PSP store development held back due to DRM

by Nick Doerr { Aug 16th 2007 at 7:00AM }

So you've been moaning for an online store for your PSP, maybe not exactly the same as the PS3's store, but something to let you grab some games, trailers, or whatever without forking out the big bucks for the handheld's big brother. You're not in luck, we're afraid. Sony representatives claim they're working on the store which will feature "short-form" games, but maybe not music or movies. However, they wouldn't put a release date down for the store. Why?

Digital Rights Management concerns. Sony doesn't want their movies to be pirated and with the awesome homebrews and custom firmwares floating around on the PSP, it's an almost impossible task. This isn't to say that a store for the PSP isn't coming, they just need to work all this stuff out first. We'd be happy with a store even if they don't have movies put up there immediately. Then again, we can't assume movies are their only pirating concerns. Oh well, we'll just keep waiting until Sony gives us a firm release date!

[via N4G]

Tags: drm, pspstore

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bxbailey @ Aug 16th 2007 7:28AM

Sony can keep pushing it off all they want. Due to their lack of being able to move forward with the industry at a decent pace, I can no longer support Sony or their products. I can no longer consider myself a psp or ps3 fanboy.

Alien @ Aug 16th 2007 8:45AM

Well thats to bad bxbailey , if you would red the full interview , you would find out , that the PSN will be availible for the PSP before 08 . Hopefully this is correct . I dont care about HD technology , I just want my classic PSone titles :D

Rob @ Aug 16th 2007 8:53AM

Almost impossible task? It *IS* an impossible task. Effective DRM is theoretically impossible.

txa1265 @ Aug 16th 2007 9:07AM

Rob: I'd say effective DRM is theoretically possible but practically impossible ;)

This is the downside to the world that brings us 'homebrew' - the PSP has had a 'piracy monkey' on its' back since day one.

James @ Aug 16th 2007 10:51AM

Well how come they made a PS3 Store without worring about piracy??? I dnt care about movies that much. Just want PS1 Games without spending £399.

Dahk @ Aug 16th 2007 10:52AM

I don't know enough about homebrew (cuz I don't have a PSP yet - Hoping slim will have some sort of homebrew when its out =P)

But in any case, I thought it was difficult for people to downgrade their firmware from like 3.51 or something. Is it possible that Sony can just force everyone who wants to connect to their PSStore to have the latest firmware?

ryan @ Aug 16th 2007 11:27AM

Dahk

Even if they forced people to connect to PSN with the latest firmware, what's to keep someone from downloading the games from somewhere like TPB and playing them on a homebrew firmware? I believe that's the issue at hand.

snake79 @ Aug 16th 2007 12:16PM

this mean that if we want something we have to give up on something. We won't get our online store unless we don't use custom firmware/homebrew. It's pretty fair to me...

mastershake3 @ Aug 16th 2007 12:19PM

the biggest deterrent to piracy is low price. When NORMAL people pirate or even commit crimes, they often weigh the risk vs. the gain. If you could pirate the original PS1 title of Resident Evil, but risked not being able to upgrade, or being sued, but could buy it online for $1.50 what would you do? You'd download it!
Sony should continue the fight against piracy if they like, but should release old titles that no longer produce revenue at EXTREMELY LOW prices, and see how that works and take it from there. When they released the walkman they didn't worry about people making tapes, they worried about having the best walkman and selling the most of them. And they did for a long time.

Random1448 @ Aug 16th 2007 12:23PM

@mastershake3

that's bullcrap, people download music for free, instead of paying 99 cents.

Ed @ Aug 16th 2007 12:36PM

You know what? F' Sony. I've just about had it with them. Like the majority of PSP owners, I have no interest in piracy, homebrew or the PS3 and yet the promises Sony made about this handheld 2.5 years ago have been lackluster at best because of these things.

F you goddamned pirates, too. As for lower prices, if you can't afford it, you don't get it. You don't steal a car because you can only afford the bus.

Zipan @ Aug 16th 2007 1:03PM

Ed dont lie you want pirated games everyone just starts bsing.. i use iso's because most games for the psp suck anyways so whats the point of buying something with supposidly an upcomming future... I am selling my psp for a ds...

