Ridiculous PSP piracy numbers
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Mar 9th 2008 at 1:30AM }
God of War: Chains of Olympus - 94,154
Patapon - 112,183
Ratchet & Clank - Size Matters - 197,113
Crush - 48,959
LOCO ROCO - 163,904
Wipeout Pulse - 116,965
Castlevania X Chronicles - 102,354
Metal Gear Solid - Portable Ops (Not Including Plus) - 231,054
Burnout Dominator - 269,486
A game like Patapon shouldn't be pirated -- that only costs $20 at retail! God of War has managed to get nearly 100k downloads since its release. That's absolutely shameful. Downloading a torrented game is stealing -- just because it's easy doesn't make it right.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
TheBallocaust @ Mar 10th 2008 6:33AM
You do know that Emulators violate copyright law too, right?
The Dumpertaker @ Mar 10th 2008 7:10AM
I was lead to believe that emulators do not break the law, but illegal ROMs do.
If I am misinformed then I shall remove my emulators and legal ROMS forthwith.
Imbro @ Mar 9th 2008 8:20AM
I'm very much against piracy in theory. Talented artists and developers definitly deserve to be compensated for their work. I still do it though. Not yet on the psp, but there are several tempting reasons to do it:
- Speed of delivery (not out in EU yet? no problem! my local store is closed or sold out? no problem!)
- Conveniece (now where did I put that umd? do I have space to even pack it? ah right, 8 of them are in my 16gb memory stick, and 3 others in the 4gb one.)
- Backup (discs never live forever.)
- Sharabillity
They are delivering a better value for free! If I could have the option of a digital download done easilly right from the psp, distributed on several of my memory sticks. If so there would be less incentive to go that route. Same thing with video. I buy tons of dvds and blu rays... but the increasing difficulty of making backups and storing them on my dlna server makes me go to some bittorrent site. I don't even have to re-encode them. And play-only-on-psp umd? Forget it.
Again pirates offer better value with none of the charge.
And music? I haven't bought a cd in 10 years. Buy a 20$ cd for 1 song I like? Forget it! Having to store a mountain of cds, as they only store 700MBs or about 70mins uncompressed songs? Please. As I often like some less known bands, do I want to order a cd and wait perhaps weeks before it's here? Or just go limewire and get it within 5 minutes for free (Ok less known bands can be difficult to find there too). Still they offer better value for no charge!
Now very much thanks to piracy, amazon is now soon allowed to sell drm free mp3s to EU countries. For the first time in 10 years, I'll gladly pay for the music. It's allso 10 years since bandwidth made digital music download practical.
My point is that for a lot of people, the economic advantage is a smaller advantage than simply getting what you want. I hope content providers learns from this. Untill then, long live piracy!
lordwindowlicker @ Mar 9th 2008 6:48AM
This makes me ****ing sick. I've never downloaded a game, and I'm not going to. People like that make me want to vomit.
JamesKing @ Mar 11th 2008 12:20PM
drama queen
siniux @ Mar 9th 2008 6:52AM
Just to give an example.
You talk about Patapon, but not all the places in Earth have the same price the US has: in Europe, Patapon costs 40€. That's like paying 60$ in the states, three times more what you pay there.
botts @ Mar 9th 2008 6:54AM
I have CFW on my PSP. I've also bought 12 games, including two I've imported from Japan.
I don't know if I'd even bother with CFW if the official version would let me put PS1 games on it =\
Arrrrrrrrr @ Mar 9th 2008 6:09PM
Since I installed my cfw, I've downloaded nearly every game I've played. 95% of them sucked. The Simpsons? A joke. Anything fps? Second analog plz. The select few games I've really, REALLY enjoyed, I've bought. GOW, socom 2, Crush, etc. Pirating allows me to select which games are worth a buy, and which are worthless excuses of basement programming.
2. Oh em gee, pirates make me bleed out my mangina. And I'm sure you've bought every single music track you've ever thrown on your ipod. Ever. Go get effed in the Ayy.
Noshino @ Mar 9th 2008 11:39AM
"2. Oh em gee, pirates make me bleed out my mangina. And I'm sure you've bought every single music track you've ever thrown on your ipod. Ever. Go get effed in the Ayy."
