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"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting pirate."
"Interrupting pira--"
"AAARRGH!"
Johnny Depp is very hot right now. No, that's not entirely accurate. Captain Jack Sparrow is very hot right now. He's a public figure, an icon, a legend. Ads for the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean game talked about how you could fight epic battles, engage in daring swordfights...and play as Jack Sparrow. It was a major selling point of the game.
So the romanticized concept of piracy is prevalent in society right now. Pirates are cool. They're hip. Trendy. They're also still pirates, and their actions are harmful.
If you own a PSP, odds are you know the name Dark_AleX. A student from Spain, Alejandro is responsible for many of the more recent advances in open-ended firmware development. His relationship with Sony was a call-and-response one. Sony would release firmware with new security. Newer games require newer firmware in order to play, forcing gamers to update firmware if they wanted to play the newest port (oh, burn so bad). Dark_AleX would crack open the new firmware, create his own version that played new games, add features that were "custom," and release it to the public. Sony's next firmware update would directly nullify all of Dark_AleX's previous efforts, and the cycle would continue.
Now, let me stress that Dark_AleX was not a pirate. He was a modder. What he did for the PSP is no different than what some people do when they crack open consoles and give them a new exterior, or add LEDs in weird places, or whatever it is that modders do that they feel is worth voiding the warranty on the system. But his open firmware was the very foundation of a PSP pirate's trade. Round up all the individuals on the planet who have pirated software for the PSP, and 99% of them will be using or have used Dark_AleX's code. That is exactly why Sony kept releasing firmware updates with added security measures - in fact, sometimes that was all that was in an update, some new security measures to void Dark_AleX's efforts. Given a choice between giving gamers the functionality of more open ended firmware and blocking piracy, Sony will choose blocking piracy every time.
Dark_AleX claims to have quit the homebrew scene. There are rumors that Dark_AleX found a line of code in the 3.50 update that was specifically addressed to him. Theories range from threats of assassination to a job offer from Sony. Whatever the case, PSP users - and pirates - can no longer depend on that particular source for open ended firmware.
Of course, someone will take his place. That's because Dark_AleX and others like him are not the problem Sony should be addressing. Piracy itself is what must be addressed. As a social and ethical problem, piracy is not only illegal and wrong, it's also self-destructive.
Let's say you're a game developer, and you're making a game that you think would work well on the PSP. You think your game could benefit from the enhanced graphical power of the PSP, the wider aspect ration, maybe even the analog nub. Based on demographic studies of the PSP-owning populace, you think your game will sell 50,000 copies in the first month. One month after launch, the numbers come in. Your game has sold 45,000 copies. Sure, it's not a huge miss, but the facts are undeniable: your numbers are low. You don't know it, but 5,000 people decided to pirate copies of your game. 50,000 people are playing; 45,000 people paid for the game. Sure, it's not an issue for this game. You've already gone through the process of developing it for the PSP. But the next time you've got a game you want to develop for a handheld platform...well, the higher install base for the DS, plus the lower risk of piracy, makes it the more attractive platform.
So, my message to any gaming pirates reading this: STOP IT. Stop pirating games, and then whining when the PSP only gets craptastic ports. Because it's YOUR fault. I could care less if you go out and pirate the newest Fergalicious CD. Illegally download all the movies you want. Steal eBooks by the dozen, for all I care. But stop stealing games, because you're killing the industry.
You want custom firmware on your PSP? Fine. You want to play imported games on it? The PSP has no region locks (except for UMD movies), so go ahead. Bend the rules as much as you want. But the minute you steal a game, you've crossed the line.
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