PSP Piracy is Trending Up, Despite Sony’s Claims
Written by Ernesto on December 22, 2008Sony claims that there is a downward trend for pirated PSP games, and that more people are handing over money for games, to join what the company calls “the good side”. It is unclear where Sony sourced this data, but statistics gathered from BitTorrent trackers show an increase in PSP piracy.
Filesharing, in all its forms, has been growing steadily for quite a few years now, much of which can be credited to the ever increasing popularity of BitTorrent. It was therefore a surprise to read that Sony claims that the number of downloads for pirated PSP games was going down.
Sony’s PSP Product Manager John Koller told Multiplayer recently “[There] certainly has been some piracy on the PSP. We’ve seen that as a significant issue — it’s trending down right now, we’ve seen the piracy not be as such prevalent in the last month to two months”
According to Koller, more and more PSP users are joining the “good side” and standing up for the intellectual property rights of the company. “We’ve noticed there’s kind of a ‘good vs. evil’ battle that we track on many of the forums and many of the pirated web sites,” he said. “There are certainly people that are standing up and fighting for what we consider the good side, the rights of developers and publishers to make money on their IP.”
To verify this assesment, we decided to take a look at the piracy rate of PSP games. This data, based on direct monitoring of BitTorrent trackers seems to contradict Sony’s statements. From our statistics, there seems to be an increase instead of a decrease in the past months, which is true for all content. There is a steady increase in downloads for PSP games throughout 2008, and an even steeper one over the last three months.
To give an example of the piracy rate of PSP games, Dissidia: Final Fantasy was downloaded 200,000 times via BitTorrent over the past 5 days, which is pretty significant for a PSP game. The two most pirated games for the PSP in 2008 were Final Fantasy VII and GTA Vice City Stories, with an estimated 650,000 and 550,000 downloads. As a comparison, the average PSP game sells 133,000 copies. We’re curious where Sony got their statistics, perhaps it was just a PR stunt, to give pirates a guilty conscience.
Despite the increase in pirated downloads, for other types of games, more units were sold November this year compared to the same month in 2007, adding up to an impressive $4 billion in sales.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: Will Hollywood be the Next Bailout Candidate?
72 Responses
"The good side"? Of course, they mean the MAFIAA supporter side. We should all boycott Sony. This, of course is a good sign: those leeches ought to lose money. To support the MAFIAA is to support their idea of turning the internet into a police state, and destroying freedom of culture. It is indeed a "good vs. evil battle" – but they, of course, stand for evil. Whether or not it is true that many people are fighting for the evil side, the fact stands that many more should fight for the good side. Consumers need to start to fight for the good side, en masse.
a freetard calling a paying costumer a "leech" is always good for a laugh.
You would also be funny, if your opinion was not so destructive.
& his name is stfu as he doesn't no when to stfu although he is paid to push the social engineering that sharing is bad & you all should kneel before him & his elitist employers.
Poor stfu got his ego bruised again awwwww =0)
Thanks again for the geek rage & your blind views they're great for a laugh as always.
I belive that if they sold their games for a reasonable price then they would have more sales. But the format the games come in is dum. And the games have lots of drm and stuff. They should just sell games with instruction booklets on how to backup their games onto a pc. Lol. But i dont buy sony. Cause anything made by sony might have viruses on it. And i preferr to stick with a patched fixed and pirated sony product to reduce my risk of virus infection. Allso i do not support people who make viruses/spyware and file mass lawsuits against people. I do not support companys that try and say they own thought and thouth patterns etc. Hello i can think what i want and its my mind and in my mind i can do what i want and if anyone wants to stop me im gona punch them in the face for being a moron with no brain. Sony is EVIL, aple is EVIL, microsoft is EVIL, google is EVIL.
We gota stop google and their google analytics thats installed on servers omg!!! the servers even forward information on, aparently you can not block google syndication because most servers have google software installed that forwards on our internet usage!!!. omg!!! serverside omfg!!!!
Indeed, copyright is fundamentally privacy-invading. When there is any idea that people "own ideas" – the fact is that ideas are mere thoughts, and how could you police the ownership of ideas through anything other than thought police? The idea of the ownership of ideas itself, that a certain "owner" should control what everyone else does with a certain idea or thought, is nothing less than the destruction of the most fundamental freedoms: freedom of thought, freedom of speech. To enforce it is to establish nothing less than the equivalent of a Gestapo. And that is exactly what the MAFIAA wants: to establish a MAFIAA Gestapo.
"We’ve noticed there’s kind of a ‘good vs. evil’ battle"
And which side exactly is the evil one?
