Morality and downloading

[One Above All]

Prices are changed according to the region. Some game developers don't go so far as to call us (consumers) stupid to our faces, but they might as well when they charge 60 USD, EUR, or GBP in the USA, Eurozone, and UK, respectively, as if the price is the same. It's not. 60 USD is about €57, €60 is about 42 GPB, and 60 GBP is about 88 USD. That means the USA pays the least for games, followed by the Eurozone, followed by the UK.

In Russia, games are cheaper than pretty much anywhere else. If game developers couldn't afford these prices (not to mention shipping and storage costs for those who still sell physical copies), they wouldn't sell their games there, period. But they do, and at a much cheaper price. That's because money comes first. It's not about selling things at a fair price; it's about selling things at a price that will maximize profits. If they sold their games in developing countries with the same price tag that those same games have in developed countries, they'd "never" make a sale. So, rather than lose that market entirely, they adjust the price so that they can still get some profit from it (and note that games in Russia - these games anyway - are at least around 33% cheaper than what we get here).

So, assuming piracy is theft, I say it's well justified.
In Portugal, we have a saying: Ladrão que rouba ladrão tem cem anos de perdão. Lit.: Thief that robs thief has 100 years of pardon.