I got out of video game piracy for a while, but I’m coming back. One thing I have been absolutely SHOCKED by is how finding PC game torrents is actually kind of difficult from my normal sources. Now it’d be one thing if I just wasn’t seeing games, but for some reason Playstation and Switch have far more uploaders and seeders on the sites. This is something that would have been unthinkable when I was into piracy. But from a quick glance, it looks like the Switch has a bigger piracy scene than PCs do right now. This was so extreme I couldn’t find a torrent for Minecraft past 1.12. I found a download, but not a torrent. Or I couldn’t find any of the old versions of Five Nights At Freddy’s on PC, but could find them on other platforms. Things I’d consider true PC staples of the past decade with absolutely nothing popping up in my normal sources.
I’m not asking where to find PC torrents (although I certainly wouldn’t mind). Are consoles actually becoming more popular to pirate for?
I feel like you’re searching in the wrong places, because I can find literally any PC game I want as long as its not using Denuvo.
Heres my take…
PC are being priced out for people who just want to game. GPU prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic and the quality of prebuilts, in terms of value and build quality, has plummeted.
This makes consoles a much more reliable and better value for the money option. Also handheld gaming has grown exponentially with the steam deck and switch being so good. Which in turn creates more demand for console piracy.
That makes a lot of sense. I thought it was really odd that there were 50+ pages for Switch games but only like 3 for PC games. Reason would say that if you’re buying a $2000 PC, you’re less likely to have a desire to not pay for games. Even I’ve moved away from PCs and switched to Android emulation because of price.
I’d definitely be more likely to buy a Switch or PS4 than a new PC right now. And I’d probably be pirating on them
I still think building a pc using used last gen parts is probably still the best bang for your buck if your starting fresh but its also a huge hassle compared to just buying a steam deck
GPUs are dirt cheap right now.
Very recently, and “dirt cheap” is a stretch. Dirt cheap compared to the pandemic years, sure.
On PCs (specially steam):
- Games are often discounted, so you can buy them at lower prices
- Games remain available in your account “forever” (as long as the service exist). You can upgrade to new PCs as many times as you want and the games will remain available.
- You can play online for free, you can make cloud backups automatically, you get achievements, tradeable cards and items, extra visuals and fake points for karma.
On Consoles (specially nintendo):
- Games pretty much never get any discount, even after a sequel is released.
- Once you replace it with a new console, you likely won’t have access to games you bought on previous iterations (up until recently you would lose games even by buying the same console).
- You need to pay extra to play online, or to backup your saves, and there’s no extra useless goodies.
So in short: There’s hardly any reason to pirate something on PC other than to avoid paying for it. There’s several benefits to getting the game legitimately. On consoles, getting games from the high seas is actually more convenient. Sometimes people will even buy the game but still play a pirate copy instead.
There’s hardly any reason to pirate something on PC other than to avoid paying for it.
This is literally the most common reason for any type of piracy.
To quote the mighty GabeN: “Piracy is a service issue, not a price issue”
Why torrent Minecraft? Use UltimMC (based on MultiMC) if you want a cracked launcher.
How does it compare to PollyMC? It was super easy to use and you can play both offline without an account but also online with a Mojang Account. (Java versions)
Admittedly I didn’t actually try to play it online since I just looked it up for a nephew.
I used the Linux AppImage, just download and run it and you’re good (might have to install new java runtime depending on what you have already), but there’s also Windows and Mac versions.
p.s. I’m not really into Minecraft and don’t know what’s up, but apparently there’s some drama or something and PollyMC (with 2 'L’s) is not to be confused with PolyMC (one ‘L’).
