Illegal downloads of video games has gone up nearly 20% in the last five years, new figures have revealed.
One of the reasons for the increase in piracy is the price of video games.
Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Andy Payne, chairman of the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), said “Look at FIFA, Modern Warfare, Black Ops, those games people are playing all the time. That’s great value.“
Research firm, Envisional, suggest the five top-selling games from 2010 were pirated online almost a million times.
However, Andy Payne justified the pricing, saying: “250 people sat in a studio for two years building the latest Modern Warfare 3. This costs real money.“
Recent release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was pirated almost a week before its release. To deal with those who obtained a pirated copy of the game, Microsoft banned the Xbox Live accounts of those who played the title.
This came with its problems as a number of gamers obtained their copies of the game legitamately from retailers.
