Dear Futrue Gamer

I'm sorry to bring up this piracy thing again, but I feel I have a solution to Sony's problem. Now I believe that music CDs and computer CDs have a lot in common. They are played by roughly the same audience, they both appear on the same type of CD and once you've played them a couple of times they get very boring.

But there is one huge difference between music and game CDs. Music isn't pirated on the same scale as computer games. The reason why? Nobody can be bothered to pirate something that's worth around £10. This could be Sony's answer. I'm not saying to lower the price that low, but if they could lower the price to around £20, then the piracy market could be stamped out overnight.

I know a few people who pirate games on a regular basis, but never copy their favourite music. When I asked one why he didn't pirate music CDs, he said 'I can't be bothered.'

Anon

FG: The price of games is a very contentious issue. Software houses still argue about ‘perceived value’ whereby they think people won’t buy cheap games because they assume they’re not as good as the expensive ones. I wonder how this would work in the music industry? Should a Fat Boy Slim album cost twice the price of a Steps one? And would Steps therefore actually sell twice as many? Whether cheap games would wipe out piracy, I don’t know. Drop me a line and let me know what you think – especially if you’re a games developer.