PixlBit takes a critical eye to the current Sony GeoHot debacle and asks an important question: is console hacking immoral?
Mass Damage & Consumer Foundation in the Netherlands has filed a class action against Sony for inflating PlayStation Store prices.
My personal opinion:
Manufacturers and publishers have indeed inflated the industry.
From $700 million development costs for games like Call of Duty, to digital (store) prices for games and DLCs, online multiplayer fees on consoles (why can you play Helldivers 2 online for free on PC but not consoles?) or still preventing sell/lend digitally purchased games.
Sometime in the future, this bubble will collapse.
They should know better, but they just can't help themselves and suck even the last penny out of our wallets.
They should be suing the individual publishers increasing the prices to $80 instead of suing the store. There are plenty of publishers still selling game for like $50 with much success (like E33). But this proves that the publishers are the ones setting the prices.... so again nothing changes because they aren't even going after the main offender. How is suing Sony going to make Microsoft not charge $80 for the next COD? Sony being the number one store in the market doesn't mean that publisher have to charge us an arm and a leg. Again the industry is laughing at us because consumers never get real representation. Just these fake platitudes that are meaningless.
About time. There is zero fair reason why digitally distributed products that you cannot recoup any value when you want to dispose of them, should be priced higher than that of physical copies that entail all of the costs and the benefits of owning.
Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki and CFO Lin Tao talked about the state of the PlayStation business and the strategy and targets going forward, including how they're responding to the tariffs.
Sony announced its financial results for the fiscal year 2024, and things are certainly looking up, despite a decline in PS5 sales.
If their profits fall next quarter, we'll probably see more price hikes. I can't imagine having to pay £20 a month for PlayStation Plus.
Decline in hardware sales.
Behind on lifetime sales and decline in first party sales.
Third party content and PSN came through to save the day.
Things will improve starting with the next Ghost game.
Hopefully a steady flow of first party content by end of '25
Immoral? lol no, Console hacking has yeilded many great products. Would I do it? No but there's no denying the benefits
And props to the writer for pointing out that Pirating and Haking are 2 entirely different things.
lol no, it's not a theft.
It is, if said console has market. Take the Dreamcast, great hacking community now, because it's no longer commercial. Hacking in the middle of a marketable lifespan is a ridiculous thing to do. Even if it is your own. Passing the instructions so further people can do what you do is also pretty damn illegal. If you do something with your console, shut up and don't give the secret recipe.
Games have a far bigger budget on consoles and a lot more to make up than that of a handheld. The effects of one hack and that change of sales can shut down multiple developers or cause them to struggle to put the money into expanding or developing new IP.
Case in point 1: Youtube; Someone uploads video of playing Super Mario Allstars rom on a emulator on a hacked PS3. Nintendo complain to Sony to act on this affecting sales of the Wii Mario Anniversary package and want to protect their IP on their systems. Thereby attempting to sue Sony.
Case in point 2: Copied game published by industry giant Activision or EA. Activison or EA inquire strongly about the state of sales over players on PS3. Sony is in positioned to be sued or lose support entirely. This has already actually ruined the monopoly of online games due to hacking and Sony has had to act on it fast.
Case in point 3: People buy PS3, nobody buys Playstation exlusives which developers are under the umbrella of Sony Computer Entertainment. Uncharted 3 comes out, doesn't get as many sales as sequel due to piracy and a great world wide leading developer such as Naughty Dog is forced to close.
Just think about the people being paid at the end of the day instead of having stuff you know very well you can do on what you're surfing N4G on right now.
Face it hacking supporters, your not going to be doing word processing or databases on the PS3 if it was allowed to be hacked. What on Earth would you be doing with it outside of that and further gaming?
I do believe you should be able to do what you want with things you own, but the moment you start affecting other people with the things you do is the moment you lose that right.
Well alot of ps2 are hacked but i guess that no longer matters it sold alot it sony should leave it hacked to make money selling consoles.