John-ShepardPiracy has been an issue in the video game world for quite some time, and we certainly don't condone the practice. Developers and publishers work very hard to deliver their products to the marketplace, and the proper way to reward such efforts is to pay the price of admission. Even so, this doesn't stop the problem, and Square-Enix has voiced their concerns.
According to Final Fantasy Union , Dissidia: Final Fantasy director Takeshi Arakawa has spoken out about the handheld piracy issue that has been running rampant in both Japan and North America. While he's definitely "worried," he still thinks that it becomes a non-issue if they can produce a game that the true gamer really wants to own. Said Arakawa:
"We are really worried about this issue [piracy]… extremely worried.
The issue of piracy is quite concerning on PS as well and our basic stance is that it’s unfortunate, but what’s been done has been done and we can’t do much about it. We want to stick to a policy of making a game that the player would be proud of owning, so even if you play the pirated version, the game should be good enough to convince them that they should purchase the game. So long as we manage to do that, the issue doesn’t really exist."
Thankfully, Dissidia has managed to near the 1 million sales plateau, and Arakawa attributes this to two reasons: firstly, the game released over the Christmas holiday in Japan, and secondly, the hardcore FF fans will always respond to most any installment in the legendary series (even if it's a significant departure from the role-playing format, as Dissidia is). But even so, piracy remains a concern for all major publishers out there, and it's an unfortunate occurrence in the industry.
"secondly, the hardcore FF fans will always respond to most any installment in the legendary series"
Eh, egotistical much…reminds me of the halo series and how Halo Wars was expected to sell tons just because it was Halo…but I guess final fantasy does have a bigger franchise/dynasty…and those japs do love that FF, and so do we 🙂
Yeah, and RTS on a console does nowhere near as well as a fighter.
Piracy is a problem in Japan? Well, they better tell all those millions who bought Monster Hunter on PSP about that. Seems like the whole piracy thing that's rampant might be a touch less rampant in Japan, at least judging by the sales of other major PSP games. Perhaps if SquEnix were focused more on making a killer game instead of other matters, they could emulate the success of Monster Hunter?
Seriously though, the THEFT (piracy) of games is a major problem – especially in the West. People who do it – for whatever excuse laden reason they choose – should be ashamed. After all, they are thieves. If you want something, save up and fraking well buy it you free-loading thieves.
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I don't think piracy is that big an issue for the PSP. The developers just need to make the right games. Too many people are trying to port PS2 games to the PSP. Games like those take forever to play. RPG games are awesome on the portable console. Take a train the morning, level your character up a couple times, then go to school.
I don't think Monster Hunter is affected by this. Most developers just lack creativities to do it right.
Piracy is a MASSIVE issue for the PSP. Go look on a torrent site to see how many tens of thousands of people are downloading. It's really hurting the handheld.
I agree. Piracy is a HUGE problem, especially stateside. too many *cough* kids *cough* know just enough to be dangerous, i.e. they know how to get a pirated game to work, but their maturity level isn't high enough to realize that it's a terrible practice that will eventually bight them in the ass.
I remember this discussion was big on a site that has downloads for CFW (custom firmware) installs. Of course you have about 70% of that community swearing that piracy is 'no big deal'. Then you have your 'but I buy the games I really like' folk. I read somewhere that GTA chinatown wars flopped as a result of piracy. Something like 300k units sold and over 1mil of downloads. That's a big problem right there, and ultimately that's going to decide what software gets put out by 3rd parties. I myself will admit I made only a few UMD purchases, and have downloaded Crisis Core, Star Ocean 1 and 2, Valkyrie Profile, and some others. Some dude's will swear it's not piracy, and that if the software is AAA it will sell. I feel that's just ignorant and complacent. I don't have a PSP anymore, but the next time I get one I won't be pirating games.
I can't speak for Japan, but I'm sure it's had some effect on them. For SE to say this, just shows the problem is bigger than most folk think.
Is it even possible to pirate a ps3 game? Wii's are incredibly easy to hack, the 360 is not as easy but still not difficult, but the ps3 doesnt have any exploits that i know of. Theres also the fact that most people dont have blu-ray burners.
edit:
Just realized they were talking about the psp. I had forgotten SE even made games for portables, lol.
Last edited by NoSmokingBandit on 5/10/2009 10:48:11 PM
For once I agree with Squeeeenix
Piracy is a BIG problem in gaming as a whole.
In comparison to other media its not as bad, look at the music industry, most people have programs on there PC like Limewire or torrents. I think I-tunes is partially to blame becuase its pretty much the same service but you have to pay, i much preffer to have a CD, something tangerable.
Movies are alot worse aswell, they reckon over 4 million people downloaded Wolverine before it was released in cinema, which is pretty disgusting to think they go to all that effort in making the film to be cheated off by geeks downloading on there PCs.
Like they said, it depends on quality, I personally paid to see my view of the wolverine movie, but in my opinion it wasn't completely worth it, and that's why ppl pirate
I like their attitude about the quality of the game being a factor. I would hope that people who pirate games would at least buy the games they really love to support the industry.
I'm going to do piracy but if they cancel FF13 on 360 I'm going to return the favor and buy this game for my psp.
for your information, oxvial, Ben and Arnold aren't fond of blatant declarations of illegal activity.
just, for the future.
And it makes perfect sense to release most of their games on an American console with known piracy issues?
Xbox 360= Easily pirate games
PS3= No known method to pirate ps3 games (yet)
Sometimes I'm under the impression that the entire Square Enix workforce was laid off and replaced with monkeys due to the recession.
