That assumes that most people are pirating just because they think the game's too expensive.
- If someone pirates games because their parents don't want to drive them to the store and they don't have a credit card for buying games online, then dropping the price to $5 won't change anything for them.
- If someone pirates games because they've gotten so used to doing it that the idea of going to a store never even crosses their mind, then dropping the price to $5 won't change anything for them.
- If someone pirates games because they don't want to shell out for a complete unknown, then dropping the price to $5 won't change much for them.
That last one is one I'd like to unpack, too. Even assuming Ubi's 95% figure is correct, that presumably comes from just counting individuals. According to that metric, someone who pirates a game because there's no demo and plays it for ten minutes before deleting counts as just as much of a pirate as someone who steals the game and then plays it 4 hours a day for months. And someone who pirates it and plays for an hour before deciding to buy it is counted as both a legitimate buyer and a pirate.
I'd be much more interested to know what percentage of play hours are logged on pirated vs. legitimate copies of a game. I realize that's not in line with most game makers' pay models, but I suspect it would still turn out to be instructive.