> I have a hard time seeing any correlation between ease of piracy and the failure of a > platform. I mean, the PS1 and PS2 were cracked wide open for essentially their entire > lifespans, and the GBA had working emulators before the damn thing even launched.
It's very simple. If your mom can pirate for a system, it's over. PSP's that easy. DC's that easy. GBA and DS were that easy (why do you think everyone stopped making non-kiddie games for them?). Wii's that easy. As a result, third-party triple-A software dried up pretty quickly on all of those systems. The really good GBA and DS games were all within the first 18 months of the system, after which it was all "Dora the Explorer Lezzes Out With Bratz". Wii's a blur of Mario Party ripoffs, fitness games, and the occasional Nintendo franchise cash-in now.
PS1/2 required soldering. 360 requires either soldering or taking it apart and using your PC to flash the drive. Unless your mom is really awesome, she's not doing any of that. It of course remains to be seen how easy PS3's gonna be.
(And for the record, I don't blame Marcan and Segher on this - they don't personally enable piracy and went to some length to try and slow it down on the Wii, but lots of people are standing by to corrupt their work in that way).
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