In the first three months of 2024, Russian hackers downloaded unlicensed copies of games worth more than 118 billion rubles. This conclusion was made by analysts of the online school XYZ School, which is part of the educational company Ultimate Education. The results of the latest market analysis are available to the editors of socialbites.ca.
According to them, the level of piracy has reached 74%, remaining almost the same as at the end of last year. More than half (54%) of pirates have downloaded no more than three unlicensed copies of games. The average cost of downloaded games for each “pirate” was 6.8 thousand rubles.
Experts believe that Russian players often become victims of conditions that make it difficult to purchase games legally, such as economic sanctions and restrictions on access to international payment systems. Emma Yusova, managing director of online game development and computer graphics school XYZ, said many consumers looking to support their favorite studios were forced to look for alternative ways to access content.
According to lawyer Ekaterina Tkach, managing partner of the law firm Tkach and Partners, the problem of video game piracy in Russia remains relevant and requires an integrated approach to solve it. One of the most important factors, she believes, is that users have no personal responsibility for downloading and using pirated content. Tkach suggests fining users who download pirated content, similar to what is implemented in Germany.
He also noted that legal action alone is not a panacea and that the best way to combat piracy is to develop new ways to monetize games, such as subscription models, microtransactions, free games with in-game purchases, and other innovative approaches.
Previously recognizedThat an analogue of the Diablo game is being developed in Russia.