Sony: 'Developers Almost Quit PSP, Piracy Hurt Software Sales'
The PSP has been a rather unusual piece of hardware for Sony, on one hand, it's selling fairly well, over 50-million PSP's have been sold worldwide since the system first arrived in December of 2004, making it four and a half years that the unit has been on sale. But where the PSP has struggled has been software sales, compare the PlayStation 2 and the amount of million-sellers it had with an install base of 50 million owners, and compare the amount of million sellers the PSP has now...and it's a rather stark difference. But there's a reason for this, explains Sony's Peter Dille in an interview with Gamasutra, who also mentions how developers almost abandoned the PSP as a whole at one point.
See Full Image"[18 months ago, developers were] just about ready to jump off the cliff and pull support for the platform," Dille states. Pretty shocking words, to be honest. But Sony's solution to this problem was to stop random PSP ports and put more emphasis on building higher quality games that fit and make sense for the platform, games such as Resistance Retribution, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Assassin's Creed, and Rock Band.
Dille went on to talk about how piracy and other unauthorized upgrades made to the PSP have hurt the system's success in terms of software sales. "I'm convinced and we're convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP," Dille states. "It's been a problem that the industry has to address together; it's one that I think the industry takes very seriously, but we need to do something to address this because it's criminal what's going on, quite frankly."
"It's not good for us, but it's not good for the development community. We can look at data from BitTorrent sites from the day Resistance: Retribution goes on sale and see how many copies are being downloaded illegally, and it's frankly sickening. We are spending a lot of time talking about how we can deal with that problem."
On the subject of custom firmwares and other loopholes found in the PSP's firmware, Dille states that there is potential for 50 million PSP owners to modify their firmwares and play pirated games off their memory stick. "Those numbers are correct," says Dille. "There's a lot of hardware out there; toothpaste is out of the tube. We're not going to get that hardware back into the toothpaste container."
"I'm not naive, but I do think that most people are inherently honest," he says. "We learned a lot from the music business, and it became so easy and so common to download illegal music -- everyone was doing it. It's almost like people lost sight with the fact that, well, "If everyone's doing it, then it can't be that bad."
"But, it actually is bad; it's bad for the platform. Again, I'm not saying that that's a magic wand; I think that we have to make sure from a technological perspective that it's not as easy as it is to do that."
Read the full interview with Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of Marketing SCEA, over at Gamasutra. It's a good read.
4/22/2009 Arnold Katayev
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Comments (61 posts)
N a S a H
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:46:59 AM
2 up, 0 down
AntDC
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:10:41 PM
0 up, 0 down
Sir Shak
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 6:47:01 PM
Reply
5 up, 0 down
Oyashiro
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 6:56:01 PM
1 up, 1 down
Victor321
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:02:41 PM
A good example was when KZ2 came out and I really wanted to buy it. Since I got school and other things, I wanted to buy it immediately! Lol but I decided till the March Break to buy it (cuz all of my major assignments were due 1-2 weeks before the break, and I had TONS of time to do nothing but games during the break itself, so I made a good decision to hold it out buying it).
So, I waited it out to buy it and a few days before I bought KZ2, Retribution came out. I was like "Aw no! I only have enough money to get KZ2, but I love the Resistance series and I want that too....T.T I don't like this situation, it happens so frequently", so I just decided to download it via torrent and I finished the game 1-2 days ago.
I have started downloading pirated PSP games ever since 2008. I acknowledge that it does hurt PSP software sales, but when I read articles a few weeks back stating that the PSP enjoyed 2008 as one of the best years of its sales yet, I realize that I was worrying over nothing.
Also lastly, I managed to buy KZ2 and MGS4 (my dad lended me extra money when he saw my grades Lol) so I benefit from downloading PSP games a lot.
Now, I just want to say that I am NOT advertising or persuading anyone to do it. If you do, go ahead. If you don't, I'm fine.
I am not saying "Hey man, get your PSP hacked and download PSP games. I mean, save money for yourself yo!" NO. I sincerely do not mean that. That is all.
