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[iapetus]

No one else but me is shameless enough to admit to owning Astonishia Story.

Actually, I have custom firmware and I also own a copy of Astonishia Story. Perhaps we should be less worried about the correlation between custom firmware and piracy, and more concerned about the correlation between custom firmware and horrible taste in games...

 

[itxaka]

I got one to play Pirates! and Test Drive Unlimited. I also picked up a few other games, but I never really considered piracy on it. Too much work involved imho.

There is a Pirates! game for psp?


Anyway, it´s much difficult to pirate a PSP than a DS (install custom firmware with probability of bricking it, newer versions require a pandora battery VS buy a card+miniSD and copy the games to it) so why DS software is selling and PSP it´s not? are you sure it´s because of piracy? Also, the games are 1 gb on psp (moreless) and 60mb on DS so it´s easier for pirates to get hundreds of DS games in an hour.

 

[ethelred]

Actually, I have custom firmware and I also own a copy of Astonishia Story. Perhaps we should be less worried about the correlation between custom firmware and piracy, and more concerned about the correlation between custom firmware and horrible taste in games...

I'll have you know that my memory stick is currently loaded with Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, Dragon Quest VII, Grandia, Arc the Lad II, and Tales of Destiny. I'll stand by my taste, thank you!

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

People downloading the hell out of God of War already, f'n pirates.

The others numbers makes it all the more depressing.

 

[oneHeero]

"tons of times I go on Craigslist(CL) and see games for sale, brand new. Just wondered how they were counted.

Say that these games on CL are stolen games from their work(Sears/Toys R Us/etc) do they count as sales if they are missing? I mean the store already paid for the games in ordering them right?

Say Sears buys 10 copies of Uncharted, 1 is stolen and sold on CL by a employee. The other 9 sold regularly.
Is that +10 to NPD or +9 since one is stolen? I wondered if its considered a sale since Sears would have already bought the 10 copies and they are selling them now.

Confusing, I know, but being a budget gamer, I want to buy some of these new games on CL for 30-45 bucks but would rather buy in store if it doesnt help the dev."


I would think it would count as a sale for the dev but just counted as part of the shrinkage for the store. It's not like they can return the unsold game that the store lost for money so I'm assuming the dev keeps the money they were initially paid for said game. I could be completely off but that's what I would assume at least. If they don't have a product to return through the store's own fault, I don't see how the dev can be expected to cough up the tab.

Ahh I feel better about buying my games on CL now! New games only! If I can manage to find them still.

 

[rollingstart]

See that's the thing, for legit CFW users, it makes an excellent system even better, which is why I'm so ardently pro-CFW, and get so pissed when people say CFW is "just for pirates". After I put CFW on my system my games library exploded.

Plus the added benefits of ripping your own non-PSN release PSX games and playing them on the go.

yeah, CFW is amazing and ive been using it for a long time now, but never for playing downloaded games (well I did rip my Outrun 2 UMD, but I still own that, I did it because I needed to put it at 333 so it will be stable but I didnt want the UMD to damage). The ability to play any PS1 game is great, I have a huge library of PS1 games that I can rip at anytime and throw on my memory stick and most work flawlessly. Being able to change clockspeeds may be the best part about CFW, especially with games like Outrun 2 which are just so much better with 333.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

yeah, CFW is amazing and ive been using it for a long time now, but never for playing downloaded games (well I did rip my Outrun 2 UMD, but I still own that, I did it because I needed to put it at 333 so it will be stable but I didnt want the UMD to damage). The ability to play any PS1 game is great, I have a huge library of PS1 games that I can rip at anytime and throw on my memory stick and most work flawlessly. Being able to change clockspeeds may be the best part about CFW, especially with games like Outrun 2 which are just so much better with 333.

Pretty much. BTW, if you're running game via memstick you get ENORMOUS savings in terms of battery life. The UMD drive is an absolute battery killer.

UMD @ 222 = 5-8 hours on Stamina

Memstick @ 333 = 8-13 hours on Stamina

 

[mrpogi23]

who ever d/ls patapon should be shot.... its a must buy damn it.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

I'll have you know that my memory stick is currently loaded with Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, Dragon Quest VII, Grandia, Arc the Lad II, and Tales of Destiny. I'll stand by my taste, thank you!

Ethel how much space does that selection take up?

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Ethel how much space does that selection take up?

