Sony’s report for fiscal year 2008, which ended March 31, 2009, show more evidence that piracy is stealing profits from the manufacturer and related developers. While PSP hardware sales increased from 13.81 million in 2007 to 14.11 million in 2008, PSP software sales dropped about ten percent, hitting 50.3 million units. Unless people are buying PSPs to use as slick-looking paperweights, the reason is obvious. People are playing games without buying them, and piracy is a much more likely reason than mass rentals.

This substantiates remarks made by SCEA VP of Marketing Peter Dille to Gamasutra, wherein he described the piracy levels on the PSP as "frankly sickening."

"It’s almost like people lost sight with the fact that, well, ’If everyone’s doing it, then it can’t be that bad,’" Dille said, "but, it actually is bad; it’s bad for the platform."

Evidence of how bad this can be show in Sony’s overall performance in 2008, as the company lost $1 billion dollars (98.9 billion yen). Sony’s game division specifically lost 18% of its sales in 2008, citing the appreciating yen and decreased PS2 sales.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 performed relatively well, however. The console earned a ten percent increase in unit sales, reaching 10.06 million units. Software almost doubled, reaching 103.7 million units over last year’s 57.9 million. Things are looking up for Sony’s home theater powerhouse - that is, until people figure out how to pirate PS3 games.

Hopefully that won’t happen in the coming year, as Sony is already predicting more losses in 2009. The Japanese electronics giant anticipates further losses of $1.25 billion / 120 billion yen in the coming fiscal year.