News: Portable gaming piracy a big concern for developer

Game developer Ready at Dawn Studios’ latest PlayStation Portable (PSP) title, the highly anticipated God of War: Ghost of Sparta is set to hit store shelves in November 2010, but the developer is starting to question the motivation for making PSP titles.

During an interview with gaming site VG24 the creative director of the upcoming God of War game, Ru Weerasuriya, stated that “It’s getting to the point where it doesn’t make sense to make games on it [the PSP].”

Weerasuriya’s opinion isn’t shaped by the console’s hardware though, but because of piracy. “The biggest problem we’re fighting against at the moment is seeing how piracy is going to affect sales on PSP at this point.”

“It’s a tough call right now to say what’s going to happen to it and where it’s going to go, but it definitely hurts a lot of developers out there who are trying to make great games.”

The Ready at Dawn Studios employee and former senior artist at Blizzard Entertainment also thinks that piracy isn’t as out of control on the PC front as it is on the PSP and Nintendo DS scene.

This is because the PC market has internet connectivity systems in place, requiring gamers to activate the title online, as well as on-line multiplayer systems for which users have to be logged into a specific network such as Battlenet and Steam. In his opinion these systems assists in bringing down the piracy.

“On portable platforms it’s definitely more rampant right now. You can go to Hong Kong and get one cart for the DS with practically every single game that’s ever come out for it.”

Portable gaming piracy a big concern for developer

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