P.S. I finished KZ2 and MGS4 singleplayer-wise, and in KZ2 online, I am General, or the 3-star rank. XD You can find and add me via Kurokai123.
Thanks to the new patch (v1.24) that's coming out soon, T.T I'm not the last rank anymore! DX
Last edited by Victor321 on 4/22/2009 7:06:25 PM
1 up, 4 down
Gregory Freeman
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:06:24 PM
lol music, videos, but never modded my psp...
0 up, 0 down
bamf
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:14:13 PM
1 up, 0 down
556pineapple
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 9:23:35 PM
1 up, 0 down
somethingrandom
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 12:12:19 AM
0 up, 2 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 1:12:59 AM
I have circumvented copy protection on games/CDs I have purchased - for my convenience, but *never* shared anything I have disabled protection on.
Frankly there is zero argument that any free-tard can bring that alters the simple fact that copy right theft is theft. When you download and use a game you did not pay for, you have stolen a copy of that game. You may not have walked into a store and swiped a disc, but functionally that is exactly what you did.
Piracy of game software is a particular issue for the PSP and on PCs. I believe that the original Xbox had quite an issue with it as well. I'm well aware of all the arguments that custom firmware and homebrew offer legitimate functionality updates as well. Fine, but the absolute and vast majority of those using custom firmware do so to play games they haven't played for. As Dille shows the data from Bit Torrent sites is direct evidence and confirmation of this issue. There is no debate. Game Piracy hurts the industry and almost killed the PSP platform.
Before I get flamed over this, this is not an issue of freedom, it's an issue of responsibility. You're free to do as you like, but you are also responsible for your actions, legal or illegal. Copyright infringement is illegal. Deal with it. The simple fact is that the actions of those who use games that they haven't paid for are costing me money every time I purchase a PSP game, and they're costing me the chance to play games that will no longer see a US release thanks to the actions of thieves.
Thanks guys - may you live in interesting times and be slow roasted over coals in return for your mis-deeds.
5 up, 2 down
faraga
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 2:00:30 AM
yes, i do download a lot of music, yes i do regulary download movies, but in therms of games, no, not really, i once downloaded the 1st driver, and gta 1 from the rockstar site, i tried racedriver GRID, but my notebook couldnt handle it.
that's the advantage of having a ps3, you save for a game some time, then you buy it and really appreciate it.
its a shame not all off the good buckethead cd's are on the dutch version of amazon (its called "bol") cuz they all have to be imported, i never found one of his cds in a local music store, if they were, id buy them right away
Last edited by faraga on 4/23/2009 2:00:59 AM
0 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 2:35:46 AM
Or at least I think I can, or not not knowingly
0 up, 0 down
LightShow
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:31:29 AM
0 up, 0 down
bamf
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:07:49 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
SubjectiveTruth
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:17:12 PM
2 up, 0 down
FLYING_APE
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:20:19 PM
Reply
1 up, 11 down
ArnoldK PSXE [Administrator]
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 9:56:26 PM
4 up, 0 down
coldbore
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:31:26 PM
Reply
0 up, 3 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 1:18:43 AM
You know hen I was a kid if I wanted something and didn't have the money, that was just plain tough. Maybe I could save, maybe I could get together with some friends and go in together with what we had to get it. But you know what, I never, not once, considered 5 finger discount. Downloading from the 'net because you don't have the cash is no different to shoplifting.
2 up, 2 down
chicko1983
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:43:42 PM
Reply
But now with my PS2 dead and my whole PS2 collection bought off the streets of Hong Kong and Bali, I am unable to play a lot of favourite games on my PS3.
Does anyone have non-pirated copy of Ico for sale?
Last edited by chicko1983 on 4/22/2009 7:43:52 PM
0 up, 0 down
AntDC
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:13:33 PM
0 up, 0 down
King James
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 8:17:04 PM
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I'm still laughing at that Anchorman reference.
