It has the same net effect, not buying it at all or pirating it. If they see a difference at all then that lends credence to the idea that cracking after buying adds to the piracy numbers in their eyes. More on this in a bit, need to run some errands.
That is one possible outcome. I don't believe it's the only possible one (or even the most likely), however. Publishers looking at their pie being completely consumed by indies with little or no DRM are highly likely to say "what the fuck, nothing to loose anymore, might as well do the same." Yeah they might take their ball and go home, in the end, I think they're too greedy for that. There's also a glut of people willing to make games so even without big publishers funding AAA titles many games would still get made until someone new starting investing in large titles again.
This is all well and good but I don't think AAA games get funded off these sales, certainly most sequels are either already in production or canceled by the time you reach this price level. Yes, you are supporting the devs a little at this price, but you aren't driving what gets made at this point. I'm willing to be proven wrong on this point, if anyone has any data, but until then I will assert 10 dollars a year later or 0 dollars at any time is damned near equal as to whether the devs remain employed and what they are working on.
I agree, this seems to be the most common reaction, at least the one we hear about, at any rate.
Yes, but the games industry is more immature, not only do they do stupid shit a la DA2, release buggy games (nearly any big title last year), they then gut punch the people supporting them because they're mad at someone else. I'll tell you who I feel is more mature, the way a typical lead acts in an interview puts them right about at the level I put most 4chan posters. I say the previous with all apologies to the few devs who are not totally self absorbed assholes.

I'm reminded of the Extra Credits on Piracy (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2653-Piracy if you missed it). The biggest thing they get wrong is when they're talking to the pirates and say essentially "if you pirate even with all the issues apparently the game was worth playing anyway." Yeah, well if your issue is the DRM itself then that assertion falls apart.

I also think they ignore peoples' right to their own culture, but you've all heard me drone on about that one so I'll leave it at just that brief comment this time:)

"Stealth sniper? You can do that.""

Seriously?

Like if I shoot at them then hide they will lose track of me? I hate how in most shooters (that I've played) if there is a wall

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Like that and I shoot from the right and then move over to the left they magically know I am now on the other side, even though if they had checked where I was they wouldn't see me.

Okay, you're the second person to reply with that. You pay for things because it's the right fucking thing to do, I don't know why that's complicated. Crytek spent a lot of man hours, money and creativity on Crysis 2... why should anyone get to play it for nothing?

You crack the DRM someday if it gives you a problem, just like you patch Thief 2 to run with a different DirectX format or copy Monkey Island into ScummVM to get those games running. It's not piracy, it's the PC community making sure games run long after their publishers stopped caring, same as the community has always done. Counting on that backup plan for down the road is not the same as pirating games.

You only need that backup plan because they are abusing their paying customers. My argument, whether you play the games or not, is don't pay them, buy every DRM free game you can find instead. If you must play those big games then that leaves piracy, but that's up to you.

Paying for things may be the right thing to do, but it's NOT unquestionably so. You may see things as terribly black and white on this issue but it isn't to me or a lot of other folks. You can stick your head in the sand but you're going to have a hard time making people who don't feel as you do buy into your assertions. So where does paying things turn from "the right thing" into a questionable thing? When you get abused for paying for it. When you get slandered for pirating something you didn't pirate (by association). Yeah, I'm glad I gave Crytek full price on week one for Crysis so they could sound like complete toolbags and tell me the PC is full of piracy and because of people (presumably like me, at least in their eyes) they must make the expac and sequel much worse propositions for me.

I didn't pirate Crysis 2 or anything else for that matter, probably since I was a kid, but I see why people do and with the way companies treat them I cannot blame them.

Fuck that, that's such a stupid argument. If you're boycotting something then boycott it. It's not very hard to boycott something and then use it anyway, the only actual boycott happening there is you boycotting paying for shit.

As much as people try to hide behind moral gray areas and justifications there is no hiding from the fact that people put time, money and creativity into something and it's not right to take it for free. No one arguing moral gray areas can ever really come up with a direct response to that, they just dodge the issue. No matter what EA does, Crytek does or whatever else there is no cause to take their hard work and give them nothing in return.

These people are not your friends. I hate the idea some people try to put forth that developers need to kiss your ass and beg for your money. Crytek made a game... they asked for money in return for playing it and you can either pay them and play it or not and don't. A lot of people, despite there being a demo available, went around that and played their game, used their hard work, and never gave them a dime. This pissed them off and you know what? If you ever made one damn thing in your life worth selling it would piss you off too. I don't blame them for being mad and I don't blame them for expanding their market to try and find more paying customers.

I've been a PC only gamer for almost 20 years and I will never understand this pissy emo shit so many PC gamers put out on the internet. "Cervat Yerli didn't come to my house and give me a blowjob after I bought Crysis so fuck him and his company!" It's such horse shit. When you paid for Crysis you got an awesome fucking game with 10+ hours of singleplayer, tons of replayability, mod tools and multiplayer... you didn't get a new best friend or a kiss on the cheek from a developer watching millions take his work for free, boo-fucking-hoo.

I see why people do it too, it's called being selfish and not giving a fuck about anyone but yourself.

@StingingVelvet

Maybe you should calm down a bit.

Also, Orcishgamer wasn't saying that the developers need to be his friend or kiss his ass and beg for his money...