TO = ~40MB
VS = ~150MB
DQVII = ~500MB (each disc)
Grandia = ~500MB (each disc)

Haven't ripped Arc II or Tales of Destiny yet though.

(PS: Tactics Ogre on PSP with "fast load" enabled means NO MORE LOAD TIMES. AT ALL.)

 

[navii]

Sony needs to make some sort of a deal with DA to stop him from breaking their future firmwares, though I am not sure if somebody else will take his place with the knowledge that is already out there. But so far nobody has done anything similar as far as I know.

Sonly also needs to offer as many features that these exploits been giving us without the illegal games leeching.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

TO = ~40MB
VS = ~150MB
DQVII = ~500MB (each disc)
Grandia = ~500MB (each disc)

Haven't ripped Arc II or Tales of Destiny yet though.

(PS: Tactics Ogre on PSP with "fast load" enabled means NO MORE LOAD TIMES. AT ALL.)

Thank you, Dragona.

 

[Aeana]

(PS: Tactics Ogre on PSP with "fast load" enabled means NO MORE LOAD TIMES. AT ALL.)

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that I remember all of the annoying little pauses during battle still being there when I was trying it out.

 

[lastendconductor]

I don't know if this has been said already, because this thread is quite big as it is, but I have downloaded torrents of most of the PSP games I own so I can run them off memory stick. I could, theoretically, rip them to memory stick myself, but it's way more hassle than downloading, so I just download. Dunno if it's even legit to say that on GAF, considering the greyness of what I'm doing, but since I see nothing ethically wrong with it, I will freely admit it.

You're seeding the game for other people who may have not bought the game at all.

 

[JudgeN]

4. Hardware functionality -just like the PS3 as a "standalone Blu-ray player" the PSP can appeal to non-gamers also because of it's functionality. MP3's - Movies - internet- photos - video streaming - messaging and more. I suspect that a fair portion of PSP owners, like PS3 owners, didn't buy it for games. Sony has specifically marketed both these systems to non-gamers. The "Trojan horse" can help your hardware sales, but it'll do little to nothing for software.

I read this alot of GAF about the PSP multi-media functions but does anyone know anyone who actually only owns a PSP for multi-media functions? I mean most people I know when they want a portable music player, they think and buy an ipod not a PSP. All the other functions like movies and messaging people have laptops for, your not going to buy a PSP for its multi-media functions its just not logical. Now I have seen people buy PSP for its CFW abilities not to pirate but as a portable emulator.

But what I really don't understand is why Sony or 3rd parties don't go after these sites legally. I mean remember in mid-to late 90's when Nintendo when after a N64 rom site, it started a domino effect and a ton of rom sites closed up, couldn't Sony just do the same thing?

 

[Bog]

The worst part is that there are a near infinite number of these sites out there.

 

[King_Slender]

While I think the percentage of people that pirate PSP games is relatively small, I also think that it's those same people who mostly drive sales, so it has a disproportionate effect on software sales on the PSP.

 

[golduck342]

I did my part and bought the games I like.

 

[melman101]

I also bought God of War, and the rest of the games I thoroughly enjoy. And one UMD movie (Terminator 2 Judgement Day).

Edit: God of War is really so amazing you should buy it.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

I read this alot of GAF about the PSP multi-media functions but does anyone know anyone who actually only owns a PSP for multi-media functions? I mean most people I know when they want a portable music player, they think and buy an ipod not a PSP. All the other functions like movies and messaging people have laptops for, your not going to buy a PSP for its multi-media functions its just not logical.

Really?

I have a PSP for games (I own 9 right now) but the console has damn good multimedia capabilities. The screen is absolutely amazing when it comes to watching Anime and Game Trailers in 16:9 ratio. The internet is slow, but at school when I don't want to carry many things, this is invaluable.

I don't use it for Media features exclusively, but it does such a damn good job that I can't help but use it between game releases.

 

[NeonBlade]

Simply find a way to make a media format that cannot be cracked, or so bloody expensive to undertake the cheap skates lose interest.

PSP piracy numbers make me sad, Xbox360 numbers make me happy. The system deserves to die, but sadly it still lives and plagues this industry.

Me personally, I don't even find time to play one game for 30 minutes, much less pirate one.

 

[lastendconductor]

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that I remember all of the annoying little pauses during battle still being there when I was trying it out.

I found those too.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Simply find a way to make a media format that cannot be cracked, or so bloody expensive to undertake the cheap skates lose interest.