0 up, 0 down
fundando
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 8:50:02 PM
Reply
1 up, 4 down
artson1966
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 9:08:30 PM
Reply
Last edited by artson1966 on 4/22/2009 9:10:25 PM
8 up, 0 down
artson1966
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 2:22:32 AM
2 up, 1 down
Kangasfwa
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 9:09:17 PM
Reply
0 up, 1 down
KevinCairo
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 9:18:06 PM
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0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 10:41:19 PM
Reply
0 up, 3 down
godsman
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 11:11:50 PM
1 up, 2 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 1:16:11 AM
Why hasn't piracy killed the 360 - yet?
0 up, 2 down
godsman
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 11:10:39 PM
Reply
.................................................
because its too complicated to be worth the effort.... I buy my games yea!
1 up, 0 down
Scarecrow
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 11:47:59 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Neurotoxiny
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 12:02:17 AM
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(There's Syphon Filter on the Playstation Store, which I got, and there's Syphon Filter 3, which I didn't get because it sucks, but I still want Syphon Filter 2 which they conveniently DON'T have).
Having GBA games like Mario would be awesome on a PSP too. But don't you have to buy some new stuff to mod your psp? Yeah... I looked it up you have to buy like a "magic memory stick" and a "pandora battery". It sounds kind of weird to me.
1 up, 0 down
karneli lll
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 7:10:21 AM
0 up, 0 down
fatelementality
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 12:49:56 AM
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2 up, 0 down
Archos
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 1:03:11 AM
Reply
Games are going through the same trend now-a-days. I even feel that the 360 could suffer PSP's fate as the number of flashed 360's are increasing (all my friends have one.. I don't think they have been caught on LIVE).
I also feel that piracy has some perks as well. For example, I have a library of more than 150 games for my PS2 (each one costs me 1$). Now consider me buying all those games (you do the math... and ya I know I'm at pig.. but at least I can say I have played nearly all great PS2 titles). At that time, it didn't affect my conscience cause everyday on the net I used to read that PS2 sales are awesome and the games sales are great as well... But now seeing PSP's state, I will at least leave it out off it. I really feel sorry for it. Sony has done so well with PS3 keeping piracy out, but somehow forgot the PSP. Hopefully they will change that with PSP2.
Studying game development now I know how pissed a developer is when he sees that his hard work and money are being downloaded for FREE. It sucks and ya it's coming out off a 'used to be pirate'. At least no piracy from now on.
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 1:15:15 AM
0 up, 3 down
faraga
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 2:54:10 AM
Reply
one more doesnt matter...
0 up, 0 down
skoda
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 4:49:18 AM
Reply
0 up, 1 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:20:08 AM
"But theres a perfectly good reason for that why would i pay for something that blows. Just like music 20 bucks for a garbage cd thats not fair."
Oh good god, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. That isn't a perfectly good reason for theft. Read some reviews, if it turns out you don't enjoy the game, trade it. Same goes for the music CD. There is nothing 'unfair' about buying a product and not enjoying it as much as you thought you would. Tell me, if you go to the movies and don't enjoy the movie as much as you think you might, do you go get your money back, or perhaps more accurately, do you sneak into the theater to watch the movie and only pay if you enjoyed the show?
If you appl;y that logic to everything in life, no one would pay for anything whether it be video games, music CDs, movies, food in restaurants cars, anything.
3 up, 2 down
godsman
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:44:44 AM
0 up, 0 down
whooka
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 7:02:06 AM
Reply
Unfortunately for those of us who like physical medium (the packaging, maps, books, etc), it is definitely on it's way out. Kind of a shame as despite the convenience of being able to d/l a game or movie legally it means there's no real equity/value as far as property, being able to trade in, etc, but it makes sense things will eventually all go this way since it saves publishers money on distribution channels which, esp for the movie and music industry, have been gouging and controlling for years, taking a little off the top of everything that passes through their grubby little hands. I empathize with them on some level as it's like teleportation has been invented and their slowly becoming obsolete (imagine if physical teleportation was invented, what would happen to fed ex, ups, etc? they'd prob try to sue people too), but hey, most of them are not artists in any way, and have very few actual job skills, so they're scared but they're fighting the inevitable. Piracy is in some ways a response to alot of that since cost is reflected in physical distribution, etc.
