Sony’s PSP console has long suffered from the effects of piracy, thanks to loopholes in the console’s security and teams of dedicated hackers ready to exploit them. Sony’s Peter Dille has described how this has affected the PSP software business, calling the levels of piracy “frankly sickening” and admitted that the number of PSP games being distributed on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has had a devastating effect on the development community.
“I’m convinced and we’re convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP,” SCEA’s senior vice president of marketing told Gamasutra. “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.”
Sony has been involved in a pitched battle against piracy almost since the PSP handheld first launched, and dealing with it is still proving to be a massive headache for Sony bosses. Remember, this is more than a case of lost games revenue we’re talking about. Publishers only fund the development of games on platforms that are going to make money, and if PSP owners are simply going to thieve them using a Bit Torrent site, then game makers aren’t going to bother.
In the long run, that means less games for the PSP and leaves Sony faced with the question of whether the platform is even worth bothering with.
Dille reveals that Sony is working on a solution to piracy, with “a multipronged approach”, combining legal protection with educating customers on why piracy is not okay. Hence the interview, presumably.
“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.”
Piracy can be partly blamed for the fact that the PSP games catalogue still feels somewhat lacking, even after four years on the shelves. But let’s not miss the silver lining: piracy appears to have been a motivating factor in Sony stepping up its downloadable games service, such that Patapon 2 will be the first game to drop UMD entirely.
And not all PSP hackery has been deliberately designed to facilite piracy. There’s a strong PSP homebrew community out there, who want to get the most from the powerful little console. Sony took a more open approach with the PS3, enabling technically minded users to install custom operating systems but at the same time keeping games protection locked down. A similar approach certainly couldn’t hurt a future Sony handheld.
Out now| £134.99 | PSP (via Gamasutra) (available from Play.com)