PSP piracy numbers make me sad, Xbox360 numbers make me happy. The system deserves to die, but sadly it still lives and plagues this industry.

Me personally, I don't even find time to play one game for 30 minutes, much less pirate one.

What?

Man STFU! We seriously don't need pointless systems war shit, alright.

And besides 360 owners still buy games like crazy among the three consoles, so HA!

 

[Slavik81]

Don't PSP games run better and consume less battery power on memory sticks than they do from the disk drive?

If so, shouldn't it be rather unsurprising that people would prefer a digital download to a disk?

 

[shuri]

PSP piracy numbers make me sad, Xbox360 numbers make me happy. The system deserves to die, but sadly it still lives and plagues this industry.

Do you realise how moronic you sound when you post such trash here? I think you should stick to posting in 'hurt or heal' threads on Gamefaq.

 

[Fafalada]

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that I remember all of the annoying little pauses during battle still being there when I was trying it out.

Fast Load didn't really work until FW 3.7 (at least not in any titles I've tried). With 3.7, XCom went from 1minute load times (which was exactly same as running it on PS1 mind you) to 5-10seconds.

There is a Pirates! game for psp?

Released a year ago for 20$, and it's a perfect portable game at that.

Anyway, it´s much difficult to pirate a PSP than a DS (install custom firmware with probability of bricking it, newer versions require a pandora battery VS buy a card+miniSD and copy the games to it) so why DS software is selling and PSP it´s not?

PSP piracy has been advertised by everyone and everywhere for over 2 yeras.
NDS piracy has been usable(and widely available) for less then a year. Considering how userbase has been growing, piracy has a lot of catching up to do there before it could make an impact.

If so, shouldn't it be rather unsurprising that people would prefer a digital download to a disk?

Discs can be installed to MS (and rather easily at that, more so then PC games for instance), in fact I am sure lots of legitimate users take advantage of that.
That still doesn't make the discs free though.

 

[NolbertoS]

Wow, alot of bannings on both sides. I still think that the Custom Firmware Thread should be banned too, hell most other gaming websites condone even posting a thread about PSP Custom Firmware, even if it's about making your PSP run faster, load faster, save battery life, etc. you're still "altering" it and that to me is how piracy gets started by "altering" the product for your own preferences, which eventually leads to more "customization" by just d/l'ing games. I'm not sure if Evillore put a sticky up their about Custom Firmware threads and what's considered thread fodder and what's considered bans, but he should lay out the rules if he hasn't. Anyways that's my $0.02. For the record, like I said earlier, I hate piracy in every form and am probably the 1% of the people who really doesn't d/l anything, from games, music, movies, etc.

 

[Yagharek]

In Australia, where game prices are often too high (compared to USA/JP) piracy can seem attractive. However, the side-effect of it is that cheap, region free games from hong kong online stores make piracy that bit less attractive. The other bonus for consumers is lower sw sales = less time before the price drops.

To that end I have an awesome PSP library of about 15 games, with none costing more than $50 AUD (bar MGS Portable and Wipeout Pulse) and most under $30.

I'm one of the people who will never pirate as I like collecting games. But there are some benefits of it to the consumer (cheaper games at retail). Although the looming side-effect is that of fewer and fewer games being released (very bad thing) so that worries me as the PSP lineup is pretty damn good and ever-improving.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Fast Load didn't really work until FW 3.7 (at least not in any titles I've tried). With 3.7, XCom went from 1minute load times (which was exactly same as running it on PS1 mind you) to 5-10seconds.


Released a year ago for 20$, and it's a perfect portable game at that.


PSP piracy has been advertised by everyone and everywhere for over 2 yeras.
NDS piracy has been usable(and widely available) for less then a year. Considering how userbase has been growing, piracy has a lot of catching up to do there before it could make an impact.


Discs can be installed to MS (and rather easily at that, more so then PC games for instance), in fact I am sure lots of legitimate users take advantage of that.
That still doesn't make the discs free though.

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa...

NDS piracy has been around, usable, widely available and whatever other tricky phrases you want to usefor just as long as PSP, and hell, with the GBA, people didn't even need to own the console to pirate the games!

 

[Slavik81]

Discs can be installed to MS (and rather easily at that, more so then PC games for instance), in fact I am sure lots of legitimate users take advantage of that.
That still doesn't make the discs free though.

You mean there's no copy-protection on the disks?

 

[TheChaos]

(PS: Tactics Ogre on PSP with "fast load" enabled means NO MORE LOAD TIMES. AT ALL.)

