Piracy has always been the monster under the gaming bed, with everyday consumers having access to pirated material virtually everywhere. But the PSP piracy is now slowing down, and Sony sees this as the good guys winning the battle versus the economic evil.

Well no wonder you've got layoffs in the industry recently - not to mention the shutting down of certain studios and whatnot. According to research conducted by EEDAR, only 4% of the total games out in the market ever make a profit - all other 96% just either break even or lose money. Yeouch.

Nintendo's really cracking down hard on piracy, and on its warpath is trampling on Wiibrew grounds as well. The latest firmware update has gone live, with amendments to the Nintendo User Agreement, and stringent homebrew blocks.

Details after the link.

Thanks to Ando-kun and Lil-Diabo for the tip!

Downloading torrents is one thing, but attacking merchant ships with guns at the ready and stealing their goods is quite another. I'm talking real maritime pirates here.

Attacks from pirates off Somalia have been increasing recently, which might force merchant ships to take different trade routes. This could potentially cause shipments of various goods, including video game hardware and software, to get seriously messed up.

If you choose to mod your Xbox 360 to play *cough* backups *cough*, you void your warranty and your right to access Xbox Live. It's that simple. Some people just don't seem to get it though, and flamed certain forums in protest of their banning. Go to the full article to read a neat explanation of banning from Major Nelson himself.

We've known about this for some time, but now we get official confirmation from Nintendo that the DSi is indeed incompatible with the R4 flashcart. Guess they're getting serious.

The French Senate recently voted 297 to 15 in support for a controversial anti-piracy initiative which will restrict Internet access to suspected pirates. French internet users may find their home IPs either suspended or banned outright on grounds of suspicious behavior.

Ohhh, sneaky, sneaky Nintendo! Early reports have come in that the new DSi is not - repeat, NOT - capable of booting existing flash cartridges, including the R4 and the EZ Flash V. Looks like Sony's not the only one getting all crackdown on homebrew and piracy.

For shame! All this, right after hearing about the new anti-piracy law yesterday? Yeouch. Looks like these guys just got a golden ticket to a life of misery. We hear that SCEA filed a lawsuit against some PSP pirates hawking their wares on Craigslist and offering "to 'mod' or 'unbrick' PSP consoles so as to allow illegal unauthorized copies of SCEA's video game software."

Recent documents being passed around Congress and the PotUS office [insert West Wing red tape montage here] gave birth to a new anti-piracy bill which was signed into law as the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008" or, in short, PRO-IP. Back in the ESA offices, Michael Gallagher couldn't be any happier.