How Sony can stop piracy on the PSP

***wraggster*** · April 25th, 2009, 23:46

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/h...cy-on-the-psp/

**kojiro7** · April 26th, 2009, 00:27

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** · April 26th, 2009, 01:06

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** · April 26th, 2009, 03:35

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?

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

**Saracchini** · April 26th, 2009, 04:18

Originally Posted by mookz

Four things:

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

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** · April 26th, 2009, 10:57

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** · April 26th, 2009, 10:57

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** · April 26th, 2009, 14:21

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** · April 26th, 2009, 14:26

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** · April 26th, 2009, 16:03

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.