Piracy Destroying the PSP

[andwhyisit]

With piracy so pervasive as it is on the PSP, people just download all games. The 'good' games get downloaded more than the 'bad' ones, so who are these ppl downloading only the games not worth their retail cost?

The fact you feel a game costs to much or is not worth playing is completely irrelevant to whether you pirate it or not.
If you want to try it out you hire it or play a friends copy.
If you feel it is too expensive but a great game then you save up, wait for the price to drop or don't buy it.
If you don't think the game is really worth playing then surely you would pirate a game you do like, not that one.

You pirate it only if you feel the game is worth playing but you choose to not compensate the creators because you are cheap.



I know there are surely a few honest ppl out there, but I would suggest that saying '99.9% of people downloading ISOs never buy the game' would be a generous estimate.
The majority say things like 'backups', 'too expensive' and 'not worth playing' as poor attempts at excuses.

So true.

Also the used games thing would be an issue too since very few of my games were bought new.

[Art]

Used games are the same issue for every console.
They don't distinguish the PSP from any other machine.
If you're looking at sales on a graph you can assume owners of all other consoles
buy/sell/ swap games as well.
Art.

[dangee]

two key questions, both based on the (unlikely) scenario
where PSP game piracy is made impossible/impractical:

1: would all the jolly rogers & freebooters out there start paying
for what they're used to getting for nowt ?

2: would console sales be likely to go UP, or DOWN ?

[JKKDARK]

2: would console sales be likely to go UP, or DOWN ?

Yes, but we would need more quality games, new games from known franchises like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. Or at least more casual games like the Nintendo DS.
The hardware price is also good, so good sales will appear.

[WhizzBang]

The failure of the PSP is down to more than just piracy. All machines have a piracy problem and the NDS must have it worse than the PSP. The overwhelming majority of gamers are not pirates and they are more interested in the novel things the NDS can do.

The PSP is technically brilliant, but it is not much use as a handheld as it is so huge and is better suited for home use. It has incredibly long loading times, a fragile design and a games catalogue consisting almost entirely of titles already available in one form or another on its bigger brother PS2.

The NDS has stuff that appeals to a much wider audience, like Brain Trainer which includes Sudoku.

[andwhyisit]

The NDS has stuff that appeals to a much wider audience, like Brain Trainer which includes Sudoku.

That was the most retarded example known to man. I can play sudoku on my psp with homebrew, or in a puzzle book with a pen. What's next? Tic-tac-toe portable. :rofl:

[JKKDARK]

That was the most retarded example known to man. I can play sudoku on my psp with homebrew, or in a puzzle book with a pen. What's next? Tic-tac-toe portable. :rofl:

Most of the DS owners don't care about homebrew. They care about the official releases, and there are more casual games on the DS than on the PSP.

[jamotto]

The PSP is technically brilliant, but it is not much use as a handheld as it is so huge...

Then the DS lite must not be very useful as a handheld as well, as the PSP Slim & Lite compares favorably to it.

DS lite
Weight: 218 g
Dimensions: 133 mm × 73.9 mm × 21.5 mm

PSP Slim & Lite
Weight: 189 g
Dimensions: 170 mm x 74 mm x 19 mm

a fragile design

I don't know about you, but when I play on a handheld, it's not a full contact sport. As with any electronic device the better you take care of it the longer it's going to last.

and a games catalogue consisting almost entirely of titles already available in one form or another on its bigger brother PS2.

Yes some of them are, however, the PSP also has a decent share of new games and new seqels to existing series, like LocoRoco, Patapon,Coded Arms, Crush, Dead Head Fred, Driver 76, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Pilot Academy, Syphon Filter, Wipeout Pure, Ace Combat X, Burnout Legends, etc, etc.

The NDS has stuff that appeals to a much wider audience, like Brain Trainer which includes Sudoku.

The PSP has equivalent games for most of those.

[bah]

two key questions, both based on the (unlikely) scenario
where PSP game piracy is made impossible/impractical:

1: would all the jolly rogers & freebooters out there start paying
for what they're used to getting for nowt ?

2: would console sales be likely to go UP, or DOWN ?

1) Certainly not on a 1:1 conversion ratio (one less pirated copy = one more sale), that seems to be what you're getting at. It's hard to imagine any real outcome other than at least slightly increased sales though.

2) Sony lost money (at least at first) on each PSP sold to promote mass adoption and create a market where they could recoup the money from game licensing. I think your point is that more sales of the console is a great thing independent of game sales.

The business model that created the PSP is not that simple.
You can certainly dislike the whole "give away the razor to sell 'overpriced' blades" tactic (I know I do), but that's how it was when I chose to buy the system so Its not something I can complain about.

Please correct me if I am mistaken as to your purpose in posing those questions.

[dangee]

Please correct me if I am mistaken..

Your reply's totally apt.

I was suggesting that piracy could be helping the PSP (!!), by increasing
console sales, without significantly decreasing game sales.

Every PSP sold gives Sony potential income from accessories,spare parts,
sony.com web traffic, as well as UMD sales. And how many PSP owners,pirate
or not,would choose an XBOX360 rather than a PS3?

Also,smart games producers could find ways capitalise on increased distribution.