Lets not be toooo kind and forget our friends at Sony and their pretty rootkit just a little while back, took them a while to own up to the fact and what did they do once they did own up to it? pretend to remove it from the clients machine but update it instead of remove it.
Then after they were caught again what did they do? make the client jump hoops to try to remove it, to this date there are machines out there infected with this rootkit and viruses that took advantage of this rootkit.
To their credit… they are not as evil as Apple, but thats not saying much.
(Sorry fanbois.)
Of course, one amongst a long series of attempts to turn the internet into a police state. Copyright, the ownership of "ideas" or thoughts, and the ability for an "owner" to control a certain thought for everybody else, is a kind of thought police (how could it not be, when it regulates ideas and thoughts themselves?), that people are slow to realize is actually thought policing. It is a way for the industry to thought police everyone without realizing how bad it is. Well, I say, it is time for everybody to wake up, realize what they are doing, and stop them.
Roze i know what you are getting at, but I don't think everything on the net should be free. What im talkin about is comin up with new ways in generating income while embracing new technology such as bittorrent. With music there is a bit more room to maneuver as artists make most of their money from touring, however with games and films the solutions are even more difficult. If no-one bought legitimate software and no new revenue ideas were thought up then having a "victory" of the MAFIAA would ultimately be a hollow one… creativity would suffer to some degree.
The entertainment industry doesnt know how to embrace new technology and doesnt want a successful decades long business model to have to change – thats why they are so unnecessarily heavy-handed. They can't deal with it.
But its up to file-sharers, bloggers, webmasters, filmakers etc to show and try out new ways of utilising the technology for both the benefits of consumers and the developers.
If the record industry had anything that was even remotely close to how amazing what.cd is I'd happily pay for it if was a realistic amount!
I agree. The music, movie and game industry needs to wake up and embrace these wonderful new technologies that arise instead of continuing on with years-old business models.
Actually, it means a lot. They are still the MAFIAA, trying to impose a police state on the internet.
1. Actually, it is not entirely different.
2. Yes, they did.
3. Yes, they do. They claim to own copyright, which is essentially "ownership" of ideas or thoughts.
4. What the hell? You don't agree with freedom of thought?
Your attitude is really pathetic. One ought to rebel against a MAFIAA Gestapo. Don't pretend that the MAFIAA is not trying to turn the internet into a police state. When they claim ownership of thoughts or ideas (i. e. copyright), enforcing control over such thoughts or ideas is tantamount to thought police. People should be able to do what they want with ideas either in their head, or in their computers, whether it is fictional characters, or computer software, and that just the basic freedom of thought and freedom of speech.
Isn't the answer already there? For movies, people still go to theatres (but only AFTER the MAFIAA has stopped trying to turn the internet into a police state), for software, it is for commercial business usage of software (for personal usage, it should be free, and free to modify), and for games, same thing (i. e. for commercial usage of games). There will be commercial usages, and non-commercial usages for anything, and the commercial usages are the usages that can pay them.
Given this, there is no reason why the MAFIAA whatsoever should desire right now to impose such a police state on the internet, policing the non-commercial usage of a mere idea or thought.
He isn't sticking up for them u tard. Hes saying what is wrong with the system
But ..but but it so fun to be on the …dark side
It's the only reason I still own a PSP :)
what do u mean commercial usage of games? internet cafes? south korean mmorpg farmers? :P
nothings gonna change unless the industry can benefit from change too. Thats what you need to look at roze. theyre not gonna embrace any type of p2p, CC/open source software unless there is somethin in it for them too.
And until there is something in it for them theyll keep fighting against it and keep trying to censor the internet in order to preserve their business model.
Also Roze: the MPAA and similar organisations are not business they are classed as not-for-profit.
"what do u mean commercial usage of games? internet cafes? south korean mmorpg farmers?"
Yes, yes, whatever they can think up. Things like festivals, events, &c. The fact is that they still retain rights to use it commercially. Therefore, they can use it commercially (or, other people can use it commercially for them), to make money.
Moreover, you think that the industry support is so important. No, it isn't. Popular support is more important. In democratic countries where copyright law most abounds, the popular support is the most important thing.
How is PSP piracy trending up? I thought that they were on special 'mini-discs' that most burning software has a hell of a time burning.
i may be wrong but as far as im aware the games are stored on memory cards
if u want your big name games, films etc to come out then id argue that their support is vital. Ideally what i would the MAFIAA to say is "If you can't beat them, join them" however, with the way things are at the moment that seems incredibly far off.