Not piracy destroy them, they destroy themselfs with fu**ing up there Fanbase.
And they deserv it
Piracy is evil why pirate poor games ?! why not wait a couple of months for the game to become cheaper or pre-owned GOD
The PSP is has the biggest problem on piracy over other consoles. I hacked mine to play FFVII and FFVIII (Which i own the original copies for), i dont down load actual PSP games, even though its very easy to do so, I'll buy it when it comes out just like Crisis Core.
So piracy has pushed developers to make better games? It doesn't make it right, but damn !
So why the fu** release one of their biggest games ever on the 360?
I feel most of you who hate SE for porting FF13 to 360. The way I see it, I don't hate it for a few reasons (though I personally see it as responsible for the delay). 1) Most of us who will buy it own a PS3, generally speaking. 2) Multiple discs compared to a single Blu-Ray will highlight 360's ultimate weakness; as a result make the 360 look like a cheap PS3 alternative. 3) By April 2010 (supposed US release date), PS3 will have a great year (2009) and a $299 price tag will certainly see more PS3 users who will buy it. Most important though, FF versus 13 is still exclusive (so far) and IMO is looking better than FF13. And let's say 360 owners that buy FF13 really love FF13, they'd definitely have a big incentive to purchase FF13 versus/PS3 (of course you'll still have those hardcore Sony haters who won't). Just don't let this decision by SE be the ultimate reason to hate them. I just stopped caring because the future is looking great all around for any console owner.
Also, piracy could effect 360 sales of FF13, which would probably determine SE's decision to keep Versus 13 exclusive.
Last edited by Byakko2009 on 5/12/2009 9:08:09 AM
I really think one factor in XBox360 sales is the fact the software can be easily pirated whereas the PS3 there's no known method yet. I remember when both the Dreamcast boot cd's became wide known and those Replay game things that started with the PS1 both units saw sales increases.
As far as piracy cutting into actual sales/profits, I contend it's impossible to generate an accurate statistic on how much money is lost per title to this. Groups like the RIAA like to claim they lost xx amount of money to piracy each year but their numbers are extremely flawed and tilted in favor of their argument as they assume anyone who downloads a copy of an album would have otherwise bought it in the stores (or online or whatever), which is generally not the case. The majority of people who leech something would most likely not have paid for it to begin with.
There's several REAL numbers to back this up. GTA IV was widely available in pirated form for XBox360 but it still broke sales records when via retail distribution. The same thing happens with movies and music. The studios claim all losses are due to piracy but when an actual good film or album comes out it usually still breaks existing sales records. I think this is what the developer was referring to in his comments: basically if a product is good enought alot of people will legally buy it. I'd gather mediocre stuff gets pirated more then quality. Not blaming the developers, just saying.
"The issue of piracy is quite concerning on PS as well and our basic stance is that it’s unfortunate"
What century is this guy living in? You can't pirate a PS3 game and a PS1 game at this point is just retro.
PS3 hasn't been cracked yet, but thieves are notoriously stubborn and keep trying. PS1 games are still relatively big business with PSN downloads of them starting at $5. Finally, You may not be able to steal PS3 games so easily, and PS1 games may be too retro to be a target, but so called piracy – game theft – is rife among a large community of PSP owners. Basically the PSP has had the living snot pirated our of it.
Someone commented about not being able to quantify lost sales, that's not strictly true. Several high profile multi-platform titles have demonstrated the effects of the digital theft of game software (piracy) on other platforms. Unreal Tournament comes to mind. The makers of that game released it to PS3 and PC, and watched the torrent traffic at the time of launch. Based on the rate of sales on the PS3 compare to the PC as well as the torrent data, and the sales projections based on past sales of other FPS games, they were able to chart their lost sales for the PC version. It was truly awful for them. Other software makers have been able to do the same thing. They've also been able to track unit sales of games after launch and as soon as a copy became available on the various feeds, there was a significant effect on unit sales of new copies.
Stealing games is a major problem for the game industry. When a game has a multi-million dollar budget, there need to be sales into the million plus range to just break even. If all the freetards out there are copying games, then the only way to get a return on the investment is to have a monster sized installation base of consoles so that a sufficiently large number of honest people own the target console and buy the game. This is precisely why piracy is such a threat to the PSP in Western markets.
Frankly, don't be surprised if Sony never designed a replacement for the PSP, unless they can come up with a security strategy that's sufficiently flexible and hard to crack that even if it's cracked once, it can morph into something new that is equally as hard to crack. As long as people can't be trusted – and let's face it, in general people can't be trusted – game makers face a problem, as do console makers. Ultimately we *honest* gamers will face a larger problem if devs cease working on certain platforms or game budgets drop. After all, if you know that 50% of your sales are going to be lost to piracy anyway, why spend so much developing a good game? Why, when you can push so much crap shovel ware out the door and make a decent return by selling a moderate number of crap, cheaply developed games? Oh, wait, that's the Nintendo DS business model…..
Last edited by TheHighlander on 5/11/2009 10:02:15 AM
Monkeys in business attire are running Square Enix I tell you
also how can someone pirate something from the ps3 if there are no games (by Squenix) to pirate 😉
To be honest, I remember seeing a link on a forum directing everyone to a downloadable ISO file of Dissidia (Japanese of course). But luckily the thread was locked and supposedly, Square Enix stopped the website from distributing it.
But…that's JUST ONE WEBSITE…there are over 100000 websites that do the same thing. But hey…if there are a lot of illegal downloads of the game – that should really tell Square Enix that the game is good. Now as for the whole "they'll buy it since it is that good" – umm…well unless you're a really hardcore fan it won't happen.