Sony blames piracy for PSP woes

News - State of denial

In its continuing denial over the realities of a faltering PSP in the US and Europe, Sony puts the blame on piracy and touts new solutions ahead of E3.

Sony executive Rob Dyer spoke with Gamasutra on a wide range of topics, though the discussion of PSP is particularly illuminating when it comes to the company's interpretation of the handheld's status.

Instead of recognising the portable's declining popularity as a result of lagging developer support, high price tag for hardware and games, and strong competition from iPhone and iPod touch, Dyer says piracy is the number one problem.

"That's been the biggest problem, no question about it. It's become a very difficult proposition to be profitable, given the piracy right now."

Dyer fails to recognise that piracy affects competing platforms as well. Both Nintendo DS and iPhone are affected by piracy, yet that doesn't prevent their success. Developers aren't making PSP games not because of piracy, but because consumers aren't interested in buying PSPs--fixing that problem should be Sony's primary goal, not squashing piracy.