Nope, I want to get into the video game industry, and I see pirating as something that hurts the industry as a whole. Once you like one of the branches of the entertainment industry (might it be movie, tv, music, or videogames) you respect them more, you see all the shit they have to go through to release something...
lordwindowlicker @ Mar 9th 2008 5:31PM
Actually yes! I have bought every music track I own, I own CDs and don't download music. I also (GASP!!) RENT!!!!!!! games and movies if I am unsure about buying them. WHAT A ****ING CONCEPT!!!!
Arrrrrrrrr @ Mar 9th 2008 6:06PM
If you've bought every single song you have, then you're either 50 or 1 in 10 million. Be proud. Or old. Whichever you like.
And renting? You think that's any more beneficial to devs? To get your game into blockbuster, it must be submitted through a major studio, who cuts you a one time check, while the studios and retail locations will rent that game as long as its not destroyed. As far as online renting through gamefly, maybe that's a little better.
But the real issue is that so many games are released as absolute crud. Big name games backed by big dollar advertising will often times suck giant hairy scrotum. I refuse to waste my money, buying or renting, on a game I'll play for 10 minutes and discard. That's the length of a demo. Where's the harm in that?
lordwindowlicker @ Mar 9th 2008 6:27PM
I buy CDs, and I'm 23.
Oh and renting is still better than stealing.
DMeisterJ @ Mar 9th 2008 7:19AM
I can say that I have never pirated a game, ever. I support all developers out there, and I don't buy used games either, devs don't get any of that.
This is so wrong...
If people want a second PSP, they have to show Sony that it would be a good investment.
SparkyJ23 @ Mar 9th 2008 8:20AM
botts said...
"I don't know if I'd even bother with CFW if the official version would let me put PS1 games on it =\"
Exactly - theres nothing cfw does that Sony couldn't make the PSP do - so instead of sitting back bitching about folks making your console attractive (and believe me a stock PSP isn't that attractive) why not move the thing forward with stuff we actually want?
you ever thought those high numbers of hardware are because the thing can be improved?
maverick_saturn_626 @ Mar 9th 2008 7:35AM
Never downloaded a game, always buy or borrow, or borrow with the intention to keep. Its worked for Burnout, FF Tactics and several other titles, why go out and spend whan some other guy is bored of the game and gives it to me to borrow and forgets about it. This eventually means when they do remember it, they cant be arsed with it anymore.
People will do anything to get something free, people are like that, you know you badly want GTA4 or something, and an option to get that game free somehow pops up when you know you don't have the cash to buy it. You jump at that opportunity, I'm not condoning downloaders, just saying they think that way. The same way I borrow for keeps 80% of the time :)
Goity @ Mar 9th 2008 8:31AM
:O That's just as bad! You're borrowing and paying no money, therefore nobody gets any money. In fact, if I was the ESA I'd try to stop this terrible cheapskate-icity.
As for these new laws, afaik they're absolutely too impossible to enforce with the large amounts of customers ISPs have. If it comes into play expect your monthly bill to go up to pay for it, and even then it'll be ineffective.
As for portable ops and ratchet being so high, the sales of those games are also quite high I assume (they're the only gams on the list I currently own or have played, apart from Loco Roco which i tried my friend's out and found it boring).
However, psp games are still suspiciously low in sales, but if it were piracy surely the DS would have had some sort of sales problem too (doesn't the adaptor cost about £10?). You have to factor in the fact that people who buy crap like sight training and imagine babies wouldn't really have access to one of these devices, but normal games still sell well on the console.
maverick_saturn_626 @ Mar 9th 2008 7:38AM
Speaking of which, over here in the UK, new laws are popping up soon which will cause the demise of downloading free stuff.
Service providers will shut you down if they find you downloading games, movies, certain softwares and music.
Thats right across the UK. They should introduce it in America too.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 8:38AM
Sorta. There was a threat about that but it's completely idle.
A friend of mine works in BT. He says that whilst its stupidly easy to see what you're looking at - theres nothing they can do about it.
He said to use https:// something or other so they can't see what you're up to. But I don't know much about that kind of business.
