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

not 'everywhere'..

it's nowhere near PS3. ;)

I think piracy is still a bigger issue for PC titles. That's why Madden 09 wasn't released for the PC this year.

I never said that PC had less piracy, but rather developers have more options on the PC to stop it.

Every platform except the PS3 is suffering from this.... And PC and PSP are pretty much the main 2 I think.

The market is still healthy right?
We are still gaming right?

So whats the point of piracy? The majority of the ones that piracy a game is the hardcore base. The casuals make up the market so they don't know anything about piracy.

Blame the failing economy. Unemployment rates are going up, high fuel prices, the cost of living is going up and up.
So a few people pirate stuff from the net, big deal.

Because a poor economy totally justifies stealing.

Do you go out and rob a Lazy Boy store when you can't afford to replace your easy chair too?

I do that. Is it wrong?

@ecurbj: The problem with piracy is that some developers take measures against them, which is annoying to paying customers. Take EA's DRM or itunes DRM for examples. Even cd-keys, something a lot of us just accept as part of life, is a result of piracy. I can't think of a good example of anti-piracy for consoles, but that may be because they haven't thought up an effective method yet.

@Espresso: I was about to comment on how the current financial crisis doesn't seem to effect the gaming industry (or so I've been told), but we live in two different countries.