sonycowboy said:
Certainly not as dumb as that comment. There is absolutely NO hardware manufacturer, publisher, or developer that believes that Piracy has any positive effects. It's a crutch used by many for either explaining why the PSOne and PS2 and Xbox have sold well, or to make pirates themselves feel better about theft.
It's a bullshit line.
Also, expect Microsoft to be, at least as severe as this, regarding piracy as they can. That's why no third party accessories are allowed for most of the system. They want it closed off.
Back to Blu-Ray, it's quite possible that you will need to have an internet or some direct dial connection) to watch a movie in high-def or else you'll be downgraded to SD quality movies. (TIVO requires it). Similar to how you'll need a TV that accepts HDMI or no go. It's a lot to ask, but you're already asking people to buy an HDTV, and they're essentially putting master level quality on the disc. They DO NOT want 1080p copies of every single title out there floating on peer to peer networks.
Seriously, how people seemingly put the spin on how piracy is actually a good thing just shows how transparent they are...
Sony loses money on each consoles sold. They make profit on royalties.
You say developers will make a game for a console that has a lot of sold units--sure, but these various game development companies also keep track on how the systems doing in all facets. Power, availability, pricing, region penetration, piracy issues etc.
So if 10 million PS3's are sold and 8 million of which are in Honk Kong (exagerrated figures to get my point across) Publisher A is not going to give a ****, to them--those 8 million units sold might as well not exist. Nobody benefits from it.
Concerning Microsoft, I read a press release where they were putting so and so amounts of copyright protection code (or some shit) on each game. This also ushered in the same fear (in that same press release/article) that the 360's medium might not be enough to hold high-def games.
In anycase, excluding China, the Xbox probably had the highest 'console mod' rate than either the PS2 or GC. For one, it was damn easy, and it happened damn early. Next (and more importantly) you can do so many cool things by modding an XBox that it became a feature in itself for many potential buyers (who were obviously in the know)
Having said that I'm sure Microsoft doesn't want to make the most "pirated console" of next-gen and amp up the copyright protection.
