Everyone knows that piracy is an issue with the PSP. You might be asking youself why hasn’t Sony found a way to lock it down. The answer might be that after getting your money for the PSP, case, screen cover and memory card(s), they don’t care. They got the bulk of the cost out of the way, so plug it into your PS3 and play Pixel Junk Monsters.
Can this be true? Let’s find out.
One of our friends, Brian, over at Buttonmasher.co.nz got a chance during the amazing week that was E3 to sit down and talk to the President of Sony Europe, David Reeves. The conversation begins with some mutual butt kissing and then we get to the real questions. You might gag during the first minute or so of the interview. Stay the course, it gets better.
Reeves was asked why New Zealand (where Buttonmasher is located) received games sometimes months after countries like America. After describing that the quality would be less if they shipped the US version, since NZ uses the PAL video format, he lets something slip.
“We’re going to do it in PAL, we’re going to do it properly. You can wait for it and you can have it in good quality. You can get the stuff from bittorrent if you want to…download PSP games. It’s up to you.”
I know Sony would never advocate the piracy of one of their systems, but they know it happens. Brian says in his article, “as prices remain high with continuing delays importing (piracy) will only prove more and more tempting.” If you don’t live in New Zealand, what’s your excuse?
Something about the way Reeves casually said that you should do it, just seemed a little odd. I understand that he was trying to sympathize with the plight of the Kiwi’s, but that doesn’t seem like someone with his pay grade would say. Telling them exactly where to go to get pirated games wasn’t too smart either. Maybe he should post “How To Pimp Your PSP” on his personal blog for all to see.
It leads me to believe that Sony doesn’t fear piracy, or believe that it’s hurting the PSP. I mean losing Ready At Dawn as a PSP game developer wasn’t a big deal right? Maybe he was just kidding with Brian… Who knows.
Here’s what we do know. If you are caught pirating the PSP, the consequences are severe. We’ve heard that Sony will you to Atari with Phil Harrison to wallow in your Alone in the Dark shame until you’ve learned your lesson.
Okay, I made that up.
You can go check our the complete recording of the interview at Buttonmasher.co.nz
Source Buttonmasher
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Captain DDL // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:17 am
I don’t know anybody who has a PSP that hasn’t hacked it to put classic emulators on it.
2 Test // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:18 am
What Captain said.
3 Keith K // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:29 am
No, losing Ready at Dawn wasnt a big deal. They said GoW sold great and quantified the proportional relationship between quality and sales.
They didnt want to develop for PSP anymore, they wanted to move on. I really don’t understand what one has to do with the other.
You live in one of the smallest, most obscure countries in the world. Just import and shut up.
4 A Test Subject // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:45 am
Relevant comment with humorous undertone
5 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // Jul 29, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Hey, David Reeves says something he probably shouldn’t have… oh yeah, it’s Tuesday. I guess we were due… somebody needs to muzzle that jackass.
6 Eddiemilz // Jul 29, 2008 at 1:23 pm
strange. i thought sony would haaaaate the immense amount of piracy that happens on their console.
7 Kiltman67 // Jul 29, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Not sure how to feel about this. On one side I’m glad to see an industry person treat piracy as anything other then evil but at the same time does make me wonder if it’s just further evidence of Sony giving up on the PSP. Wonder if he’d be as happy to see New Zealanders heading onto Pirate Bay for the latest PS3 game.
8 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // Jul 29, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Kiltman67: How in the hell else is a person in the gaming industry supposed to treat piracy? It IS evil to them… it’s stealing money from the pockets of people that work in the industry. To think it’s not is silly. Now I’m not proposing every dollar or title pirated is a dollar earned or title sold if there were no piracy, but there is NO plus to piracy from a developer’s point of view.
David Reeves is an idiot that likes to see his name in the media… I’m probably not going to be convinced of much else until pigs start flying and he, you know, does a whole bunch of stuff that would seem to align with positive business practices related to the company and industry he works in. He’s the kind of guy you wished worked at your competition!
9 Kiltman67 // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:22 pm
There are pluses to piracy in cases where it allows gamers to try games (or genres) that they’re not sure about but there’s no demos to try. Once they try for free they know if they want to buy it or not. It’s the same as people who download albums and if they like them, they go out and buy a copy.
In much the same way that not all people with cracked firmware or DS homebrew carts want them for pirate games, not all people who download pirate games are “thieves”.
Of course there’s also the question of extra buzz being generated for a game by the fact some people have “advanced” copies.
The point I’m making is that their perception of piracy as an evil is misguided. I can see it’s bad for the bottom line, but it’s not without merit, and, as the music industry has reluctantly realised over the past few years, it can spur valuable changes.
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