You buy a bad movie or game, you felt cheated, you leave bad review/comment, hurt their reputation.
You pirated a good movie or game, you felt satisfied, you decide to buy the original/support it.
Only a very small number of people who have money but keep pirating, as the majority pirate usually don't own money to spare on movies or games. So with Denuvo or not, the sales won't change at all. Protected or not, then the poor still won't buy it. These games developer have been scammed by Denuvo, basically.
I'm a poor gamer, but when I play the pirated version of The Witcher 3 and that game are so satisfying, I save some money for many months and buy it. I buy it after long finished the game (pirated version).
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In Nov 2016, NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Sphere of Influence - Ascension had 3 days of free play. On that time, people who don't like it, just leave and not give bad review, because even they dislike it, they aren't felt cheated. People who love it, they buy it and give good reviews, reputation up.
After the 3 days of free play event passed, new user bought the game without knowing the content. At this time, bad reviews start coming out. Some who don't like the game felt cheated by the lack of content or not match their own preference.
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So my point of view is, if you a developer/creator, just make satisfying content, and in no time, people will appreciate your product/skill. Like how many times we are buying music after we heard it more than 10 times. When we love it, we support it. And really, just a small degenerate human beings, that have money but keep pirating products.