In actuality, the MAFIAA is a business, simple as that. The fact is that the law itself is the problem. If the law would change, then MAFIAA would be forced to change their business practices to ones that do not require turning the internet into a police state, if they would want to keep on making money. The only reason why the MAFIAA is not adapting with the times is simple: because the law permits them. The way to change the law is through the popular will, not through the will of businesses.
Business is the law, unless you live in some 3rd world country or are completely oblivious to the real world. It matters not who you vote for, because those who have the real power are unelected. You can attempt to change the law till you are blue in the face, it will make no difference because business funds government and government supports business. You are just the cash cow wating to be milked. The entire system is one big back scratching excercise where you dont even get a look in. Government is only cares about your opinion if you are a contributing member of society, a tax payer, a consumer of one sort or another. You only have the illusion of choice, the end result of each is to consume and as long as you are consuming they own you, wether you like it or not, whether you believe it to be true or not, you are sheeple.
"Business is law" sounds like what the tabacoo industry wants.
I mean, "popular support to change the laws." Laws change due to popular support. The industry can only meddle with what the population has no feelings/opinion about.
However, they represent business. Business/industry trade groups are not so powerful: the people are, in a democratic nation.
Even if it did kill the PSP, how would the loss of sony be any big loss? Remember: they are part of the ones pushing the idea of the ownership of ideas and thoughts, wanting to control what other people do with these thoughts, and are pushing for a MAFIAA Gestapo essentially to turn the internet into a police state to police those thoughts.
Wow, you've outdone yourself this time. How anyone be so thick is amazing.
1. Sony has never released products with virii (they released code which acts as a rootkit which is entirely different)
2. Sony has never released viruses or spyware.
3. Sony has never claimed to own thoughts in your head. (man your stupid)
4. Telling us you can think what you like is stupid – although your obviously pretty unintelligent although you don't like to think so.
5. Google analytics is very easy to stop but only an idiot would refer to it as evil.
You sound like your adolescent hormones are out of control and the try hard rebellious attitude is really pathetic because you haven't worked out that claiming you can do what you like and no one's going to stop you and it makes you write stupid things because your futile adolescent rage takes over.
Really, no one here is fooled: a year 9 student really knows nothing about anything and your posts prove it.
Anyone not notice that the anti-P2P trolls seemed to invade all the P2P sites simultaneously?
Is it not obvious who might be behind it?
If the entertainment industry is willing to pay $millions to goons like MediaDefender to spread FAKE files and DoS-attack torrent sites, why does anyone believe they won’t be paying people to write FAKE comments and sabotage P2P discussion sites in the same manner?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare
You don't realize that many nations such as the United States are democratic. Business interests do not have their way all the time, if the people oppose it. When business step out of their bounds, and commit injustice, people do, in fact, have the power to right this wrong.
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“The two most pirated games for the PSP in 2008 were CRISIS CORE: Final Fantasy VII and GTA Vice City Stories, with an estimated 650,000 and 550,000 downloads.”
There, I (probably) fixed it for you.
But yeah, those games probably have the same numbers in sales (if my memory serves me correct).
But to be more on the subject, I feel a little ambivalence on the PSP piracy as it clearly kills the developers… Ready at Dawn, a studio who made the wonderful God of War: CoO for PSP left the PSP game industry a while ago because they felt the piracy was too great, i.e. many just downloaded their games so RaD didn’t get enough money to finance the development.
That saying, I only buy the games I find worthy my money =P
Like Crisis Core.
I download PSP games simply because I can't afford to buy new games.
Video Games all formats are expensive = FAIL then people turn to piracy. These companies need to wake up.
It is indeed in the OP ("those leeches ought to lose money"), but is used to refer to Sony and the RIAA, not paying customers as IPinion seems to think
You seem to have trouble differentiating organized crime with organizations trying to change the law to their benefit. They are indeed two completely different thing; that they use similar tactics means little.
You seem to have trouble differentiating organized crime with organizations trying to change the law to their benefit. They are indeed two completely different things; that they use similar tactics means little.
The only sheeple here are you & your employers
hahahahaahahaha
Maybe it's because software-wise, the PSP sucks? I mean, they managed to make a shitty Ratchet & Clank game, which they then ported to the PS2 and in the process made it even worse. I didn't even know that was physically possible.
I bet they are assuming increased sales mean decreased piracy.
Somewhere in torrentfreak land a village is missing its idiot, he's easily spotted, he thinks everone is a plant and never says anything of interest. If you happen to see him, please returm him to the nearest special needs school, his parents are worried sick.
Somewhere in torrentfreak land a village is missing its idiot, he's easily spotted, he thinks everone is a plant and never says anything of interest. If you happen to see him, please return him to the nearest special needs school, his parents are worried sick.
