One day after Sony released the awesomely titled PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe for PSP last October, lead developer Dylan Cuthbert visited online forums to see what players thought of it. He found posters brazenly discussing how they were playing bootlegged copies. "It was a huge surprise," Cuthbert says.
It shouldn't have been. Videogame piracy may not grab headlines, but it's just as rampant as piracy of music and movies. Despite extensive copy protections, some PC game developers believe that up to 90 percent of the people playing their titles never paid for them. TorrentFreak, a blog that tracks file-sharing, reports that the 2009 best seller Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PC was illegally downloaded 4.1 million times last year — compared with 290,000 retail purchases. Here's how the three big gaming platforms have been pillaged by pirates.
The Big Three Under Fire
Nintendo
Method of attack: For the DS, hackers use software backup tools to slurp files off the original game cartridges; players then download them onto memory cards that fit the DS card slot. For the Wii, they use mod chips and homebrew programs like Wii Unlocker Ultra.
Most-pirated titles:
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS), 550,000 copies; New Super Mario Bros. Wii, 1 million copies
Defensive maneuvers: A posse of pirate fighters monitors and removes illegal copies from torrent sites. Nintendo also works with law enforcement to bust makers and sellers of mod chips and cards.
Sony
Method of attack: Pirates are having a tough time cracking the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray files, but it's easy to hijack the handheld PSP — probably the most hacked gaming device. Players download a version of the PSP firmware that's been modified to ignore DRM and load bootlegged games onto it.
Most-pirated title: Need For Speed Undercover (PSP), 800,000 copies
Defensive maneuvers: Most new PSP games require an upgrade that overwrites the hacked firmware. Sony has also released a new version of the PSP with an architecture that is supposed to foil hackers. Neither strategy has helped much.
Microsoft
Method of attack: Hackers remove the Xbox 360's DVD drive and tweak the OS to permit the use of "backup copies." For PC titles, they circumvent copy protections and share them on torrent sites.
Most-pirated titles:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC), 4.1 million copies; (Xbox 360), 970,000 copies
Defensive maneuvers: Many PC game developers are experimenting with subscription fees, è0 la World of Warcraft. For the Xbox 360, over 100 Microsoft staffers monitor the Xbox Live service and prevent modded consoles from logging on; hundreds of thousands of hackers (and cheaters) have been blocked.
