That would be great, but not only is it really hard to do, it would rarely ever work.  Companies tend to price their products based on what it costs to produce their products and make a profit for future investment.  Most companies that try to price their products based on a desire to simply meet a specific price point must:

1. Have a big cash reserve to survive that product's sales life (usually this is called preditory pricing as it's designed to force competitors out of the market)

2. Decide they're not in it for the profit and find a government or "angel" to fund their activity.  I have no problem with the latter, and I have a big problem with the former.

Actually the PSP game and emulator would be roughly the same process if the roms were preloaded onto the emulator otherwise the emulator would be more difficult. The PSP game should never be more difficult to accomplish. It's just a matter of making sure you keep up with firmware updates, but that is a given even with legitimate PSP games.

Your trying to equate playing a pirated game to being lazy in life and stealing a ferrari. The publishers of the game will not see a single cent from the kid, you can twist it and turn it however you like but they are not losing anything. If that kid decided he wants an ipod and steals it thats different because the people at the retail outlet are directly affected.

You can sit in your house with your hi-speed internet and your plasma tv acting all high and mighty but if you didn't have enough money to pay for a single game for your kid because it costs twice your weekly salary but your kid can get it online for free and you know no one will be hurt or effected in any way, will you deny your child that small amount of joy.

Go live in a third world country before you pass judgments on others.

That's just it. You are completely wrong in that statement. Its a ripple effect. Just as the store is hurt as the loss builds up as more items are stolen, so to is the game dev or music writer. Eventually the losses get to the point where the publisher or development house can't afford 15 programmers and decide to fire a couple. Then those families are f'ed until they can find new work.

You are just being naive. Any money lost in large enough amounts affects everyone; and first to go are those that need those jobs and that income the most.

EDIT: Spend 2yrs making something with your own investment and then watch 1/3rd of people just walk up and take it for free before you pass judgement.

Being poor doesn't mean you should get anything but education and medicine for free. A game is far from a life necessity.

@Hawk: I had a real big response, but decided it wasn't really worth it. Basically, the whole piracy=bad is all under the premise that capitalism is fair, when I don't think it is. Piracy just evens the playing field a bit. If one worked real hard all their life, maybe they do deserve a Ferrarri. As long as it can be copy + pasted into their garage...

@crumas2: Sorry... I'm having trouble understanding that response. What makes the pirates capable of selling their goods when the company can't? I'm no business expert, so if I'm missing something obvious let me know.

I have a lot of difficulty believing that people wouldn't pay to play the games if piracy became impossible ... One of the main reasons for this is that I have had several friends who rarely paid for games who bought World of Warcraft and/or other MMO games because it was impossible to steal those games.

...

At the same time, I do think there is an argument for developers changing their business model in order to limit piracy. One of my thoughts is for developers to return to a shareware/episodic content business model where you give away the initial episode of a game with limited or no online gameplay and then you sell additional episodes and/or gameplay modes for a small fee. Personally, I don't have a problem with this model until developers start to gouge people with excessive fees ... for example, $5 to $10 to get a multiplayer mode with 5 to 10 maps is acceptable whereas $5 for horse armor is insane.

You missed the whole point I'm trying to make, the publishers aren't losing anything because even if that particular consumer wanted to they couldn't afford the game. Yes piracy sucks and everyone should buy their products, but prices should also be scaled accordingly. Scaling software prices is a synch when compared to hardware (although consoles are a different story).

Also thats ignoring countries like Iran who don't even get legitimate copies of games sent to them and have to pirate games if they want to play them.

If I made an entertainment product and was selling it in both America and Iran then I would adjust my prices accordingly for both countries and offer the consumer incentives for not pirating otherwise I would be foolish not to expect getting pirated.

Like I said before stop looking at it in black and white and pay attention to the shades of grey

Mainly because it isn't true. Anyone who can definitely afford a product, yet pirates it anyway is in the catagory of a "lost potential customer." The people denying that aren't being very reasonable.

Thanks. I think the whole concept of studios shutting down is a human enough element for me. As an indie dev, the thought of not being able to make games anymore is a fate worse than death. Of course, when any company shuts down, people lose jobs. Even as is, the industry is a super tough field to get a job in, unless you're a veteran like Carmack or Molyneaux

   You are not a parent I see.  I love my children dearly, and I would love to give them absolutely everything they want.  And, I almost can.  For a two year old anyway  8).  But that would be completely irresponsible of me, I have a hard time doing it, but I temper it, and keep my self from buying my son every toy and piece of candy he wants, when he wants it.  If I did, what results as they grow up, is a spoiled brat who expects everyone else to do everything for them.  They learn to expect to just get something because they want it, and to not have to work for it.  They expect to be a parasite on others.  And so, if I did give my kids everything they wanted, and taught them to take everything they wanted, I would have robbed them of their potential to be self sufficent and be productive for themselves, their family, and possibly community.

   I think the encouraging of people in third world countries to steal software all they want, robs them of their potential to do something more.  Instead of wasting time (video games are a LUXURY) on stolen software, that you didn't even support the people who made it, you could do something more productive. Rather than creating this complete pit hole of time.

   And video games are a LUXURY.  I have completely different views when someone doesn't have food, or shelter, and doesn't have the opportunity to earn it, or the opportunity to immediately get it when needed.

EDIT:  Oh, and because I have a plasma TV, does not in anyway make the truth somehow automatically wrong.

And as much as you don't believe it, piracy does hurt the industry.  Someone who is given the feeling that piracy is ok, could pirate 1000 games they never would have paid for.  Very true.  But, if they realized they need to earn what they have, and spent that time doing that, then they could have paid and litimately owned 100 games they paid for.  So they may have not hurt the industry by removing the 1000 games they stole from making profit, but they certainly stole from the industry.