In an interview with Siliconera, Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, talks about how piracy has impacted the PSP:
Q: The PSP has a strong line-up of Japanese series including Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, and Persona. While the handheld is thriving over there, in America the PSP seems to be struggling even though those games are coming over here. What do you think is the missing element, aside from trains.
A: "You know, we have sold 66 million worldwide. There is a big install base of PSP owners here. I think one of the things that have limited the business that I didn’t talk about in the room earlier, but which is a reality is piracy. That has limited a publisher’s ability to make money on the platform because it is a hacked platform. There is a lot of piracy, I’m sure you’re familiar with some of what’s going on. If you aren’t, you can find sites selling pirated games.
That’s something we’ve been trying to combat for awhile, but that’s not the only reason. It’s now in its sixth year and it’s typical for these devices to migrate down in age, so that’s where our focus is."
You can read the rest of the interview here. Other topics discussed include Move, No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise, and lots of other Sony-related stuff.
Comments
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
Lets see, the PSP here is dwarfed compared to the Japanese one. No US based Ad Hoc-Party. Games that are infrastructer and Ad-Hoc can be played through the PS3 with Ad-Hoc party. Also Many of their Infrastructure games are Ad-Hoc only here only limiting its multiplayer capabilities...and much much more. PSP had and still has potential but they are treating the US market like crap.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
What are you talking about? I play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker through adhoc party on my ps3 all the time? I'm in Pennsylvania, a place that is very much in the USA. Adhoc Party for usa exists. Go download it for your ps3 at your earliest convienience.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
I have a PSP and it was probably the lamest purchase I ever made. There is nothing good in it, it is a worthless platform and I have never pirated a game on it.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
What are you talking about? Did you even buy a game, or maybe use it. I hope you're not a Nintendo fanboy and trolling around. Look I have a PSP and I use a lot for many purposes not only for game. I used it to read comic via digital comic reader, listening to podcast. Could you give me one good reason what the PSP fail on you.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
My PSP was replaced by my iphone. When I got my psp, I immediately bought 5 to 7 games or so. After beating those I started looking for different games than the 5 or 7, unfortunately for me, I didn't find anything that was very appealing. Of course I guess what you use the psp for or where would become more to play here. I used the psp when I wasn't near a computer or my consoles,(why else would someone choose a smaller screen and less game play). Well this became even more limited because I didn't want to carry anything very big with me at all times. So once I got my iphone, it replaced the portability part of a game system and cheaper.
Now to say that piracy costs the platform from getting more games. It probably does, it costs the PC from getting a lot of games that are console only. However there is some pirating console games too and I don't see anyone not making 360 or ps3 games.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
I'm not sure what kinds of games you like but I've owned a PSP since 2007 and recently bought a second and I have over 40 games most of which I do revisit constantly. Hell between the 3 Monster Hunter titles alone I have over 1800 hours spent with the PSP.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
Piracy is a pretty big deal with the PSP. It has probably helped to sell units. Is that really the reason that developers are squeemish about making games for the PSP though? Or would they rather just concentrate on the DS's larger installed userbase?
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
You know why I don't own a PSP? It's fairly simple. There aren't enough games I like on it to justify buying one.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
I don't know about piracy being that much of an issue. There's plenty of piracy on the DS, and it hasn't seemed to effect sales that much.
Re: SCEA's Peter Dille on PSP Piracy Problems
Exactly. Piracy is super easy on the DS and many people do it yet the system still enjoys being the sales leader in the portable market, beating the PSP and also being as old as the PSP.
They have the inferior platform and they are blaming it on piracy. Piracy is the big content scape goat, "Why is our product doing poorly? Umm, its not my fault, PIRACY made it fail."
Stop trotting that out everytime you screw up.