Plus in law the publishers/devs/big anti-piracy companies do not target individuals but the suppliers. Our only raid involving internet piracy was on the person who ran OiNK. Ever. And people may get letters from ISPs and anti-piracy companies telling you to stop downloading but the worst it can ever get (so long as you said you deleted the file) is you're kicked from your current ISP.
Really why are you even getting caught out by The Sun style excitable FUD?
andwhyisit @ Mar 9th 2008 8:19AM
To jayj and Autobon: Downgrading a psp to upgrade it to a custom firmware is an utter pain in the ass to do. Think before you open your mouths and claim something as fact.
I legally own every single one of my psp games. Piracy hurts the homebrew scene, hurts sony, and is not what custom firmware is for. All of you idiots who associate homebrew with piracy need a serious reality check.
FatGit @ Mar 9th 2008 8:19AM
siniux said...
Just to give an example.
You talk about Patapon, but not all the places in Earth have the same price the US has: in Europe, Patapon costs 40€. That's like paying 60$ in the states, three times more what you pay there.
THIS is why so many download in Europe. The pricing difference is ridiculous and that also applies to films and music. It may not be the publishers fault, rather the local government adding taxes, but in that case something bigger needs to be done to make prices more uniform. Who in Europe is going pay the equivalent of $60 for Patapon when they see people in the US can get it for only $20.
maverick_saturn_626 - I can't see that ever being implemented in the UK, the broadband providers don't want to do it and there are also legit sites that use torrents and peer-to-peer for downloads.
Finnaz @ Mar 9th 2008 8:17AM
I buy games that I know deserve my money. (GoW, Patapon whatever) and I download very little due to the fact that I don't want to waste time and space on my PC for a game I don't want. I do this in the same way that I pay for music that is self published. Why? Because the band is going to get about 4p off a 5 quid album. You're not supporting the band by paying, you're supporting the greedy fat cats. Bands make most of their money from tours. Games deserve to be more supported because there is no other way they can get money aside from sales.
For all you people screaming that piracy is theft, all property is theft, and intellectual property even more so.
psp00000 @ Mar 9th 2008 8:23AM
very nice post that made me think a lot. I totally agree that piracy is not a nice action to take but I'd also like to point few questions: 1. here in Ireland Patapon costs 39 euro at GameStop how do you call this? I call this an act of piracy, since Sony apparently launched the game with the intention to provide a great value at only 19.99 $ or euro. 2. Do you really think that the number of PSPs sold would be so high without piracy? I see in the market some sort of perversion and hate/love for piracy, incredibly everything that has intense volumes of piracy has also high profits from actual sells, look at the PS3 where there is no piracy.... 3. Without piracy how many people would really buy games? I was thinking about PES 2007 that I bought last year for 49 euro for the PSP... the game stays the same from one year to another and yet it costs hell of money, how do you call it? for me it is again an act of piracy.
Thanks for writing about this topic and I hope to get this pubblished and answered.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 8:31AM
I do whole download thing for demos, if there isn't a demo out already.
Demos are always needed. There's no way I'm going to go out and put down £35 on a game that I might not even like after being impressed by a trailer or 2.
Especially since my local game shops have stopped giving refunds to games. Just "swop it for another". Well... Great. But theres nothing else I want!
I also download a few games I bought. I dump my UMD games to memory stick to improve loading time, to prolong the UMD laser (I still play my original GB), to carry my fave games on a single tiny card etc. In the event that a dump doesn't work then I'll go download it. Dev has my money *shrugs*.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 8:48AM
My word! I'm terribly sorry but my English was atrocious in that last post!
Basically I download games to act as demos (if there already isn't one). If I like it I'll buy it if I don't then I'll delete it. But this is more a stab at shops who won't give refunds.
Arlanthir @ Mar 9th 2008 8:34AM
"A game like Patapon shouldn't be pirated -- that only costs $20 at retail!"
A "game like Patapon" costs $20 in America, but costs 40€ in Portugal, do the math, it's $61.6677 according to xe.com, more than 3 times the price in the states. And yet I'm buying it along with God of War (from amazon, which has discounts *hint*). So pardon me if I download games to see if they're worth spending 3 times the money you do. $ < €, and yet our price reflects Sony thinks otherwise.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 8:41AM
Patapon here is £20, which equals $40 US.
Easy to see how piracy would kick off in a place where games cost much more. How I'd love to open a portal between here and a good US shopping state.
