What could Online Piracy mean for video game developers?

I recently pirated the Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony album and remembered Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker. I took to the internet to figure out wether or not I would have to wait until reunited with my old purple Nintendo GameCube and it's silly little game disks. Luckily I found a new Nintendo Emulator called "Penguin" that allows you to open disk images with .iso endings. These files can be downloaded from EmuParadise, a files haring service with its servers located in Montenegro. I was able to download games for the Wii, Gamecube, Nintendo 64 and games for all other previous Nintendo consoles.
It took me a total of 90 minutes from inception to the start screen. Are services like this causing significant harm to these companies by freely distributing older games or is it not making much of a difference? A new Gamecube today can run you $399 and each game costs about $50. I think all the adults who grew up during the rise of video games who have gone to school and trained to enter the industry will have to deal with this issue in the future.