[Nick_K]

Pirates /are/ potential customers though. Music pirates in particular tend to also spend more money on music than most people, according to some news article I read a few years back (probably bbc, I forget). I've met a few people who pirate games, or who borrow them from friends (essentially the same thing) and they were hardcore gamers who also bought more games than I do.

I recall reading an article about how copy protection that allows some play of the game could be viewed as essentially turning it into a type of demo. The aim is to stop the pirate from playing the full game, while still allowing them to 'get hooked' and thus decide to buy the full version.

The damaging effect of piracy on sales can be reduced if a product has high perceived quality, as some pirates will decide to buy the game if they are impressed and others may buy future versions. Furthermore, people who go to the effort of pirating games are less likely to be casual gamers. Such an individual will play lots of games; as these are an important part of their life they'll also be something they'll talk about with their friends, many of whom may not be pirates. A pirate who loves the game could generate several sales by word of mouth.

So, it will help sales if even pirates view the game as high-quality. The sales may be less than if there was no piracy, but as piracy cannot really be stopped, Illwinter might as well try to reduce their losses from it.

That said, I'm still not convinced that this is genuinely copy protection: I'd have thought the game simply wouldn't work.