LM2007 @ Mar 9th 2008 9:58AM
Wow and that's your poor excuse to steal? that's a childish thought.
Noshino @ Mar 9th 2008 11:22AM
why don't you just import the game?....
Arlanthir @ Mar 9th 2008 1:25PM
When you eat a cake and pay for it afterwards, are you stealing? I check the game, if it's playable, I'll buy it from England or whatever.
I do import them, read my comment. Not from US, because of customs (I'd pay more) ;)
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 1:35PM
Because importing costs a lot too?
Frankly I like that other people pirate and don't buy the games after in the UK. Someone needs to give stores and publishers a bloody nose for charging more here.
Especially when its double or triple the price. Welcome to the global market where we'd like some equality. Stick at it EU pirates.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 10th 2008 8:33AM
Yes, it's childish to steal in a country where games cost unnecessarily more...
Grow up.
To be honest I don't mind if European, Australian or Brazilian [sp] people download games. Yea it sucks for the dev and if you pirate my game I'll kick your face off personally, but something does need to be done about the prices in said areas. Not buying the game from a shop is the only way these people listen.
And it did work. PSP games launched at console prices here. £40 (up to £45). PSP did terribly in sales and the most expensive games now are £35.
Avoiceamongst @ Mar 9th 2008 8:43AM
Lets face facts, piracy will always be around. No matter what new security feature that comes out weather its for bluray, psp, music, drms, software, hardware etc there will always be a way to copy, mod, download, transfer to another media. Even the almighty comcast with its some would say "illegal" (court case still pending) attempts to stop piracy by sending forged RST packets to stop people from seeding torrents and downloading cant stop this. Am I saying its immoral? In short answer yes. Do i do it? Yes. In fact the first time i did was in middle school copying a green day dookie cassette tape using my sony mini boom box (and im sure that didnt have an effect on green days then or current wealth seeing that bands make little mony in royalties... in fact most of it comes out of merch sales and constant touring..) Do i ever buy any umds, cds etc.? Yes, and i think alot of other ppl do too if they believe in the product and/or if its of good quality. If a product is good it will sell, maybe a look at the economy the last 8 years will lend some clues as to why some even fantastic products dont sell like okami or the ps3. Besides its hard to say even if those kratos loving 94,000+ ppl didnt download the game whos to say that they would have even bought it. Even the FCC screwed up drastically the numbers they said that pirating was causing to the record labels. Which btw its absoultly absurd that its come to a point where pirates are being compared with terrorists and crack dealers by the FCC. Companies that want to increase their market prices and ceo's that want another house in the hamptons need to stop pouring in dollars to their washington lobbyists and greasing up the politicians to take action against other countries that have no position or even pro torrent policies and instead need to take a stern look at their business model and how to change it to make this new digital era work for them not trying to fight it tooth and nail to stay the same. People like darkalex will always be around the trick is to find a way to embrace the problem to the end where we wont need the company that we keep.
Alien @ Mar 9th 2008 9:00AM
I hate illegal downloaders ... Im proud that every game on my PSP , is a UMD game , or a PSstore game ... I would never steal a PSP game , and I would be glad if some sort of law would come , that would partially stop them ...
lgndk11r @ Mar 9th 2008 9:13AM
It doesn't help if the culture actually supports piracy.
Like over here, since the average spending power is about 1/10 of a G8 country, people tend to use spending power as an excuse to pirate games. But that doesn't excuse them in buying the hardware in the first place!
I'm glad pirate's logic doesn't make sense, or else I'd do it to. I haven't bought any pirated games since, oh, 1999(I reformed).
Joe @ Mar 9th 2008 9:25AM
I hate to say this but I think it is about time to bring out a new PSP, but seeing as Sony just brought out a newone I think they should wait. Even though I just bought another PSP the new small one I still think Sony needs to bring out a new PSP that makes piracy harder to do on the PSP2.
If Sony does bring out a new PSP in the next few years I hope they take a lesson from Apple and have a touch screen and motion sensors in there system.
As for the whole issue here there is some games I want but need to spend my money on other stuff. I so want Castlevania X Chronicles but seeing as some feels like a rom I want to wait until it is cheaper. When I can see it for 20 I will buy it. I just got Patapon and GOW and both games a great and it is sad to see the devs that worked hard on these games will not get the money they should.
