Almost 70% of Russian gamers are pirating in the wake of sanctions

[midian182]

In brief: Game piracy has long been popular in Russia, but the exodus of Western companies from the country following its invasion of Ukraine saw the practice skyrocket. In 2022, 69% of gamers said they'd played at least one pirated game, while 51% admitted to pirating more games than they did in 2021.

A survey carried out by Russian online game development platform School XYZ (spotted by TorrentFreak) highlights the explosion in piracy after numerous game devs and publishers pulled out of the market.

Almost seven out of ten gamers played a pirated game last year, with just over half confirming they were pirating more in 2022 than they were a year earlier. Around 20% said they had pirated more than ten games, while 27% confessed to pirating more than three.

The Russian gaming market in 2021 looked very different (courtesy: Game World Observer)

Not all participants were pirates: 31% said they had pirated nothing, all of whom were against pirating. Moreover, just 7% said they had purchased nothing through official channels, suggesting the other 93%, even the pirates, had bought at least one game legitimately last year.

Game piracy isn't a new issue in Russia, which had considered legalizing piracy to avoid sanctions. A 2019 survey of 2,000 Russian by ISET Softvea LLC (via Ars Technica) found that 91% preferred pirated content across mediums, with cracked games proving to be the most popular type of pirated content. Only 9% of respondents said they bought content exclusively from official sources.

Russians have few options when it comes to buying games legally. Microsoft, Ubisoft, Take-Two, EA, Activision, Epic, Sony, and Nintendo as just some of the big names to have stopped the sale of their products in Russia following the invasion, but the bigger problem has been companies like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal suspending their services, making the purchase of games from online platforms much more difficult.

As with many modern technologies, video games are playing a big part in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. We've seen Counter-Strike: Go being used to skirt Putin's media restrictions and inform Russians about the war. There was also Microsoft's warning of Russian agents trying to infiltrate gaming communities. On the hardware side, it was reported in April that the Ukraine army was using the Steam Deck to control machine gun turrets.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99509-almost-70-russia-gamers-pirating-wake-western-companies.html

 

[dirtyferret]

Holy crap! Since western companies have departed, 70% of russians are pirating games and the other 30% are lying! This is a major jump from a few years ago when 65% of russians were pirating games and the other 35% were lying.

 

[takaozo]

Nothing changed there since the end of WW2. When the war ended they confiscated designs and blueprints for all tech they could find. And when that was not possible they relocated the entire factory to CCCP (human operators included).
We who live in East Europe had our part of stories like this direct from our grandparents.

 

[veLa]

Problem?

 

[return]

The real problem is the gas/electric prices!

 

[hahahanoobs]

Justified pirating.
They have no other option. I'd rather they have this option than not game at all making recovery that much harder.

 

[The Talking Tech]

I'm totally fine with the Russians pirating games and movies as a need vs them hacking US citizens just for fun.

 

[return]

Justified pirating.
They have no other option. I'd rather they have this option than not game at all making recovery that much harder.

Pirating was always accepted in the open there. I remember buying game CDs that had a crack inside of them or going to buy a copy of a tape that got copied in front of everyone. No one cares there that some Hollywood snob can't afford a second jet.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Pirating was always accepted in the open there. I remember buying game CDs that had a crack inside of them or going to buy a copy of a tape that got copied in front of everyone. No one cares there that some Hollywood snob can't afford a second jet.

That's not cool at all. Is Russia a broke country?
I'm only defending pirating due to the sanctions that don't allow legal purchases.

 

[Uncle Al]

Once again, just another reason to completely block all Russian, Chinese, north oregano, etc, etc internet traffic ...

 

[MaestroIT]

It is just the buying that is sanctioned or gaming platforms themselves? Does steam and Ubisoft work with the games they already owned?

They can use bitcoin to buy keys and that's it, or just continue pirating...

 

[TomSEA]

I worked as a senior manager for a west coast airline. We were "awarded" a contract to handle Russian Aeroflot planes. And I was placed in charge of that operation for about a year until it was clear there was no money to be made. Which allowed me to visit Russia several times as well as interact with Aeroflot and Russian aviation administrators, crews and staff here in the states.

And I have never encountered a collective group of people who believe that the way to get through life is to steal, lie or bribe anyone and everyone. Corruption is a huge problem in Russia, but it's engrained in their society. They think nothing of it. Everyone does it from the lowest street sweeper to Putin. And until they grow out of that - not likely anytime soon - Russia will always be the "bastard step-child nation" that no one can trust or do legitimate business with.

This story doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[kinetix]

Where I live 99.99% of PC games are pirated.
In my case, I have never ever played a "legal" PC game in my life, since the first time I played on an MSX. none of the dozens and dozens of games that I have on DVDs or are still on my PC to be burned or I am currently playing, is legal (perhaps some very old, when there were no means to prevent it effectively)
So?