Ed @ Aug 16th 2007 1:16PM

What facts are you using to accuse me of being a liar, Zipan? I make a decent living and pay for the games, music and movies I watch. If I can't justify the purchase, I wait until the price is lowered. If you're accusing me of being a thief (the lowest scum on Earth) simply because you are one, then F you too.

Hashbrown_Hunter @ Aug 16th 2007 1:24PM

Fine, I'm good with no movies. What I want is FFVII on my PSP ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Ali @ Aug 16th 2007 1:36PM

I'd just like a legitimate way to play all those PS1 classics I have with out the thought of having to buy them again or use means which would allow me to do that illegally.

And yes FFVII would rock.

Ratchet the Lombax @ Aug 16th 2007 1:44PM

I don't really care about the PSP store unless it starts offering something else besides PS1 games. I only really liked about 12 PS1 games and thanks to Custom Firmware I have ripped them from my own discs and can play them for free. Which I don't see as a bad thing since it's like ripping a music cd and putting it on an iPod.

The Clunge @ Aug 16th 2007 2:25PM

Sony have lost shit-heaps more money from not having any product on sale than they would have through piracy.

They promised 7,000 PS1 titles woul be available by the end of this year, in Europe they've released 6, 2 of which were broken because they had No-Disc piracy protection built in.

I actually would have bought games I already owned to save the trouble of downgrading my PSP and ripping my own games. 10 months after PS1 games were promised for PS there is still no way of doing so without a PS3, or running a custom firmware.

The custom firmware scene proves they will never have fully secure DRM, Sony should stop being anal about losing 10% of earnings to piracy and instead realise they're losing 100% from having NOTHING on offer.

Saigon @ Aug 16th 2007 2:46PM

What the hell is a "short-form" game? My god, I can't believe homebrew might hurt the chances of this store living up to it's great potential. Downloadable ps1 games, orginal/exclusive psp games, movies, tv shows, game and movie trailers.

Short-form games?!?!

snake79 @ Aug 16th 2007 11:54PM

hei Ed, I'm with you. I'm not a high paid worker but I still support original. I just ignore all the not so good and buy only the best.I have to admit that I have bought pirated copy of games and music and movies but that was when i'm studying. since i've start working have stop buy piracy stuff.

Larz @ Aug 16th 2007 7:36PM

I wish they would just get over it and make the freakin' store already. One PS1 title I would really love to see on the PSP I don't expect will ever come is Critical Depth. I loved that game! It was so fun multiplayer. Even though I own it on PS1 I'd still buy it again for PSP.

Why do pirates think that everyone else is a pirate? Sure I used Napster back in the day, but I didn't just steal every song I wanted. I only used it to get rare songs not available commercially and to listen to albums that I only heard one song from before buying (you never know if that one song on the radio is the only good one). Anything more than that and my consience would pester me. Nowadays I can just listen to snippets from buy.com or whatever and don't bother with p2p anymore. Except for rare out of print music.

mastershake3 @ Aug 16th 2007 4:30PM

@Random1448
No it's not Bull. $.99 per song is about $16 an album!!! I'm not gonna do that when I can buy the album for $13 And if you're reffering to iTunes iF#@% yourself that thing tries to tell me how and where I can have my songs!! Bull, I do agree with others in that I should be able to rip my already owned games onto my PSP. Sony should really hook us up with something. That's why I said that they did it right with the Walkman, they didn't care who's tapes you had or how you got them. that was the music industries problem. if stuff was available people would buy it. The real problem is stats. Before they never had any idea how many tapes were made, but now they see these big download sites and all they see is "Wow look at all the revenue we are missing"

nathan @ Aug 16th 2007 6:32PM

Sny has been dropping the ball with the PSP for quite some time here. This whole mantra of only allowing people who own a PS3 to get PS1 games onto their PSP is ridiculous. And why aren't these very old games selling for $1 or so? I guess no one at Sony realizes that you can get all but a handful of the PSX games for about that price at a flea market. I mean, the PSN store on PSP is sooo obvious that I really can't see why they haven't done something about this. When it does come out I am positive it will be underwhelming. As far CFW, I run an SNES emulator but all my PSP games are legal, and so are my few PSX games I have loaded. I think a fantastic compromise is for the PSP to have an up-to-date Flash install that people can use to run games. There is so much potential in the PSP being wasted that it is almost criminal!