As for the issue with Patapon this just shows that pirates do not care about the price to buy the game because if they can get it for free they still will.
The saddest thing about the pirates is the reason not many great games and new IPs are coming out on the PSP and that really sucks because I love my PSP.
So even though the PSP2 will not be out until at least 2010 I hope when the PSP2 does come out Sony will have found a way to stop pirates just like what they did with the PS3.That being make it hard to crack.
retsetone @ Mar 9th 2008 10:05AM
I'm sure that sales would be better if they would start to release software the same day in all regions.
LM2007 @ Mar 9th 2008 10:00AM
Every person that download illegal games should be sued. How can you justify, a great game like patapon and only cost 20!! how you justify the steal of it.
Mills and Boom @ Mar 9th 2008 1:39PM
BECAUSE it isn't "$20" everywhere? That's supposed to be £10. Instead it's double that at £20. Still cheap but WTF, yanks can have it cheap and we're not?
KaliKot @ Mar 9th 2008 10:07AM
You guys have no idea...no idea.
even $20 is 1/5th of the average salary here, you have to get a taste of Asia and you have to see that its been a cornerstone of entertianment and video games here. People might not have even heard of them if piracy was not existent.
yeah fuck pirates and all that, but also fuck those who comment strongly against piracy if you don't even know the situation elsewhere. It's not europe or america everywhere folks!
Cyburn @ Mar 9th 2008 10:04AM
And I thought the DS was bad with piracy with the R4/M3 Cards
Tim Parsons @ Mar 9th 2008 10:12AM
Governments need to crack down on piracy and create better international laws and enforce them.
Any ISP that provides an individual(s) internet access used for this porpose(torrent site servers, sites that host these custom firmwares) should be serverly fine.
Frastoglegnia @ Mar 9th 2008 10:23AM
Reasons to use homebrew without indulging in piracy:
1. Musicianship. Homebrew app PSPRhythm is far better at sequencing and user sample playback than Traxxpad or any other commercial release. People who want to write music (or prose, for that matter) on the PSP will need custom firmware.
2. Independent and amateur game support. People who take the trouble to create games without remuneration or publicity deserve to be given a shot. Valve understood that when they hired the students who wrote Portal, but few other game companies do. Homebrew gives amateur and indie game creators a way to be noticed.
3. Anti-censorship. People who bought Manhunt 2 are still unable to experience the game as Rockstar originally intended. A leaked pre-censored copy, and user-hacked official copies with the filter removed, give users who bought Manhunt 2 the ability to enjoy the game without censored content.
In the 90s, I bought the "preview" excuse with regard to music piracy for two simple reasons: music is often far easier to produce than a game, hence free distribution can be advantageous in the long run, and previewing a song or album will often lead to the listener purchasing the entire catalog of an artist they wouldn't otherwise have heard. As Chuck D. pointed out, music piracy hurts mainstream successful artists like Metallica but tends to help far lesser known artists by offering publicity and new fans. The preview argument makes less sense here: Patapon and God of War: CoO *were* both offered as demos -- in more than one format -- and those were among the most pirated games on the list.
I'm angry about this, but not at Homebrew hackers and content creators. I'm angry that continued piracy of commercial games will cause Sony -- one of the most controlling copy-protection-obsessed companies in the world -- to restrict and hogtie the most geeky user-customizable device they've created in a decade. Homebrew, the one way to add enhanced features and software based purely on individual demand, might become a casualty, and so might freedoms we take for granted now: transparent copying to and from our PCs, for example.
abidi @ Mar 9th 2008 10:30AM
cause in brazil a game cost $100+
lyingit @ Mar 9th 2008 10:24AM
any person who downloads games and uses any number of the excuses in the...54 comments prior to mine, is simply lying to themselves.
I think it's important for those of us who do download games to be honest, and just admit the simple truth.
we're fucking theives.
Frastoglegnia @ Mar 9th 2008 1:43PM
Anyone who confuses arguments in favor of homebrew for lists of "excuses for downloading games" hasn't comprehended what was said and should therefore refrain from tossing around moral absolutes. Issues like homebrew are complex. They require thought, not one-liners from a jingoistic blockbuster.
