The state of piracy on PSP

[jeegee]

as i said... blame lies on both governments AND the industry itself for not making arrangements with each other... Talking it over would definitely benefit gamers, dev's, publishers and goverments... but i'm not perfect and open to hearing other points of view...

No! Blame lies ONLY with people pirating games. Piracy IS theft. It doesn't matter what arguments you put forward in its defence. Price is irrelevant. whether the originals cost 10 pounds or 50 pounds its still doesn't excuse theft. Even if publishers, developers, retailers etc did drop prices, it still wouldn't stop unscrupulous ppl from downloading the games.

discussion is quite pointless as if ppl are willing to break the law to save themselves a few pound then nothing said in a forum will change that!!!!!!!!!!

It "should" be a simple case of if you can't afford it, you can't have it! Thats how it works with property, cars or even basic things like food and water.

I personally have no problem with ppl pirating games, just with the ones who do trying to justify their illegal actions:thumbup:

and @ Hodgy, Its fair enough to dump the umd once you've paid for it. Who in their right mind would buy multiple copies of same game?? lol


oh and this is only IMO

[kyyubidx]

you say that because you weren't born into a poor family with almost no cash at all... I hear you all talking about pocket-money, getting a job and learning the value of money... Keep in mind that not all countries are as wealthy as your own! I had to work my *** off to buy a psp... I had no pocket-money backup (never had such a thing too), and getting a job is the hardest thing for a grown-up like me over here so i can tell you straight away the only way a kid can get a job here is giving up school... to the system we're just cheap manpower... I do what I can to get buy and the university schoolarship is now my living... I can't afford anything else.. Plus getting a job for someone my age is really hard as they want people with PHD's and stuff... If you DO manage to get a job though, you'll lose schoolarship so what should one do? And this is just a case... I own few games unfortunately and i have to ask my friends to borrow my theirs... Its like a PLAY-AND-SHARE community... But not everyone is as lucky... So what should those do? Also you keep talking about production costs... Let me tell you a simple thing: lower price, higher sales... As simple as that... Its UNACCEPTABLE that 2 games equal the price of a system... Piracy IS theft... But two games equalling one system is an even more blatant theft...

[sammiesosa#1]

A what about the quality 50 dollars on something that brakes very easy just from pushing it into it own case.

[bah]

I accept I cannot comprehend the difficulty of living in many of the less well off parts of the world, I also cannot understand why someone living in a place where it is hard to get a job (and they pay badly if you get one) would spend such a large ammount on a portable gaming system.
Even harder to understand is why they would do so knowing the price of games then complain they are too expensive later.

There are other systems that are MUCH cheaper if you want to play games.



"Its UNACCEPTABLE that 2 games equal the price of a system... "

Not of the cost of producing them is close to or even greater than the profit margin on each sale times the number sold. Modern games are expensive to make and when they don't sell well they can be a loss for the developer/publisher.


"But two games equalling one system is an even more blatant theft..."
Products being priced out of the range of the target consumer group isn't theft nor an invitation to pirate them
It's a reason to not buy that product or related ones, or to start a competitor if you feel you could do better.

Some have said 'halve the price and you'll sell at least twice as many'. Untrue.
You may sell more but the companies have found the price point that maximises profits and it is not 'super cheap'.

If they cost anything at all then there will still be people who choose to pay nothing whenever possible.
The 'lost profit' from those who do buy the game will most likely not be made up for by those who now choose to pay rather than pirate.

[kyyubidx]

I see you are stubborn, but i am also, so:

Question 1 - Passion: What drives people to buy a system is the passion they have or the potential they see for games on that system, sometimes it doesn't matter how much money you have... And these people sometimes have more passion that even those that make the darned games.

Question 2 - Prodution Costs: I know i've said this earlier but lower prices bring more sales, so more revenues from the sales... Which means the lower the price, more you sell, so production costs can be covered either way... What really matters is the afterwards profit... And believe me, if you choose lower prices you're MUCH more likely to have more profit and therefore less piracy on the games you make. True. Basis? Just look at how much more "the orange box" sold on steam when it was on 35% discount... and compare the timespan of the discount with the sales on a normal timespan for the same amount of time... You'll see where i'm getting at...

edit: also (just a thought i came too a few seconds ago) In japan games are cheaper, and they sell like mad... I don't see companies climbing up prices over there... Ever wondered why Monster Hunter Freedom 2 never sold as much on non-nippon territory? Look at the price the game has on your store and compare it with theirs... That shall be your answer...

edit 2: also from your standpoint you claim gaming is an Elitist activity... Only for those who can afford it, which would be, by the prices, the rich... I'm glad SCE didn't think like you and released a Platinum (lower priced) version on FF7 or i would have never played the best RPG ever...

