According to the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association, aka CESA, Square Enix's hit portable title Dissidia: Final Fantasy has been downloaded well over 5 million times - and no, that's not downloads from the PlayStation Store. In fact, that is the number of times that Dissidia has been downloaded illegally.

CESA has apparently been tracking these illegal downloads for the top handheld titles available for both the DS and PSP. Dissidia has been downloaded 5,281,223 times since its release, easily costing Square Enix roughly 30,631,093,400 yen in damages.

Piracy has been quite the issue in regards to handheld consoles like the DS and PSP with custom firmware enabling users to run custom applications; however, an unfortunate by-product of custom firmware is also the ability to download ripped games.

Other top-downloaded titles include Phantasy Star Portable 2 which was downloaded well over 4 million times, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was downloaded almost 2 million times and another Square Enix game that topped the charts is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, which was downloaded just over a million times.

What is your take on the piracy issue? Obviously it's causing quite a lot of damage according to CESA's data.

Source: Siliconera

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Well, I'm not surprised. With over 50 million PSP's sold you'd be expecting a few titles with 4-5 million+ in sales... however, it's difficult to see a title on the PSP that has even broken a million.
Obviously piracy is a monumental problem for the industry, even more-so on handhelds.
Lets hope the PSP-2 (if it's announced) and 3DS have a lot better protection.

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Why can't they just buy the games? PSP and DS games aren't that costly. I'm actually quite surprised they can rip games like this, it's kinda shocking. I agree that piracy is a major problem, but I don't think it can ever be stopped.

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Wow that is a ridiculous amount.

Oh wait... *Looks guilty*

<.< Uh I dont pirate... (well I didn't pirate dissidia anyway...)

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Trophies suck because they're stupid and lame and nothing like Achievements except the bits that are a blatant rip-off.

Damian, you can always go around the protection system. It's sad but true indeed, but I understand what you mean. If they would make an own "laser system" or so, then it would make it harder for pirates..

No offence dude, keep on bringing news on this site! I give FFU 10/10 possible points

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Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men, and ladies, and ladies who dress like men... For Gilgamesh, its morphing time!

Actually, in the asian regions, PSP games can be quite costly. I think I saw Dissidia going for a hundred bucks here in Singapore once. Most newly released PSP games range from 50 bucks and upwards.

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PakkaneN Wrote:Damian, you can always go around the protection system. It's sad but true indeed, but I understand what you mean. If they would make an own "laser system" or so, then it would make it harder for pirates..

No offence dude, keep on bringing news on this site! I give FFU 10/10 possible points

Well, there isn't really a work around for the PS3 because of the firmware in the Cells SPE's. Usually you'd be able to chip that to allow pirated games (like with the PS2) but you can't alter the Cell, even with that chip. Also, the protection on the blu-ray is pretty sturdy.

I agree, it is difficult to protect your system, but you can put up very good barriers that may slow the process. The PSP would probably have a lot more support from developers if it wasn't such a pirate magnet.

PS: Thanks, we try our best and will have a LOT more in the coming weeks =]

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They certainly need to find a way to protect their systems. Otherwise the handhelds industry will be all but destroyed.

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I don't agree with analysis which assumes that an illegally downloaded game equals a lost sale. I think a vast majority of people who download the game illegally do it because it's free and they didn't have enough interest in the game to pay for it. Also, if it's sold in poorer countries for higher prices there are probably kids there who couldn't hope to play it otherwise. I feel like it's not nearly the problem companies make it out to be. It's still not a good thing, but I don't think they are losing that much.

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A very big problem. If people don't pay for the game, what's the point in making sure a big name title? It's frustrating to see people pirate games and not care for the company that makes it. They don't give the acknowledgement to the developers because they decided that the game wasn't good enough to buy. I don't care if the game is too expensive; save your bloody money, hope for a price cut, and just buy the game. Many people either work to buy games or save up a year's worth of wages to get one game. When you can get games on the cheap and easy and not see a problem wih it, then society is not doing it's job to teach us properly.

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