Update, September 25: As it turns out, that European Commission report found that piracy actually increased the number of legitimate sales of videogames.A European Commission report on the effect of piracy on the legitimate sales of films, TV, books, music, and games has found that, eventually,
I can only speak anecdotally, but if I had not pirated so many classic games when I was younger and didn’t have expendable income, I wouldn’t spend the inordinate amount of money on games that I do now. I’ve spent way more than I ever pirated at this point. And I often buy remakes/remasters/rereleases of games I pirated in the past, now that I can afford them. I literally just did that with Ghost Trick.
Plus I use piracy as a convenient way to get a demo version. If I like it, I buy.