This is not a hollywood movie where there’s some fanciful PirateNetWatch 3.8 ™ showing a red progress meter with a flashing, beeping “Not Profitable!” warning above and below.
My take is that this is a scare tactic. The game industry (rapidly becoming the most profitable in the area of entertainment) needs to just do the following:
1) Make better games
2) Always release demos
3) Price them affordably
As far as I know, most games get borrowed because they’re amusing but not good enough to buy, there is no demo to try, or the person just can’t afford it at the time.. or all three combined.
And one other thing, we’re not living in a time of vast riches and fair earnings. We’re living in a depressed economy with more people under the poverty line – both in number and percentage (which IS something we can gather statistics for) – then ever in US history. This is not the time to squeeze out a market because it’s not making a game publisher as rich as could be with an optimum profit margin. This is the time to ease off a little, treat your customers as people.