How Sony can stop piracy on the PSP

[wraggster]

Recently, a Sony representative indicated that the piracy on the PSP is “sickening.” There is not doubt that piracy is rampant on the handhelds such as the PSP and Nintendo DS. However, there are measures Sony can take to reduce the piracy on the PSP.

SCEA’s Peter Dille spoke about the growing piracy issue on the PSP recently to Gamasutra. Dille talked about how third party developers were ready to jump off a year-and a-half ago. However, with education and a paradigm shift in approaching handheld games, third-party developers were ready to get back into the game.

The PSP has been selling phenomenally across the globe, but the software sales have not matched the hardware sales. This has been attributed to an increase in piracy. However, blockbuster games like GTA, Crisis Core, and God of War still managed to sell millions of units. The problem may be a combination of quality, quantity and piracy.



One way to reduce the piracy on the PSP is to support the homebrew community. The PSP currently has one of the biggest homebrew communities out there. A cursory glance at sites like QJ.net ((pfft dcemu ;))reveal that there is a wealth of applications that will run on the PSP such as a YouTube streamer, VNC client/server app, custom OS, and emulators (GBA, NES, SNES, N64, etc…).

Believe it or not, most people that hack the PSP do so for the homebrew capabilities but gets sucked into piracy because it’s so easy once the PSP has been hacked. Even some of the most influential PSP hackers delivering hacked firmware on a regular basis seem to be against piracy while being for homebrew software.

If Sony is able to bring firmware updates that support the creation of homebrew applications while preventing piracy, then this could be the needed catalyst to reduce the issue. As Dille said, most people are inherently honest and want to do the right thing, Sony just needs to take the temptation away from the average consumer.

http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/04/23/how-sony-can-stop-piracy-on-the-psp/

[kojiro7]

and reduce the prices of its games.most people are not rich how many years have to be passed for the companies to understand it?

[Qmark]

The pirates are still going to pirate. Had it not been for KXploit, the GTA thing, the Lumines thing, and eventually Pandora Battery, there would still Undiluted Platinum.

The incidental fact that installing a CFW enables rampant piracy via Sony's own built-in ISO loader (more or less) and Popstation (yes, pops) is opening up the 'casual piracy' floodgate that eventually undid Dreamcast.

Had they done a public API several firmwares ago, this probably wouldn't have happened to the extent it did.

[mookz]

Four things:

1) Encourage developers to create quality titles
2) Lower the prices of the games
3) Put out more demos
4) STOP MAKING LARGER MEMORY STICKS! Where do you think the pirates are storing and playing the games on? :eek:

Sony shouldn't be able to complain when they're making $$$ off the sales of their memory sticks!

[Saracchini]

Four things:

4) STOP MAKING LARGER MEMORY STICKS! Where do you think the pirates are storing and playing the games on? :eek:

Sony shouldn't be able to complain when they're making $$$ off the sales of their memory sticks!

Memory sticks arent only for PSP. Larger MS are needed to video recording with good quality and long duration in Sony video devices. Develop another media for that also is a dumb move.
Regarding PSP, there many good reasons to have larger MS , they are needed to watch videos on PSP, store music , imaqes , DLC and another things.

Blame the media is like say that DVD-R , CD-R and mp3 players are the responsible for movie and music piracy. Pirates aways find a manner.

About money made with MS sales, i must say that most of MS sold here are fake, and surely Sony dont make any money with then.

Also most of PSP units sold here are hacked, Sony dont even bother to sell games here officialy, so games can only be obtained importing then at very high prices (like the equivalent of US$ 150,00 per game), which makes ISOs the prefered option of many people.

Notice that prices of PSP units are rather cheap compared with the games here. I can buy a unit with the price of 3 games.

[ojdon]

It's not security in which they are lacking, it's games people are wanting to buy. I am more than happy to buy games I think are worth the money. I mean I got Phantasy Star Portable imported since it's a decent game. :P

[Dweezledap]

Piracy has never been the problem with the PSP. My wife uses her's for listening to movies at work, plunging it into her car stereo and using it as an mp3 player, using it as a mp3 player at night to go to sleep, and playing Pogo.

The point I'm trying to make is it is a great piece of hardware, but as far as gaming goes I have only bought 1 game for it (GOW: Chains of Olympus) and my wife has only bought 2 games for it (the afore mentioned Pogo) and Namco Museum.

We have the knowledge and cards to "Pirate" games. The fact is the games are not that interesting or good.

I have always used any loopholes to try games and if I find myself playing them for anything more than a few minutes I buy them. Unfortunately the PSP is not a system I have found many games I enjoy or am willing to pay for.

How many games have been released for the PSP in the last year?

Additional note: My son enjoys GTA on his and uses the 4 GB card as an MP3 Player that he plugs into his 100 watt home stereo system.
I should also mention that we enjoy the system for its homebrew and emulator capabilities. We are a gaming family and have just about every console ever made. This system has some very accurate and playable emulators. My daughter and Wife enjoy many Super Nintendo and NES game on this system. It is much easier to play them on the PSP than pulling the old systems out of the closet.

[TKhaos]

How can Sony reduce piracy?

1) Make better games, focus on gameplay quality.
2) Lower the price of games.
3) Try out new ideas, be creative.
4) Lower the price of the system.