It isn't about downloading games. It's about homebrew providing options that are likely to stop being available at some point *because* of piracy.
People who want Sony to become even more obnoxious about security don't remember the minidisc, and how handicapping its ability to upload live recordings was part of the reason that medium ultimately died.
Homebrew unlocks the PSP's potential in ways that free the user and don't necessarily translate to piracy. Sony's combating that by making more features available through updated firmware. They're trying to make the standard PSP experience more attractive so that people won't want to alter it.
I agree with that strategy. What I don't agree with equating homebrew itself with piracy.
lyingit @ Mar 9th 2008 1:52PM
not once did I equate homebrew and piracy...
but it's pretty simple...
I know 5 people with mod'd PSP's.
not one of the 5 do anything other than pirate games.
hurrah for you and your good intentions with homebrew...but realize piracy is the number one reason most people mod up their PSP...
Frastoglegnia @ Mar 9th 2008 3:30PM
>not once did I equate homebrew and piracy...
Actually, you did. By dismissing everything that had been said in the past four pages as excuses for "thievery," you made all preceding arguments for qualified homebrew use equivalent.
>I know 5 people with mod'd PSP's. . . .
>not one of the 5 do anything other than pirate games.
Welcome to the perils of inductive reasoning: "I" is not "therefore, thus." I'm not saying your personal experience is wrong, BTW. I'm just saying it isn't enough to characterize everyone *else* who uses homebrew.
>hurrah for you and your good intentions with homebrew...but >realize piracy is the number one reason most people mod up >their PSP...
Hurrah for you and your sarcasm, but even if we run a comprehensive survey tomorrow and you're proved right, that doesn't take mean the number two and three reasons for homebrew are unimportant. For a musician who rides a bike, takes mass transit or travels across the country, the idea of a little $169 PSP doubling as a musical sketchpad is pretty exciting.
Limitations of the PSP being solved by users is refreshingly democratic. Take the PSP lacking a keypad and the limitations that poses on certain capabilities. If Sony chooses not to address that issue, but enough frustrated writers with homebrew do, then the solution is a virtual keypad that's far more intuitive than Sony's (which is as tedious and unintuitive as spelling out words by blinking was for the protagonist of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
Right now, the PSP is one of those unintentionally versatile devices that inspires hack-friendly games, applications and utilities. The iRiver iHP-1xx series was another, and Rockbox users still program for that device because of the tweakable options it offers.
Such devices are rare. It will be sad when the PSP no longer falls into that category.
lyingit @ Mar 10th 2008 8:37PM
quite simply, I didn't dismiss everything said in the previous pages as piracy, I said anyone that uses the litany of excuses us pirates use to validate our theivery, are lying to themselves.
again, I didn't equate homebrew and piracy, you did, by your lack of comprehending what I said.
I can see valid use for homebrew, and see a place for it, but that is not, and probably never will be, the topic at hand here - the topic at hand is that piracy is killing the PSP (much like it did the Dreamcast).
I just like to point to my fellow eye-patch-wearing brothers, that they are completely, and fully, thieves.
moralistic, monetary, or otherwise "validated" excuses, are just that, excuses.
and much like a flower basket to a dying person in the hospital, it's all for you, not the receipient.
Nightmare @ Mar 9th 2008 10:57AM
I don't have custom firmware yet, but i can see it both ways. I'm not that close mind but when i get custom firmware i probably won't buy any games and waist money, when i can just get the game for free. Yeah it is stealing lol, but the reason is its not that even hard to get cfw. If they would have made it harder it would be less priacy.But the people who thinks it not effecting is way wrong don't forget that just one site, theres like thousands of site like that, and also theres limewire.
DepheCt @ Mar 9th 2008 11:39AM
You have to think... sure there is a lot of piracy on the PSP. But I know that half of those people download games and dont even have a custom F/W. If you read the comments on torrents for a lot of those games, you will see people asking "how do I make this work?".
A lot of people are still buying.
You cant blame the people, blame sony for releasing a handheld with no security. Sure they tried later on, but it was too late.
Custom firmware is used for many other things than piracy, for example.. a fav feature of mine, screen shots in game and xmb. IRShell and playing your own music... just to name a few.