Nintendo Supports US's Anti-Piracy China Measure 45
Earlier today we discussed the China/US Piracy clash, and it's worth noting that yesterday Nintendo came out in strong support of the US's position. Gamasutra reports that an estimated 7.7 million counterfeit gaming products have been seized in the last four years of piracy raids. "According to Nintendo, China has continued to be the leading production site and exporter for counterfeit Nintendo products, and has the largest domestic consumption, and in 2006 alone the company estimates that the overall industry lost $762 million due to piracy. Commented Nintendo in a statement: 'Despite the millions of counterfeit Nintendo products seized from retailers and manufacturing plants in China through the years, there has only been one criminal prosecution. Numerous factories, where tens of thousands of counterfeit Nintendo products were seized, escaped with only trivial fines or no penalty at all.'"
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)
You have to remember Nintendo is trying to meet demand for all regions at once and not just one or two. You also should realize that the shortage is not unique to a single region and sales of the Wii are through the roof. I do not remember Nintendo having continual problems with keeping items in stock. The only other item I remember is the DS Lite, which is also quite popular for its own reasons.
Honestly, I tend to believe Nintendo when they say they are cranking out at max production. They have no real reason not to, since they are not meeting current demand. This buzz-factor is bull-shit. I have wanted a Wii since before launch and still have been unable to find one, and I know I am not alone in this regard. Nintendo's profits could only grow by increasing production, assuming they had the capacity to do so, buzz or not. They have no reason to "out buzz" the over-priced PS3 or the "old" Xbox 360.
Re:China does need to do more (Score:5, Interesting)
And if China only sold to China, there would still be a ton o' money to be made, so your particular diatribe not only years behind reality, it is DOA, sorry.
Want facts? No problem...
- Intel just broke ground on the newest fab center in seven years, worldwide. Location: China.
- IBM just moved their world headquarters for one specific division...from: USA - to: China
The largest domestic Chinese telecom saw stock prices rise 13% yesterday. 15 R&D centers inside China and another 10 outside...o u t s i d e - with more on the way.
- The 'grunt' work is already being moved offshore, to Vietnam, as one example...soon to North Korea. Foreign companies that want to put up major factories must also build hefty R & D centers, just in case the factory folds. The R & D centers will stay around and work as a foundation to keep the domestic infrastructure intact for the long term. So, every time you hear about some American or European company opening another factory in China, remember that such news also means another research center that isn't being built in the US or EU, UK, etc.
Only when China gets bitten in a fair play on problems with domestic IP will things MAYBE turn around. I suspect they will never return to days of yore, actually, and we can all look forward to new business models, new definitions of IP, etc. that simply don't exist now. Your comments represent the type of staid, off-the-shelf thinking that is not related to what is really going on, sorry. It will take some time before new thinking replaces old and by then, the Chinese will have become comfortable in their new role on the world stage.A slightly funny situation is currently taking place over the 2008 Olympics and the Chinese govt. finding themselves being tagged by fake products such as keyrings, stuffed toys of the 'official' mascots, etc. Only authorized retail outlets are allowed to pedal these products, but of course, you can buy fakes on any street corner...
why i pirate... (Score:0, Interesting)
its the same reason I have a backupcart for my DS.. I'd probably buy a lot more games if the following 2 conditions are met:
A: They stop charging twice the price for a game over here as opposed to USA.. it does NOT cost twice as much to ship a game made in CHINA to Europe as opposed to USA
B: Stop releasing games in USA months before they come out here...... have SIMOULTANEOUS RELEASES.. same applies to movies and other gamesystems.... the ONE good thing Sony did with PS3 was make it regionfree for games..
in a modern global world where ppl from all sorts of countries talk and chat 24/7.. when a game comes out in USA i want to play.. lets say.. SUPER PAPER MARIO for the Wii.. and I see the Europeean release date is.. NOVEMBER!!!!..and I can install a tiny chip.. download an iso.. burn it and play it WHILE I HAVE FRIENDS ONLINE WHO ALSO PLAY IT.. as opposed to playing it after they are sick of it and have moved on.. ofcourse I will..!..
doh..the splitting of the world might have worked back when the occasional long distance phonecall every 3 months was all the communication we had but these days that does not cut it.. and
iPirate.. GO PIRACY!.. fukk the nasty corps that keeps screwing customers for profit!