Should Sony Embrace PS3 Piracy?

Right after publishing my previous blog entry on fake Blu-Ray movies, I remembered what I thought to be a very valid point that a colleague of mine raised regarding piracy on the Playstation 3. He stated that Sony would actually benefit if counterfeit copies of PS3 games finally arrive. See, the biggest deterence for consumers in buying a PS3, especially here in Southeast Asia, is the absence of pirated games and only because original titles are quite expensive due to the currency exchange rate. (To earn the US$40-$60 price point of a regular PS3 game, it would take the average dollar earner around 4 hrs while someone like me would have to work 2-3 days for the same amount.) This is the reason why the Microsoft XBOX 360 console, which has had pirated games readily available for it for a while now, is outselling the PS3 in great numbers. So according to my Sony fanboy friend, once bootleg PS3 games are obtainable, folks will flock to the easily superior Sony product and PS3 consoles will be flying off the shelf.

I thought, "Wow. Brilliant. That's a splendid and devious albeit simple business model (like Starla from Arrested Development...)". But then I read this article on gamespot.com reporting on how Sony actually loses money on each PS3 console they produce. Bummer.