[Dembonz]

Being able to download games, music and such has made me a more selective consumer. If I try something first and enjoy and appreciate it , I'll buy it .
I'm going to pick up a copy of GOW because it's a great game and it's my responsibility to pay for a product I enjoy and to support the gaming industry I love. Just because there are so many downloads doesn't always mean all those people aren't buying.

A question I have is, isn't selling used copies of games in game stores the same thing as piracy against the game developers/publishers/industry? I mean, you can wait to buy a game you want USED and no one sees a dime but the game store, right? They will pay you next to nothing to get your copy and turn around and sell it for at least quadruple what they gave you. That's theft to me.

[djbrotherson]

LOOOL

I Love My PSP

[Qmark]

Piracy IS theft.

No. No it is not.
It's worse.

Suppose I were to steal, i dunno, a brick from the, uh, brick store. I've gained one brick without paying, and the store has lost the sale of one brick.
The next five dozen people who want and honestly buy a brick still generate income for the brick store.
There is also a third group of a dozen dozen who would like to have a brick, but can't afford one and/or justify the expense.

Brick Store: 1 lost sale. 60 sold bricks. 144 sales that were never going to happen.


Now, suppose I were to buy a brick. Now also suppose I have some sort of device that magically creates a perfect copy of a brick at minimal expense, and I then give them away to anyone who shows up looking for one.
Now suppose two-thirds of those 60 people decide "hey! free brick" and forgo an otherwise planned purchase for a "free" brick, while the other third are still honest and legitimate purchase the brick.
Now, let's also suppose that last group who didn't want to pay for a brick, are now more than interested now that they're "free".

Brick Store: 21 bricks sold. 40 bricks nobody's buying. 144 sales that were never going to happen.

[Snigel]

Its hard to beat free, and impossible when the product costs you millions to make and you want to stay in business to make another game.

I see that you're totally missing my point.
It's not hard to do a service that is equal to the illegal alternatives except that you pay for the things that you want.

It's not impossible to release the games online when they are done. It's not impossible to allow americans or europeans to buy japanese games in their native online store.

Of course you can't beat the price. But you can still make a service that's better than the current one. You can try to adapt your business after how the customers want to buy the games. How they want to play the games.

Of course people should pay for their software, but I'm tired of the constant discussion whereas piracy is so bad and oh all poor developers. Gee, update your business, the market is changing, so should you be.
The publishers still think that you can charge the same premium for games online as in a store. Even though you don't get something physical, you don't have to pay for staff in the store, rents etc. You don't have to pay for distribution.
All online selling systems I've seen so far is defective by design. Fix them, then complain.

No. No it is not.
It's worse.

Suppose I were to steal, i dunno, a brick from the, uh, brick store. I've gained one brick without paying, and the store has lost the sale of one brick.
The next five dozen people who want and honestly buy a brick still generate income for the brick store.
There is also a third group of a dozen dozen who would like to have a brick, but can't afford one and/or justify the expense.

Brick Store: 1 lost sale. 60 sold bricks. 144 sales that were never going to happen.


Now, suppose I were to buy a brick. Now also suppose I have some sort of device that magically creates a perfect copy of a brick at minimal expense, and I then give them away to anyone who shows up looking for one.
Now suppose two-thirds of those 60 people decide "hey! free brick" and forgo an otherwise planned purchase for a "free" brick, while the other third are still honest and legitimate purchase the brick.
Now, let's also suppose that last group who didn't want to pay for a brick, are now more than interested now that they're "free".

Brick Store: 21 bricks sold. 40 bricks nobody's buying. 144 sales that were never going to happen.

Ah so you're saying that it's better with the kind of asian piracy when you sell the copies instead? So somebody else earns money on ones job? Smart thinking there. Really like that.

Your argumentation is flawed too. If everybody who wanted a brick had to steal it instead of copying it, the store would lose money instead of just not earning any money. I see a loss of money worse than no earned money, don't you?

[Art]

Noone needs a PSP, if you can't afford to buy the games,
you shouldn't have got the console for anything other than homebrew, or at all.

Game consoles are for ppl with disposable income,
who should probably sponsor a child in a third world country first.
It's not something you need to keep you alive.