Q-Games, developer of the popular PixelJunk series has said that they will no longer be porting games to the Sony PSP due to the rampant piracy on the handheld.
PixelJunk is an exclusive PSN series for the PS3, and one version, PixelJunk Monsters was ported to the PSP this year.
Founder and CEO Dylan Cuthbert says that anti-piracy measures on the PSP handhelds will not stop the unauthorized distribution of his game. Cuthbert was also “shocked” to read comments by users in chat rooms who openly admitted to playing pirated versions of the game.
“I don’t think we’ll port anything else to the PSP, we have to see how [PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe] does as there’s a lot of piracy,” Cuthbert said. “Because Monsters is such a good fit it is being pirated I think, maybe the pirates will buy the full version out of guilt?”
Adds Cuthbert in response to question of whether the company would add serial numbers: “Unfortunately the pirates could just hack those kinds of things out,” and that “a PSP demo is in the works but I don’t think it makes any difference to piracy.”
“It was a shock to login to a [PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe] chat room and hear them talking about how they were all playing ripped versions.”
Result for: rampant piracy
Sony America senior VP of marketing Peter Dille, has spoken out today about the rampant piracy attached to the PSP handheld, saying that over 50 million units have been “compromised.”
“I’m convinced and we’re convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP,” Dille said. “It’s been a problem that the industry has to address together; it’s one that I think the industry takes very seriously, but we need to do something to address this because it’s criminal what’s going on, quite frankly.
“It’s not good for us, but it’s not good for the development community. We can look at data from BitTorrent sites from the day Resistance: Retribution goes on sale and see how many copies are being downloaded illegally, and it’s frankly sickening. We are spending a lot of time talking about how we can deal with that problem.”
Dille says that older hardware units are the most problematic but hopes that upcoming blockbuster titles such as Assassin’s Creed and MotorStorm should help struggling software sales.
“Those numbers are correct,” he added, speaking of the 50 million units figure. “There’s a lot of hardware out there; toothpaste is out of the tube. We’re not going to get that hardware back into the toothpaste container.
“I’m not naive, but I do think that most people are inherently honest. We learned a lot from the music business, and it became so easy and so common to download illegal music - everyone was doing it. It’s almost like people lost sight with the fact that, well, ‘If everyone’s doing it, then it can’t be that bad.’
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Result for: rampant piracy
Warner Bros. has pulled its DVD marketing and distribution operation in South Korea and is handing over the business to a local licensee. The move seems to be in response to rampant Internet piracy in South Korea where 94 percent of homes have high-speed broadband connections. The company made the announcement in a statement on Tuesday.
The company said it would make the transition in the coming weeks. This news comes just two months after Warner announced it would provide pre-release low-cost movie rentals on the Internet up to two weeks before they are released on DVD. The VOD service is meant to compete with piracy.
The company said its commitment to the South Korean market remains as strong as ever. However, it’s latest move shows the struggle Hollywood studios have in countries like South Korea. An industry source said that the rampant piracy “creates a more challenging marketplace” than in other countries.
