Sony: Being cheaper than your competitor is never a bad thing.

[Foxi4]

Was that not what I said (albeit in a slightly less clear way)?

From what I gathered from your post, I assumed that you were putting both services on "the same level" so to speak since "PSN is paid now too" so I figured I should clarify that, the "proverbial kick in the nuts" "kicked me" off your train of thought, I must've misunderstood you.

 

[Vipera]

////

 

[Foxi4]

Pirating PS3 game is so much of a hassle, people would rather buy the original.

False unless you have a late Slim or a Super Slim model.

Pirating X360 is easier, but you have to give up the online.

False, you can play backups online if you know how.

There are too many people using the Live to make it fail.

"Too Big to Fail" was the downfall of many companies in the past. SEGA? Atari? SNK? I don't see them releasing consoles these days.

Pirating Wii games became so easy that only a few games don't suck.

Correlation doesn't equal causation. The games sucked because the hardware sucked - it couldn't push multiplatform titles hence developers had to code Wii-specific versions from scratch ("Force Unleashed 2" for example) or focus on exclusive titles. A very small number of developers gave a damn to push it to the limits, most of them just wanted to get the titles out there.

Forget about the console being a crappy piece of hardware and think back to the Game Boy era: it was the ugliest hardware ever, but it won thanks to the games that very few people knew how to pirate (or emulated them on the PC, but not many kids had the dial-up always available to get the latest rom).

False - there were commercially-available flashcarts as well as home-made schematics. Frankly, it's very easy to pirate on a Gameboy.

Same for the DS: once the R4 clones got famous, the quality of games decreased a lot, allowing space only for hidden gems from dareful developers.

False - the DS had its ups and downs in terms of games throughout its life cycle and piracy had nothing to do with it. The only reason why big developers slowed down with DS triple-A's was that they were busy developing for the upcoming 3DS. Development of nextgen games often starts a year or two ahead of schedule to have them ready for the launch window.

Pirating PC games is one of the easiest things, and developers know this. That's why they get the nastiest DRMs, or they don't release the game at all because they know people will try their best to pirate it if it's from PC (see Rockstar).

PC gets a ridiculous amount of exclusives and the openness of the platform has always been a magnet for developers. PC games do sell despite of the piracy which is why Steam sales soar well above any other online-based distribution system.

Talking about actual consoles that died from piracy... the early CD consoles (+ the Dreamcast) all died for bad marketing, bad price and piracy.

False - the Dreamcast did not die "from piracy", it died because SEGA made changes in their management branch and the new CEO chose to withdraw from hardware manufacturing. Not all Dreamcasts are capable of launching backups - the only vulnerability was Mil-CD compatibility which was removed from later revisions of the system. It could've went on successfuly if SEGA wished to continue distributing it.

From the other early CD-based systems list, Amiga CD died not because of piracy but because the system's offering was poor. The Sega Saturn didn't die from piracy - it died due to low sales in the west (although it did go head-to-head with the PlayStation in the US until "Final Fantasy VII" was released and it did enjoy a steady stream of games). The Mega-CD died because it was incredibly expensive and just not worth it - same with the 3DO or the CDi. Early CD consoles were dying out because they were often flawed.

The PS1 succeeded not because of piracy, but for the games being cheap as hell.

The PS1 was around $300 at launch - it was anything but cheap. It only became cheap once the PS2 was on the horizon. It sold because it had a superior library of games which put the N64 to shame while SEGA withdrew with the Saturn to work on the Dreamcast.

Then again, I don't understand why people argue about consoles when the most important thing is the software. That's why I'm mostly a PC gamer now, I don't care about egg > 28, just give me something to play and I'm happy.

People argue over consoles mostly due to brand loyalty.

 

[Rydian]

Pirating Wii games became so easy that only a few games don't suck.

Just like the Wii U has "no games" and a lot of them suck because it's being pirated.
Wait... it's not.

You mean just like how the 360 has only a few games that don't suck, because it's so pirated.
Wait... it's got tons of great games.

Same for the DS: once the R4 clones got famous, the quality of games decreased a lot, allowing space only for hidden gems from dareful developers.

Exactly, because we all know that games like Electroplankton and ports of N64 games only started when flash carts came around.
Wait... those were launch titles.

Well we all know that it's not like they released FOUR main series pokemon games after flash carts came about.
Wait... they did. Along with things like a Golden Sun Sequel, etc.

Pirating PC games is one of the easiest things, and developers know this. That's why they get the nastiest DRMs, or they don't release the game at all because they know people will try their best to pirate it if it's from PC (see Rockstar).

PC gets the nastiest DRM because it's possible to do heavy DRM on the PC. Take the Wii and DS as examples, neither of them have a proper OS or any common code. You can't install a driver, you can't do detection of what's been patched in RAM, etc. A standard dev cannot install DRM software on the Wii. Hell, it's doubtful than Nintendo themselves could do it at this point.

Talking about actual consoles that died from piracy... the early CD consoles (+ the Dreamcast) all died for bad marketing, bad price and piracy. The PS1 succeeded not because of piracy, but for the games being cheap as hell.

And adding to that, the systems that died with no piracy in their lifetime (Virtual Boy).

 

[elmoemo]

Pirating PS3 game is so much of a hassle, people would rather buy the original.
Pirating X360 is easier, but you have to give up the online. There are too many people using the Live to make it fail.
Pirating Wii games became so easy that only a few games don't suck. Forget about the console being a crappy piece of hardware and think back to the Game Boy era: it was the ugliest hardware ever, but it won thanks to the games that very few people knew how to pirate (or emulated them on the PC, but not many kids had the dial-up always available to get the latest rom). Same for the DS: once the R4 clones got famous, the quality of games decreased a lot, allowing space only for hidden gems from dareful developers.
Pirating PC games is one of the easiest things, and developers know this. That's why they get the nastiest DRMs, or they don't release the game at all because they know people will try their best to pirate it if it's from PC (see Rockstar).

Talking about actual consoles that died from piracy... the early CD consoles (+ the Dreamcast) all died for bad marketing, bad price and piracy. The PS1 succeeded not because of piracy, but for the games being cheap as hell.

Then again, I don't understand why people argue about consoles when the most important thing is the software. That's why I'm mostly a PC gamer now, I don't care about egg > 28, just give me something to play and I'm happy.

Don't know where you got your info but I've been using live for years with backups, no one has been banned since 2010 I believe.

 

[OldClassicGamer]

It depends is it flashed or JTAG/RGH console.
I believe RGH/JTAG cannot go online, but maybe it is possible now. When I RGH-ed my console it was not possible.