Not too long ago piracy was a large problem in the video game industry. Grant it, while it was noticeably worse in some platforms more than others, it was still costing the industry an upwards of 41 billion dollars a year- and that is just for handheld gaming. While the problem has by no means been eradicated, the video game industry has made some progress by taking a different approach to that taken by the music and film industry.
The video game industry integrates a social aspect into their products. They create a robust, fun, and active online community which is accessible only through protected servers after the purchase of their consoles and games. This provides a large incentive for the consumers to buy the video games, rather than acquiring it through other means. While on the PC, video game piracy is still rampant there has been a noticeable decline through the integration of a social community with the release of Steam and EA’s origin.
The music industry can learn from this. While social integration will not completely eradicate the piracy of music, it will be a step in the right direction. The trouble of course is that music is a passive and personal form of entertainment, rather than an active and social one. Thus, while you can play video games with other people online, it would be rather difficult (and slightly awkward) to listen to a song online with another person. Therefore, some may argue that the music industry has integrated as much of a social aspect as is possible by simply giving the users the option to share what they are listening to through social media.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/gta-v-makes-history-in-anti-piracy-fight/488298.html