Guilty conscience? For Sonny? LOL That's a rich one.
ET, go home.
well, like the article says, when software sales goes down, hardware sales goes up.. kinda stupid of sony not releasing a SDK since the PSP would pwn everything if they did….
so its stupid of sony supporting the MAFIAA since they only loose from it… or are they just very ignorant and thing they can have both good software AND hardware sales…
There are less downloads because sony releases no new games
Roze stop posting and gb210ch, srsly.
I actually feel sad for the way piracy is killing the PSP… I feel very different about gaming than i do movies tv or music which i dont give a shit about.
Of course this post is made by Roze who recently posted (to paraphrase) that he can't be bothered doing anything about the laws because no one else is. ROFL.
Roze: "Moreover, you think that the industry support is so important. No, it isn't. Popular support is more important."
That doesn't even make sense. People only support content that they get something out of not content they don't like. By supporting content producers you are supporting the industry. Popular support = industry support so hope can it be way more important.
Erm… did you not notice that the article contained the infomation that downloads have been increasing?
Roze gets a lot of criticism but they make needed points…
On a not-so-related note, I don’t see why PSP development is halted by piracy. Nintendo DS games got pirated too, and they got pirated more than PSP games based on the numbers of seeding and leeching of the top games on both system in Mininova.
The only reason I could possibly explain is NDS games are ways cheaper than PSP. That could explain why they are more popular and people actually go out and buy it.
So simply being unable to purchase some software, and maybe downloading it for free instead is 'evil' now? So much for the filesharers heaven, looks like it's actually hell.
Nice one B.
And threatening civilians with lawsuits and stealing tens of thousands of <insert currency here> from them is 'good'? I'd rather be evil, thanks.
Mwuhahahaha. *fiery background and screams of anguish*
Your opinion might count, should you learn to read.
kthxbai
where the fuck did you find the word leach? Idiot
This, of course is a good sign: those leeches ought to lose money. To support the MAFIAA is to support their idea of turning the internet into a police state, and destroying freedom of culture. It is indeed a "good vs. evil battle" – but they, of course, stand for evil. Whether or not it is true that many people are fighting for the evil side, the fact stands that many more should fight for the good side. Consumers need to start to fight for the good side, en masse.
__________________________
http://tinyurl.com/4rdhmc
Roze you lose all credibility in your comments because you sound like a drugged up loon. you keep repeating yourself and its boring. It would be nice if you could leave a response without using the word gestapo or mafiaa. You sound like a kid.
I'm not a fan of the way the entertainment industry conducts itself, but all you are doing is making everyone who loves file-sharing and who wants an overhaul of digital distribution, look like crazed idiots. Calm down.
Why don't u do something about it if you're so passionate about it. Flaming the RIAA and MPAA on TorrentFreak aint exactly gonna get you anywhere…
Is there anything inaccurate with the term "MAFIAA"? After all, you should know about all the recent measures that the MAFIAA has taken is very much in the spirit of turning the internet into a police state. After all, there are proposals for three strikes policies, privacy invasions, harsher penalties, and all sorts of stuff like that. How could this be anything other than despotism? Perhaps you should pay more attention to what the MAFIAA is doing. The fact is that it is no exaggeration to say that copyright has simply gone insane through the last few years.
It would not matter how much I do, if nobody else would do anything. The fact is that I perhaps can do many things, but it would be quite meaningless if there are not other people doing the same.
Yeh I agree, if they do pressurise or legally force ISPs to check and be responsible for every data packet sent over the net (even though its not possible?!) then it really would be the beginning of the end of the internet as we know it.
It would be the single biggest invasion of privacy the world has ever known, and just because these multi-million/billion dollar companies have huge resources and they own the Intellectual Property rights to most popular media DOES NOT mean they should have the right to dictate how the internet is run and policed in order to further its own business model.
That is the thing that really pisses me off, the internet is great as it is. Its time for the entertainment industry to embrace it. There are plenty of potential new ways to generate income, the EFF has lots of examples of this:
http://www.eff.org/wp/better-way-forward-voluntar...
What I actually think he is saying is that at the moment we've got bugger all influence because file-sharers are apathetic and anonymous. The people with power at the moment are the big businesses with big bucks.
We've got no chance of changing anything at the moment because no-one is doing anything proactive to change the status quo. I honestly think BT is amazing but until someone gives a face (figuratively) to the "evil" "stealing" file-sharer then the general public perception of us, and the potential of bittorrent technology will always continue to be negative.