Speaking of which, I want to rip and play Tactics Ogre but don't know if it has a fast-forward button on popsloader. I want to play that game via disk but GOOD LORD the game is slow. It takes fifty bazillion seconds just for an arrow to travel across the screen. Also, Gameshark?

 

[Dr von plutt]

Anyway, it´s much difficult to pirate a PSP than a DS (install custom firmware with probability of bricking it, newer versions require a pandora battery VS buy a card+miniSD and copy the games to it) so why DS software is selling and PSP it´s not? a

well pirates are usally males between 15-25.

Not exactly the ds demographic.

 

[AnimeTheme]

I think Sony may end up enabling the feature to allow "installing" the UMD game to Memory Stick (MS is cheap and common these days). The "Media Install" option on MHP2G can be a beginning. This should give less incentives to people to use CFW or pirate.

 

[Fafalada]

NDS piracy has been around, usable, widely available and whatever other tricky phrases you want to usefor just as long as PSP, and hell, with the GBA, people didn't even need to own the console to pirate the games!

I disagree. Prior to R4, cart solutions were complicated, involved multiple pieces of hardware, unreliable, and often not very compatible.
And R4 has definately not been widely available for more then a year, and certainly not widely KNOWN (as in well known to wider public then forum posters).

And bringing GBA up only supports point about piracy - it was a piracy heaven not unlike PSP, most software that was breaking even was doing so not because of selling well, but because it only needed tiny sales to offset very low development costs(average GBA title did not need to break 100k to break even).
NDS is in a completely different league with other handhelds as far as SW goes, it took less then 3 years to overtake GBA Lifetime attach rate, and by the time it's all done it may very well double it (with a higher HW LTD as well).

You mean there's no copy-protection on the disks?

Obviously CFW breaks the copy protection - if it didn't, we wouldn't have this "piracy heaven" thing on PSP.
Implementing per-title copy-protection is not particularly feasible due to the fact Sony doesn't allow developers kernel access - ironically for security reasons, of all things.

 

[Joe211]

Actually, I have custom firmware and I also own a copy of Astonishia Story. Perhaps we should be less worried about the correlation between custom firmware and piracy, and more concerned about the correlation between custom firmware and horrible taste in games...

You must be joking I mean do you realize that 99% of cfw users are pirating games?

CFW are opening the door to piracy that's a fact.

 

[lastendconductor]

NDS piracy has been usable(and widely available)

Wrong. GBA flashcarts have been able to run DS code (and that includes homebrew and pirated games as well) from almost the very start.

 

[Slavik81]

Obviously CFW breaks the copy protection - if it didn't, we wouldn't have this "piracy heaven" thing on PSP.
Implementing per-title copy-protection is not particularly feasible due to the fact Sony doesn't allow developers kernel access - ironically for security reasons, of all things.

So it's the same thing, but instead of just downloading the torrent, you need to buy a copy of the game, find software to break the copy-protection and then put it on your memory stick. On top of that, it's still illegal. There's a dis-insentive to buy the game because it's more difficult and more expensive and just as illegal if you want to get the same quality product. If you don't rip it to your memory stick, it's about on par in terms of difficulty, more expensive and not illegal, but the product is worse.

They should just offer you the ability to download every game. Make it a feature. Put every game online. Create a Steam-like service for the PSP. Every game is available on that service or in stores. PLUS! You would cut out retail and make larger margins.

Take away every excuse pirates have. Make sure that it's easier to buy the game than it is to pirate it. And make sure that the legal version is just as good as the illegal version.

 

[Fady K]

Ugh...those numbers are depressing...if it wasnt for the downloads maybe the PSP would have received another Castlevania.

 

[iapetus]

You must be joking I mean do you realize that 99% of cfw users are pirating games?

CFW are opening the door to piracy that's a fact.

No, I am deadly serious about the possibility of a link between installing custom firmware and buying Astonishia Stories. Proving such a link would no doubt be research worthy of the Nobel prize.

 

[Kingsora]

When I sse these numbers, I'm just wondering when the PSP will die.

Thanks to those people, developers don't want to make any games anymore for the PSP. Within a year I can throw my PSP in a garbage can, #@#$% Pirates...

 

[Kosma]

One of my best mates pirates ALL his PSP and DS games, but he buys all his 360 and Wii games original.

