Really interesting discussion from both sides of the argument. From what I’ve seen it basically boils down to differing cultural opinions on morals, ethics and legalities. From what I’ve seen, the Japanese are saying that piracy of out of print games can potentially harm the companies future sales so therefore it is illegal and should not be done. The western side seems to think it’s ok because the company won’t be making any money from a game they don’t have on sale anyway… I see merit in both sides of the argument and it’s quite frustrating to see the comments be so black and white. I personally don’t pirate anything I don’t already own, (it’s 100% a moral thing on my end, I don’t have a problem with anyone else doing that. although owning in my case usually means buying from the second hand market, meaning the company will never see any of my money anyway..) I would never pirate anything that is currently available to buy new. I think it’s better for more people to enjoy the game (or any other media) than be forced not to ever engage in it because of a law that supposedly protects the companies’ future profits. I also saw an argument that mods and fan translations are also illegal and should never be used. Mods I kind of get, as it’s changing the intended experience, but on PC, especially in the west, it’s usually seen as a good thing and can help prolong the games lifespan. But then there’s the thoughts that prolonging a games lifespan is actually bad because people’s attention will still be in the old game rather than whatever new the company has produced. But the counterpoint to that is people’s attention could always be on something else. If someone choose to play an old game by the same developer instead of buying the new one, there’s no difference. Fan translations though I see no problem with at all, if a game is never going to be released outside of its own country. That shouldn’t stop others being able to engage with it. Some fan translations have even been used by companies as official translations in the future, e.g Falcom using fan translations for the Ys and Legend of Heroes games. Helping bring more awareness to a franchise is only a positive in my eyes and can only mean more potential sales in the future if the company decides to do international releases. I’ve played a lot of the Japanese games I picked up over the years by patching a fan translation. If they ever get an official English release, I’d buy them to support the company, but currently there’s no way to financially support the majority of companies. Maybe they should all have Kofi accounts for people who want to donate after enjoying a fan translation? Ultimately, games should be more accessible and companies should put more effort into preserving their games and keeping them available on modern platforms.