Comment by simcop2387

It doesn't help in convincing them to release things, but the cracks and other things that the pirates develop help the archival purposes. Because a number of the DRM and other anti-piracy stuff that's bundled, once a company goes out of business it's nearly impossible to run some of these games if they had to call home to verify the copy of the game. People removing these checks helps preserve the game for future use once the company is no more.

For a great example of this, take a look at City Of Heroes, and MMORPG that's had a relatively recent revival after someone, somehow getting a hold of the data/code for the server and managing to get it running again. https://www.pcgamer.com/a-fully-functioning-city-of-heroes-p...

The company itself went out of business back in 2012, and otherwise the game itself was just gone.