I am confused who you are talking about when you say "he," since that pronoun is ambiguous, but I do agree that the apathy is what is causing this lack of influence by file-sharers.
I think that the public perception is very important, but since the people who are already into file-sharing already have a positive view of file-sharing, I think that it is up to the people within file-sharing to give it a positive public image. The apathy is thus something to overcome, but I think that they can do good, since they are numerous – the only thing to do is to remind them why it is important not merely to be concerned with oneself but also to care about the law. Specifically, one thing that file-sharers can do is to introduce family and friends to file-sharing, and for file-sharers to tell their family and friends why it is bad to support the MAFIAA.
I was talking about stfu.
Roze I agree 100% with u there, and it is a lot better hearing your thoughts rather than the gestapo this, and evil MAFIAA that.
From what i've seen, Sweden has a brilliant attitude towards file-sharing in public and in parliament. Maybe im wrong, but the people there seem far less apathetic and more open and engaged in IP rights than elsewhere, i don't know why public awareness is more switched on there but perhaps we could learn something from them?
There was a TorrentFreak article about it already:
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-parties-civil-righ...
I think that the reason why they care so much, and why they have bothered to unite and become active, and why there is an active Piratbyran, and so on, is essentially due to the fact that they realize how important file-sharing is to society, not merely themselves, and that copyright itself is a threat to some basic civil rights such as the right to privacy. The final answer is that I do not know why: this is something to figure out.
There was a TorrentFreak article about it already:
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-parties-civil-righ...
I think that the reason why they care so much, and why they have bothered to unite and become active, and why there is an active Piratbyran, and so on, is essentially due to the fact that they realize how important file-sharing is to society, not merely themselves, and that copyright itself is a threat to some basic civil rights such as the right to privacy. The final answer is that I do not know why: this is something for me to figure out.
stfu stfu
Binsy, the main reason why sharing is deemed stealing is cause the mafiaa put a capitalist law in to place to make artists think they were protecting the artists work when they actually market it to the channels that have paid them the most money, artists are seen as product not human. File sharers stay anonymous so they are not prosecuted buy that farcical law, so in actual fact that law has to be abolished.
If we were to establish a party to try & change law we would be prosecuted by the the capitalists to generate even more funds for their so called cause. As Roze says below, we need to educate family & friends about the mafiaa, copywrong & file sharing to starve them of funds,without money they will not have millions of dollars to spend on lawyers to lie for them, only then can we organize into a file sharing party & battle on the same level to have them abolished & put the artists back in control of their art.
No, you forget that we live in a democratic government. Neither the industry, nor the file-sharers, nor the developers/artists determine the law. The popular will does, even if it does so indirectly. THEREFORE: it is important to get the POPULAR OPINION on side, for this is the way by which the law can be changed. That is what is most important.
Yeah, you'd be right. You need custom firmware to run it, though.
I have custom firmware on my PSP, but I don't use it to pirate UMD's. Why? Because most of the games being put out on the PSP today aren't worth the bandwidth. Loco Roco 2, the GTA games and Final Fantasy are the only ones really worth it. I use mine mostly to emulate retro consoles such as the NES, Megadrive, the Scumm engine (for point 'n' clicks) and the Gameboys. The PSP is possibly one of the best development platforms out there. You can even run Windows on it, with the right emulators, and Sony completely ignore the talent of these amateur developers and attempt to stop them with firmware updates.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone.
Oh god, whats with the tinfoil-hat people here in the comments section!?
Binsy said it right: You sound like a bunch of drugged up loons!
What I find funny is how Sony ACTUALLY THOUGHT they could be smarter than us and put the new 88 and 90 motherboards in the new PSP's including the Madden edition and the 3000 series… haha little did they know the new boards in the madden edition made it easier to make a pandora .. 1 for us, 0 for them ;)
I personally believe the best way is to try and get the developers/artists on side. Its slooooooowly happening with music with numerous artists releasing their new material on file-sharing networks but I dont know if it will hit the mainstream with the current situation.
If you could get the artists on side there would be no need for the money grabbing middle men in the first place.
Do you know what social engineering is, go look it up. One of the things wrong with this system is tools like stfu trolling blogs pushing their social engineering, just goes to show how how blind he is by saying you have to conform to be noticed by the government. BT doesn't conform & its got the governments of the world attention thanks to the corporations like stfus employers (mpaa/riaa) leaning on them & throwing all their money around thinking their still the grand noise manipulators they were in yesteryears.
Thanks for sticking up for him Binsy, but we all know what's wrong with the system.
i don't think everyone is a plant stfu, just YOU, go & get a real job.
hhahhahahahahaha
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