I don't know anyone who would try to find a cracked version and, if they can't locate one, they say, ‘OK, since I can't find it for free, I'm going to go out and buy it.' I just don't think that happens."
That's pretty much so, but reverse is possible.
I think many can find a game online they can't find in the stores.
Or other, they find it, try it out for a couple of days, don't really like it, and get classified as 'an IP which has an illegal version of the game'.
Most of the people who have a hacked version are either people who really like the game, and decide to buy it whenever they can find it in stores, or, they don't like it, and they're trying it out but uninstall it a couple of days later.
Only a very small minority really like the game and don't want to pay, or don't feel obliged to pay. Most of them probably students who can't afford it.
And out of that minority of the minority that's left, there are those who have the game, but don't play it. They feel satisfaction in either having it stored on their archives (probably with thousands of other games, programs, and entertainement), and share it in p2p networks.
The true pirates are mostly people who would not pay for the game even if they did like the game anyways, because they just can't afford it.
I don't consider myself a pirate, but I do have tried a few games. Most of them deleted after a few days out of total disinterest. A few ten games I purchased because I loved them!
Games I would have never purchased if I didn't have a way to try them first!