I honestly don't think that piracy hurts sales, much less emulation. A lot of games sold are emulated, like the Mega Man Legacy Collection.
There have been several studies showing that pirates have a greater investment in the consumption of pop culture and buy myself.
Myself included. When I was broke and couldn't afford to buy games at all I did download roms.
Now I own nearly a thousand games just on Steam, and more than is honestly economically justified. I shouldn't be spending as much as I do on games, but I do.
It's still download roms of games I already own, just because it might not be worth the effort to get them from my own carts.
PlayStation 2 is one of the easiest. I never did bother with downloading them, since it is easier and faster to just make an iso myself out of the game.
It's also noteworthy that pirating and buying aren't mutually exclusive. A game pirated doesn't mean a lost sale. Chrono Trigger is probably the game I've pirated more than any. And I own the game on every platform except IOS. The longest time, the only way to play Chrono Trigger, was expensive SNES carts.
Anyway, the whole point of emulation isn't piracy to begin with. It is preservation and options. Emulators have options, and simply work like a PC port. You can also download most PC games. Most choose to go through Steam, though.
I would much prefer it if I could actually buy Nintendo games on Steam. But that isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever, so it is at least nice to enjoy something Nintendo developed on my PC.
In fact, it makes me want to buy Nintendo games more, knowing that I can do that. I am really looking forward to emulating Breath of the Wild on CEMU. Not so I don't have to buy it, I own 3 copies of the game. But because I dream of better framerates and resolution to play it in.
If I was a game developer, I would much rather poor teenagers and college kids with debt, and people from poor countries with high poverty, download a rom of my game than just not play it at all. As long as I can afford to live comfortably and am not losing all my sales. I would then most value people's precious time, not just their money. Also those people are also potential future customers who just don't want to wait.
What are we afraid of when we say that a game being emulated is a bad thing? Lost sales? I don't think that's gonna happen. Gamers are passionate, we like to buy stuff.
Piracy is a service and poverty problem more than anything. Most anime fans used to be pirates, now most are paying for Crunchyroll. People who got things for free now want to spend money because they're invested in the hobby.
Piracy is a victimless crime that doesn't cost developers sales. Much less emulation.
I don't know and really hope this kind of post isn't bannable here. I know Piracy is frowned upon, but this controversial opinion I hold isn't a bannable offense. I hope it isn't, because I can't in good faith sat that emulation or even Piracy is bad for the industry, developers and artists, when studies show that Piracy leads to increased sales, not lost sales. I'm going to have to go with the studies on this topic. I can't in good faith pretend otherwise.