 

[M3d10n]

The PSP, unlike the PS2/Wii/360, never had "commercial piracy" (aka: "HK silvers"), which is rampant on most developing countries (and in certain developed countries as well). Pirates can't mass duplicate and sell pirated UMDs, Sony successfully prevented that from happening, at least.

So the majority of illegal games comes from the internet (and are copied to other PSPs at least thrice). Also, the internet is global, so a lot of those downloads probably came from "piracy-laden" countries (but we could only confirm this by checking the whole peer/seed IP lists).

As big (or bigger) than piracy, IMO, is the fact that a PSP owner doesn't need to feed their PSP with games as often to get entertainment from it, when compared to other consoles, due to the extensive media functions available (be the "media" legal or not - the PSP is a very attractive piece of hardware for people who pirate other forms of media, like anime, movies and music).

 

[PjotrStroganov]

So it's the same thing, but instead of just downloading the torrent, you need to buy a copy of the game, find software to break the copy-protection and then put it on your memory stick. On top of that, it's still illegal. There's a dis-insentive to buy the game because it's more difficult and more expensive and just as illegal if you want to get the same quality product. If you don't rip it to your memory stick, it's about on par in terms of difficulty, more expensive and not illegal, but the product is worse.

They should just offer you the ability to download every game. Make it a feature. Put every game online. Create a Steam-like service for the PSP. Every game is available on that service or in stores. PLUS! You would cut out retail and make larger margins.

Take away every excuse pirates have. Make sure that it's easier to buy the game than it is to pirate it. And make sure that the legal version is just as good as the illegal version.

Is it?

 

[Danj]

Is it?

If you live in a country with DMCA or EUCD or similar law, it is, because in order to copy the game off the disc, even if you legitimately own it, you have to break the encryption.

 

[Slavik81]

Is it?

Basically, yes. It's the most bullshit law I know of, but that's how things are.
You cannot legally decode any protection encryption or otherwise circumvent copy protection that they use, even if everything you're doing would otherwise be legal.

For example, making an entirely legal backup disk for a 360 game you bought would normally be totally legal (although the pirated 'backups' some unscrupulous people sell would still be illegal). However, because you'd need to circumvent the 360 disk's copy protection to make your entirely legal backup copy, it would be illegal to do so as a result of this law.

 

[joshcryer]

Surely you're tempted Dragona? I mean seriously.

Anyway, someone mentioned the PS3, and why it hasn't been hacked, they said it was because of Linux. Possibly, but more probably it's because they are supremely anal about hypervisor security. There have been exactly zero escalation vunerablities in the hypervisor (as opposed to 360), and for good reason. The hypervisor runs a kernel from microcode in the chip. No possiblity for bus eavesdropping, means you can't get the unique key to run code.

 

[Joe211]

When I sse these numbers, I'm just wondering when the PSP will die.

Thanks to those people, developers don't want to make any games anymore for the PSP. Within a year I can throw my PSP in a garbage can, #@#$% Pirates...

BS

 

[Fafalada]

Wrong. GBA flashcarts have been able to run DS code (and that includes homebrew and pirated games as well) from almost the very start.

I only followed things loosely but I remember issues with requiring pass-keys, incompatibilities and so on. Not to mention GBA flashcarts were always pricy, especially for their size

find software to break the copy-protection and then put it on your memory stick.

No, that step is done before you install Custom FW - ie. the only protection that is broken is that against running unsigned code on PSP on stock Firmware. Once you have custom Firmware on the machine, you use official Sony system functions to copy the disc, and official Sony ISO loader to run it.
The disc protection is never actually broken in the sense of CD-cracks or modchips. As for legality of running non-standard OS software on the machine, I honestly wouldn't know.

There's a dis-insentive to buy the game because it's more difficult and more expensive and just as illegal if you want to get the same quality product.

No, as I noted, the only difficult step is installing CFW, which is required in both cases. The only other difference is going to store as opposed to looking for a valid ISO online.

Take away every excuse pirates have. Make sure that it's easier to buy the game than it is to pirate it.

Of course - and Digital Distribution does exactly that - the problem is retailers aren't happy with the idea(and won't be anytime soon it seems), and they are still necessary to carry the hardware.

 

[jet1911]

people who pirate probably were never going to buy the game anyways.

Hey I'll steal this TV, I was never going to buy one anyway!"

 

[DubloSeven]

For all we know, each of those numbers could've been the result of one individual downloading the torrent file that many times.

You're on crack.