Piracy on the rise everywhere

[ameratsu]

Senlis said:

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/videos/second_take_console_piracy_on_the_rise_.html

I was under the impression that it was difficult to pirate games on the consoles, but apparently it only takes a firmware update.  Fallout 3 being pirated on the xbox 3 weeks before the release.  I would find that difficult to resist if I had an xbox360.  Paying for the game is one thing, but having to wait three weeks to play the game makes it difficult to have integrity and buy it.  Also, I think it is funny that Gears of War 2 was not realeased right away on PC because of piracy, yet it was pirated for the console before it was released.  I wonder it was pirated on principle or if they just wanted the game for free.

The point of this is, what do you think companies will do to counter piracy?  The consoles are completely reliant on the disk to play their games.  At least PC has services like steam, and I would hope that more companies would use a steam-like service to counter piracy.  There are far worse methods of anti-piracy, and I think steam is the lesser evil.

btw: if this is old, just ignore me

 

I liked that video, thanks for sharing. Their speculation about how so many x360 titles were leaked so early is interesting simply because that they are all hyped titles and it's possible that there are groups out there trying to prove a point. That said, last year Mario Galaxy was leaked weeks before it's official release.

@ecurbj: Traditionally I think you'd of been correct in asserting that only the "hardcore" pirate games. This generation though that has most certainly changed, with less experienced people simply getting their consoles modded professionally. From there getting the games is about as hard as getting a dvd movie. If you look at the PSP and DS specifically, they are both absurdly easy to pirate with, one needing a quick flash, the other operating on card that requires about as much tech savvy as transfering photos to and from a memory card.

Another point I see neglected in this video and by people on these forums is simply the availability and ease of use. DS flash cards are available from some local stores and guides for use are included or widely available online. On places like craigslist there are tons of people advertising PSP flashing/unlocking and I'm sure the less savvy user could easily find out what they need to get pirated games once they get it flashed. They have clip-on modchips for Wii now (ie: no soldering, but i personally think this is a poor design). Most x360 drives can be flashed and this isn't too hard to learn about. If the user is in doubt there are loads of places that will do this for them.

 

In terms of services like steam, each console has their own service. AFAIK, only WiiWare is able to be pirated while PSN/XBLA games are not.