiped 5 million copies to retailers. those are not sold, those are the copies that sit on shelves and in storage. Second, this is about the PC sales, not consoles. Since we now have Steamspy, we know the game sits at cca 850 000 copies. Low to moderate sales. A game with no crack, from a world known franchise. The people that normally buy games, went and bought the game, the pirates just played something else, they didn't go and purchase the game. I already said its easy to monitor pirate forums. This game was non existent in forum conversations. Why? Because there was no crack and no people that bought it legitimately. Therefore no one has played the game.
Aaaah, thats not how it works. When games say they sold millions it's usually a good sign. It was a PC only role playing game with high system requirements. Yet it sold millions, each of the first two games. Would it have sold better with aggresive drm? Maybe 50k more copies. Maybe more. Maybe less. We don't know. What we do know is that its one of the most succesful franchises around, being practically available for free. Thats because as i've said multiple times now, people that buy games don't care about cracks and pirate sites and so on.
Another recent example, Dragons Dogma. A review copy leaked a week early on the internet. Another free game, one week in advance, before it hits stores. Yet the game is last weeks best selling game on steam, and probably recuped its measly porting costs ten fold.
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