PSP Piracy

[DarkPrince]

Quite an interesting read:

CESA, short for Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association, has been tracking illegal downloads of top selling handheld games. Out of all the titles – DS and PSP – Dissidia: Final Fantasy was downloaded the most.

According to their data, the PSP game was downloaded 5,281,223 times. CESA estimates a loss of 30,631,093,400 yen ($335 million) in sales. The dollar amount is questionable due to used game sales, price drops, and people who would never have purchased Dissidia anyway. In spite of those factors that number is still staggering.


These are some of the other top pirated PSP games developed in Japan.


Phantasy Star Portable 2 –
4,665,510 downloads worth 22,394 million yen ($245 million)

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce –
2,072,942 downloads worth 9,950 million yen ($109 million)

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite –
1,820,282 downloads worth 8,322 million yen ($91 million)

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII –
1,223,881 downloads worth 7,098 million yen ($77 million)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus –
1,1187,341 downloads worth 7,100 million yen ($77 million)

Tales of the World Radiant Mythology 2 –
1,131,319 downloads worth 5,603 million yen ($61 million)

Not all top selling PSP games were heavily pirated. Konami’s Power Pros Portable 3 is the 12th best selling game and it was only downloaded 4,358 times. SD Gundam G Generation Portable, the 20th title in Japan, also had a comparatively low piracy rate with only 65,112 downloads.

It appears PSP piracy increased greatly when you compare Phantasy Star Portable and Phantasy Star Portable 2. Phantasy Star Portable, released in 2008, only has 665,320 downloads, a fraction of the 4.6 million downloads of the 2009 sequel.

CESA’s figures the top 20 selling games in Japan were downloaded 23,249,418 and cost the industry 118 billion in damages.

And this is just the PSP, it's quite pathetic actually

PSP Piracy

[Frostbite]

lol  I don't see why its pathetic really, it Sony's fault for not making the games cheaper

[jGLZa]

But surely those downloads must include downloaders from outside Japan who download because they cant get the game wherever they staying, so they wouldnt have contributed to sales anyway.

Thus I think the damages figure is slightly inflated.

[GrahamZA]

But surely those downloads must include downloaders from outside Japan who download because they cant get the game wherever they staying, so they wouldnt have contributed to sales anyway.

Thus I think the damages figure is slightly inflated.

I agree. Looking at those game titles a lot of them either aren't available in the West or took months. Game companies need to realise that months of "localisation" only hurts them in the end.

[DarkPrince]

lol  I don't see why its pathetic really, it Sony's fault for not making the games cheaper

Crap excuse dude, PSP games are cheaper than PC games, come on now. The new MGS Peace Walker is only R350, what you going on about being too expensive?

[DarkPrince]

But surely those downloads must include downloaders from outside Japan who download because they cant get the game wherever they staying, so they wouldnt have contributed to sales anyway.

Thus I think the damages figure is slightly inflated.

Another bullshit excuse PSP is region free what is stopping you from importing a game? look hard enough and the cheapest you will pay is R30 for delivery.

I'll take an example that I did:

Accel 3 came out last year and only just came out last month in english. I imported the game in december, didn't need to wait or download the game to play

[jGLZa]

Still quite a few barriers that way. Not everybody has the means to purchase online/order (credit card) and some will say they dont want to wait a month before playing a game.

But im just arguing for the sake of arguing now. Batman #700 hits shelves today

[DarkPrince]

If your pirating then pirate but don't make petty excuses about it. :p

Don't read batman

[GrahamZA]

If your pirating then pirate but don't make petty excuses about it. :p

I remember you pirating games. Even got into an argument with you because you defended your boss downloading a 360 Naruto game and displaying it in the office - if I recall correctly.

Just saying 

But im just arguing for the sake of arguing now. Batman #700 hits shelves today

I'M BATMAN!

[DarkPrince]

I remember you pirating games. Even got into an argument with you because you defended your boss downloading a 360 Naruto game and displaying it in the office - if I recall correctly.

Just saying 

My boss yes not me, and as I said if your pirating then pirate, don't make excuses about it. Your stealing plain and simple, nothing to be proud about and making excuses about the game being too expensive or not released in your country is crap. Import or wait for local release and save up for the game

[GrahamZA]

I remember you pirating games. Even got into an argument with you because you defended your boss downloading a 360 Naruto game and displaying it in the office - if I recall correctly.

Just saying 

My boss yes not me, and as I said if your pirating then pirate, don't make excuses about it.

Don't defend people that pirate

[DarkPrince]

Whats to defend? Who is making any excuses? He pirates he pirates. I don't remember telling anyone too or not too pirate, what I did say was stop making bullshit excuses about it. It's not that hard to understand is it? I can't really write it in any plainer english.

If people are going to pirate they are going to pirate, I can't stop that and neither can you but what peopel can do is tell them to stop making excuses for it and just go on with it. Your not cool cause you pirate yor just an asshole as is my boss lol

[GrahamZA]

Alright, fair enough. I must say that there are some companies to hurt consumers more than fight pirates with DRM schemes. Guys like Ubisoft and EA.

[DarkPrince]

Those schemes are just annoying and they detract people from getting the game. I'd never buy a game where I need to authenticate with a server before starting the game. I suppose it is win/lose situation for the companies, am sure the pro's out-weigh the cons for them to make decisions like that.

Also I don't agree with them wanting to stop trade-ins for games, they have made their money from the game they shouldn't need to make more money off the same copy. If they going to stop trade-ins which I doubt will ever happen then they need to come to an agreement to drop the price of the games after 2 or 3 months. Otherwise they should give up on it. Trade-ins have helped me many times when the game was utter shit

[GrahamZA]

Those schemes are just annoying and they detract people from getting the game. I'd never buy a game where I need to authenticate with a server before starting the game. I suppose it is win/lose situation for the companies, am sure the pro's out-weigh the cons for them to make decisions like that.

Steam works very well with regards to DRM (I'm a big advocate of theirs), but I do wish other devs/publishers would learn from Steam's model.

Also I don't agree with them wanting to stop trade-ins for games, they have made their money from the game they shouldn't need to make more money off the same copy. If they going to stop trade-ins which I doubt will ever happen then they need to come to an agreement to drop the price of the games after 2 or 3 months. Otherwise they should give up on it. Trade-ins have helped me many times when the game was utter shit

This is just silly and they're only doing it out of greed. I've traded in many a console game for a new one when I couldn't afford games. Again, this only hurts consumers.