I nearly wrote something to him, but decided to wait. I'm glad I did - you summed it up perfectly. The only extra point I wish to add is this:

"I see why people do it too, it's called being selfish and not giving a fuck about anyone but yourself. "

^ TBH, the way you're coming across (Stinging) this applies to you too. You take great pride in goading other people for taking a stance that, many times, is only one degree different to yours. And in this thread in particular, I've noticed... Well. Let's be frank, you're being an asshole. I've gotten used to your ways over the years but this is a new level of douche for you... :\

There is a big difference in not playing it at all. You are taking a stand albiet a moral one. When a company looks to piracy figures they won't find me as one of them so they can't say all PC gamers are pirates. In fact if it wasn't for people like me who are stupid enough to buy games at full price then there would be no games for the pirates to enjoy free and that's why I get pissed off at pirates who have no intention of paying for games.
Then you are being naive. It's the only outcome and it's happening right now. Big publishers are already restricting PC games as much as possible and the middle sized publishers are leaving the PC entirely. It's a fact, just look around you.
Ridiculous statement. Are you truly saying a developer/publisher is better off getting 0 than 10 dollars for a game? Even despite what devs/pubs have said about Steam sales in the past?
Dragon Age 2 is a bad example. They pulled a dick move and are now paying for it. Gamers are more intelligent than publishers give them credit for and DA2 is dying on it's arse rightfully so. Just because they made a cash grab I am now entitled to pirate their games? I suppose I am entitled to pirate movies and music I also find to be poor quality. You live in a strange world where we only pay for stuff that we personally think is good. I've heard the argument before for piracy "derp I want to play the game first to see if it's worth buying", "But there is a demo!", "I don't care it might get shit later on I want to see the whole game", "So you want the whole game to play and then after you have finished it you will decide if it's worth buying?", "Exactly".

No industry works like that. You can't go and watch a movie then decide after if you want to pay for it or not and the same goes for music CD's. Pirates constantly use the demo excuse but the truth is none of them will buy it even after they play it and they certainly wont pay full price for it.

In one month from now you will see just how bad the pirates are when the GOG DRM free version of The Witcher 2 is plastered all over the torrent sites. It's DRM free, it's fair priced in some regions and in others there are sweetners to the deal yet pirates will still pirate. Why? Because it's free. The reason most pirates have Corei7 PC's with SSD's and 3xSLI setups is they don't pay for games full stop. The irony is they are also the first to complain when a PC doesn't use all that kick ass hardware.

Yep, great game, even has RPG elements -- you can roleplay a pacifist!

Yeah and then the video ends before arguably one of the hardest fights in the game. There is a reason at that point you can regen that quickly it's an upgrade and you get it right near the end of the game. You should be kickin ass and taking names by that point in the game or you are doing it wrong.

I think you're seeing it far more gloomily than I am. Yeah, sure, Battlefield of Duty The Fifth Asskicking will be all kinds of hosed up for PC if it comes out at all, yet I'm seeing people kicking out games like Angry Birds, Minecraft, Avadon: The Black Fortress, Super Meatboy, etc. There's still industry vets like the Runic guys (polishing up Torchlight 2) that are putting stuff out and they certainly sold many boxed copies. We'll be getting games, a lot of awesome ones, more than anyone but a kid during summer vacation has time to play, even while the industry revises itself.

To be clear, I don't disagree that some stuff will be bad and some changes will be disappointing, but it's already happening (or has happened, in some cases, how'd we get to activation being the norm when no other platform requires it?).
Okay, I'm not sure you comprehended what I was trying to communicate. Certainly the devs/publishers are better off with your 10 bucks a year or 18 months later, my only contention is that this qualifies as bigtime industry support. By then a sequel is in production or not. By then they know whether the game made money or not. Your 10 bucks is gravy, but the long tail sales, while they can be projected, don't cause policy decisions in the big publishers as far as I know.

If someone knows different, fair enough, I'm actually interested in the data if you have it.
I'm not defending the demo excuse, in general (though I know some people probably do buy most of the games they demo this way and like, not all do). I don't defend all acts of piracy. Let me be clear, I do defend some.

As a side note, I have definitely walked out 2/3 of the way through a shitty or inappropriate movie and was refunded my money when asked. Hell, some vehicle dealerships will let you take home a car over the weekend to try it out! Perhaps if there was legit ways to actually return unfit PC game products the deck wouldn't be stacked quite has highly against the consumer.

I don't defend all acts of piracy nor all pirates, certainly what you say will happen. Regardless The Witcher 2 will be paid for by me and people who abstain from other AAA games merely because of how much better they are being treated in this case. I predict an overall financial success even if there's 5 copies pirated for every purchased copy.

You really see a future for PC gaming when all we have to look forward to are indie titles? Might as well just buy a netbook for Minecraft and be done with it. I like my Crysis', my Mass Effect's and while i'm not a fan I like that Call of Duty is out there. Removing choice is never a good thing and often the first sign of a dying platform.
You may have had a refund but you still paid before you were allowed into the cinema. If you walk into Walmart and ask them if you can demo a few DVD's and CD's and return them after the weekend for free if you don't like them they will tell you "Fuck off we are not a public library". The car anaolgy is also a bad one. A person can expect to have a full demonstration of something that costs over $9000 to buy just the same as a person can expect to fully view a house before he buys one. You can't keep the car for a month then only buy it if you liked it and you can't move into a house till the cheque has cleared.

As a child I only played pirated games. At the age of 14 or 15 or so I bought my first game. It was full price, I bought it because I was impressed by my illegal demo. It was Soul Reaver 2.

Not saying piracy is right and I certainly have my regrets. But I certainly have tried my best to pay for every game I pirated as a kid. Your generalization does not hold.

My generalisation holds fine there are always exceptions. Piracy figures on the PC and in truth every major format except possibly the PS3 would suggest the vast majority of pirates never pay for games.