3 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:50:56 AM
You are depriving the developer and publisher their due compensation for the product that you are using.
You seem to be under the mis-apprehension that because loads of people do it, it's OK. It's not. The fact that PS2 games were frequently pirated was offset by their huge numbers of consoles sold. However don't kid yourself into thinking that because game developers and publishers of high profile games were able to tolerate that piracy without folding, that means it's all OK. It's not. Even if developers and publishers survive, piracy reduces their return on investment affecting their future choices for games and publishing. The net result is that small, niche games do not get produced as frequently as they might because game developers and publishers are less willing to invest in a risky title because piracy makes it hard for them to get a return on investment for games that sell to smaller audiences.
I wish we'd all stop using words like pirate, it's not Age of Booty, is simple theft, a criminal activity. Those who download games and/or music/movies are stealing, they are thieves. So lets start calling these people what they are thieves , instead of making it sound like they're swashbuckling anti-heroes.
2 up, 2 down
crawdaddy
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 7:36:55 AM
Reply
3 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:52:05 AM
Last edited by Highlander on 4/23/2009 10:54:07 AM
1 up, 2 down
Jordahn
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 8:55:25 AM
Reply
1 up, 0 down
godsman
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 9:21:48 AM
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(No intention to advertise for piracy)
Sorry but its true, Im sure if Sony support full DL in their store, people will buy them, because of the PSP battery life issue. Their fans will pay, like ppl do in ITunes & ipods.
0 up, 0 down
PSNclaw18
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:27:51 AM
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It's just uber easier to have my games on a memory stick then it is carrying around a bunch of UMD disc.
1 up, 0 down
LightShow
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 10:38:00 AM
1 up, 0 down
PSNclaw18
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 11:55:28 AM
1 up, 0 down
LightShow
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 5:02:19 PM
0 up, 0 down
crawdaddy
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 2:45:02 PM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 3:47:01 PM
I have an original fat PSP as well, and have had no issue finding games that I enjoyed.
You repeated the PSP myth of na games and asserted that PSP games looked like cartoons. I still call non-sense (that's the dictionary definition for BS). The no games myth is a myth, and the only games with cartoony graphics I have seen are the ones that are supposed to be that way, such as JRPGs and platformers.
0 up, 2 down
Cavan
Thursday, April 23, 2009 @ 3:01:10 PM
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Personally i think hand held games for what they are, are way to expensive, they are not much less than full price ps3 games, the ds is included in this, and most of them are very cheaply made quick games, good games deserve purchases, but they are few and far between, if games were between 5 - 10 pounds there wud be less piracy, unfortunatley, they price ds games and psp games at near the 30 pound mark, and for what they are, they are not worth the price compared to paying 40 pound for summin like cod4, therefore i do not have a problem with piracy of games, it is not illegal in every country, and to the self riteous ppl that think there better than ppl who do download their games, more fool you, why pay for summing you can get free.
0 up, 2 down
crawdaddy
Friday, April 24, 2009 @ 8:13:08 AM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, April 24, 2009 @ 10:59:41 AM
So when you make comments that essentially restate the standard no-games myth for the PSP, what I'm getting from you is a fair whiff of bias.
BTW I wasn't doubting your education with my comment about the definition of BS. I was simply trying to soften what I was saying, since to me, calling something non-sense is a fair degree softer than calling it BS BS.
Last edited by Highlander on 4/24/2009 11:01:48 AM
0 up, 1 down
crawdaddy
Saturday, April 25, 2009 @ 11:52:49 AM
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0 up, 0 down
Oyashiro
Reply
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 6:32:26 PM
I can see them now, Typing on there computers, Feeding there parrots, tapping the peg leg on the ground in rhythm with the latest J-pop tune that they pirated by the way...
They are the reason we cant have nice things! >:(