[Aryn]

I believe that piracy is only one of the things that affect hardware sales and should not be the main focus. Other causes (many of which have been mentioned in replies) include:

1. Many people still have PS1 games they can convert, many more PS1 games are no longer copyrighted or ESA protected. There are a good number of PS1 games that actually look as decent as PSP games. (I know that I had a couple on my PSP in the past that actually turned some heads)

2. The UMD format is too fragile. Just carrying a UMD in your pocket can scratch the disc or break the disc's plastic casing.

3. The quality of games is lacking for the most part, there are some excellent games for the PSP but most of them are not that good or real disappointments.

4. This is a recession, the price is too high for many consumers to be able to afford.

5. Instead of blocking only piracy, SONY has been blocking all third party content that they can not sell. This forces people to install a CFW to run the homebrew that already has the ability to run pirated games. SImply blocking pirated games in firmware updates and leaving the rest intact would make a lot of difference.

6. SONY has alienated people in the past including running (unintentionally?) offensive ads, blocking content that would benefit the PSP, closing down an online store that many people enjoyed because they did not want PSP systems imported to Europe...they have PR issues.

7. There are a lot of retro gamers out there, and there are a lot of retro game system emulators for the PSP.

8. The PSP is capable of doing things besides playing games, there are also groups of people who do not use it mainly for games.

9. Overall, console system games tend to be far better in terms of quality than portable system games, more effort is usually put into them and it shows.

[OZBRN5]

people always want something for nothing..it is human nature...if it is available then it will be exploited...the makers of custom firmwares in the future need to block the use of devhooks and isoloaders for the sake of the psp...stealing isos is lame period! the argument that is is because the games are lame is lacking...if they are so lame why steal them? if sony would opensource the ability to run homebrew and abandonware emulators and add a keyboard and a free download from the psn store of a great pda with spreadsheet text and stuff they would be in better shape...lets face it sony has profited greatly by the homebrew scene...most people buy a psp just to be modded...they should offer free retro games via a built-in emulator and games that require a keyboard that will not work in homebrew...and should offer umd movies that people want to see not the junk they do put out...like more first season of tv series...original programming only available on umd like getting the seinfeld people to do a few shows just for umd or something...oh well sony has never been known for doing things that are smart so i don't expect them to start now.

[AdamRav]

Allow homebrew software to be playable with out the need to mod your psp

they should come factory ready like this !!!

[kjetil1991]

if the games are not selling they must lower the price or give us better offers

[JLF65]

8. The PSP is capable of doing things besides playing games, there are also groups of people who do not use it mainly for games.

This is one thing in particular Sony seems to ignore. They make the device an excellent multimedia device, advertise it as such, then whine when people use it only for multimedia. I guess that's why most of the ads NOW focus almost solely on playing games instead of the multimedia aspects. :D

[chuggman]

Sony's PSP comes out with less games that I would want to buy.
Some people complain that kid's games on the nds and wii are it's weakness. But when we look on best seller lists they seem to show up just as often as GTA and other less friendly games. Sony needs to expand there horizon and build some awesome games that can measure up to Zelda and Mario Galaxy. Ones that are fitting for a young generation but loved by all as well. They don't even need to be nintendo 1st party games. they could even get square to make a really good Crystal chronicles games for the PSP. I love the games on the DS playing multiplayer with 2 or three other people. Instead we get some lackluster remakes for Final Fantasy 1 and 2 as well as a few other final fantasy games. I hear there is a pretty good new one though so I should check that one out when I'm done with these other games. Still to be truthful there was only one series that got me to buy the psp and it was Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man Powered up. I was sorely dissapointed with Maverick hunter X and the slowdowns until I got custom firmware. This allowed me to put the clock speed up to 333 mhz and the slowdowns dissapeared. Sony should allow us to do things like that without CF. I really though want a better game selection

[Justise]

I'm actualy buying my PSP games, and I dump them to my Memory Stick to make less noise and have loading.
So here are some suggestions for Sony.

1. UMDs sucks! Find a Way to allow you to dump and IP-lock your game on your M-stick, so the game would be faster, lag-free and less noisy.

2. Unlock Popsloader! Having to rebuy a game you've already owned on PS1 is a cheat, and the number downloadable games on PSstore is so small that is funny (especial the european one).

3. Allow homebrew programs, clocking, and that O & X button thing for those who have the Japanese model.

4. Encourage game companies to make proper games and not crappy ports. Most PSP ports Suck! Even those that are supposed to have lots of adds compare to their original version (Final Fantasy Tactics), suck on the technical aspect.

5. Discourage game companies from making multyplayer games that require more than one Copy of the game. Good example is Takken DR that transfer a small demo on the other PSP to play VS with only one game. Bad example is Monster Hunter that is mostly multiplayer. Western players do not carry their monster hunter games whenever they go! The outside world is deferent from japan!

6. Allow game updates and patches to fix bugged games and ports like Ape escape P.

7. FIX THAT GREEK WRITING PROBLEM ON BOTH PSP AND PS3! Why do I have to use CFW to read the greek letters properly!

8. More Video format support. People will not stop moaning about it unless you give them MKV and subtittles!

9. Brink the new games to the rest of the countries faster. I downloaded GoW because it took way to long to reach Europe!

Finally:
DCemu should fix their site so i'll be able to visit it from my own home.