It’s easy to pirate PSP games, that much we know. But what’s debatable is to the extent that it’s killing, or has already killed, the system. Fifty million PSPs have been sold thus far, yet Sony insists that the “sickening” rate of software piracy has “has taken out a big chunk of [its] software sales.”
It’s like this: Sony isn’t too please with the sale of PSP software, which it blames on wanton piracy. The company monitors BitTorrent sites and the like, it told Gamusutra, and sees how its big releases, including Resistance, are being snatched thousands of times over as soon as they hit store shelves, if not sooner. (Never mind other sources of pirated games, like harder to track “private” BitTorrent sites, Usenet, etc.) So Sony’s argument here is, yeah, piracy is killing us, and game development in general.
But what if PSP games just aren’t that good? How many PSP games have you bought that you later regretted buying? A sort of, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. (As I type this, that dumb GameFly commercial where everybody yells is airing on the Fox Soccer Channel. “Tired of buying bad games?!”)
I don’t know. It’s so hard to accurately measure piracy that I have a difficult time conceptualizing the degree of damage it does.
Photo: Flickr
Piracy didn’t kill the PSP.
Crappy games, and half baked hardware killed the PSP.
If Sony had listened to every critic out there, and slapped another nub on the PSP, I think the story of the PSP would be different.
I bought a PSP about a year ago. Bought a total of 6 games for it since then and they are all collecting dust. But I have purchased almost 3 dozen games for my DS and continue to go back and replay my favorites. It’s not the hardware, it’s the games. Even the same games on both platforms are vastly different (for me it was Sims 2… DS version was fun, PSP version was ponderous).
I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t like the DS either.
I’m not too pleased with the state of portable gaming these days.
I find the PSP very useful for taking videos (tv series, movies) on the go, on my frequent business trips. Light and portable, easy to load, good resolution, etc. Ever so often I purchase a game I really want; the problem here is that PSP games are too expensive (same or little less than other platform games or even PC games) and generally are of a lesser quality. But still, I think PSP is a good investment if you often have time to kill.
Like WSFM stated, PSP games are simply WAY too expensive. I disagree with Nate and Dave however, I think certain games are definitely worth buying. And the beauty of it is, they are honest to god games. DS has a ton of fun cute games, like Super Mario Bros. but the PSP has games like Resistance, God of War, and Final Fantasy 7. The PSP also has games like Burnout, and Midnight Club, both incredibly fun racing games. Not to mention Tony Hawks Underground 2: Remix. My honest to god favorite skating game, its old but it nails everything perfectly.
The thing is, the PSP has phenomenal games. But they are the type of games that you would have to really sit down and play for a few hours at home of whatnot. Its not a little, “Oh! I’m going to pick up my DS and solve a puzzle on the bus ride to work.” type handheld. Its a real gamers handheld.
I’m not saying there aren’t any good games. There aren’t enough of them, though.
i dont think its piracy that killed the psp, considering the ds is also a victim with the whole “r4″ thing out there, its actually a lot easier for ds users to pirate these games. but the ds is still successful. its basically how crappy the selection is, kinda like ps3 vs xbox or wii, but the wii sucks either way.
Well I would have a very hard time finding anyone who has purchased a DS game. They all seem to be downloaded and it is made so easy with devices like Edge etc.
The PSP hardware is good, much better than the DS & DSi, but game selection and cost does count on the overall package of the device.
I’d say the homebrew that came with the PSP was something that contributed in how little games they sold. Anyone I know with a PSP ended up hacking it to run SNES/Megadrive emulators for Mario Kart or Sonic.
They just needed to make an app market for it, and then they could have made a killing out of it, but they chose to distribute on disk media and ruined it.
Piracy if anything helped hardware sales of the PSP. But no one is buying games because quite frankly they suck. Sure there are a few gems design for the system, but the are few and far between. The controller scheme is also horrid. There should have been two nubs and they should have had a much better feel.
Sony should seriously trash it and introduce the PSP2 already.
Ive heard this all before.
Replace games with music and Sony with RIAA.
HOW MUCH IS IT
ITS 1.00
how much thos a psp cost
I own a grand total of two PSP games, both of which I rented first and then bought from gamefly which is pretty much the way I navigate through PSP games, not to mention console games. What’s nice with gamefly is that you can also rent PSP movies cause really, are people really buying those? It’s great for travel, etc… but I just can’t see myself wanting to own a library.
While I’m not a game designer I do work in design and I’m a strong opponent of piracy so renting is an alternative that’s a happy medium and more people ought to follow suit as I suspect most PSP owners also most likely own a console.
Contrary to what some might think, gamefly actually helps the industry buying up a steady supply of games at launch, selling them and, as would be obvious… they need to continually replenish their supply due to game wear and tear, damage, theft, etc… While they aren’t single handedly keeping the industry afloat they aren’t hurting it either and those of us who know better than to shell out the big retail bucks on mediocre games can still cycle through them all and separate the good from the bad with a minimal investment.