Nintendo Supports US's Anti-Piracy China Measure

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.'"

Real use of piracy

[torqer]

If only the Chinese would pirate (clone) the Nintendo Wii hardware... so I could actually get one.

The current market in Beijing

[ihatewinXP]

Lemme see if I can remember all this correctly -

First off they have Wii's here freely available, no shortages as much as I think just a lack of customers. That is two fold: Nintendo obviosuly isnt advertising in China and the local shops arent advertising that they arebreaking a number of laws. Hell, it should be Microsoft complaining - the xbox 360 was hacked within weeks out here and a number of my friends now own one - and at $1.25 a game its not a bad deal at all.

I just got paid and was planning on pick

Re:

[superpulpsicle]

Well this is interesting. Last I remembered US was offending Japan for "reselling" used games, there was a slashdot article on this awhile back. I think Japan is too aggressive to begin with. I also heard once that their "greatest hits" aren't really that much cheaper than the original price.

Re:

[rts008]

Timely article....I was just asking myself where I wanted to go on vacation!

Chinese pirates RULE!

Hmm

[metamatic]

Given that Nintendo can't keep the genuine articles in stores, you'd think they'd be grateful to the Chinese for stepping up to meet demand. :-)

And no, I'm not just talking about the Wii. Nintendo has had terrible trouble getting hardware and software into the retail channel for years. As a GameCube owner, shopping for new games was always an exercise in frustration.

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[xenocide2]

So what happens when customer number four arrives? Does he suddenly become the miserly "rent's due" consumer, or does he walk away with a 360 instead?

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[Applekid]

If he's anything like me, he turns around and makes a mental note to try back some other day. It's not like money burning a hole in your pocket literally burns a hole in your pocket.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, the freaks come in all kinds today. I really do not buy this Nintendo manufacturing a shortage argument. If shortages really created this sort of buzz and sales, then Sony would have held back on PS3s as much as possible to keep demand low. You have to remember that unlike most console makers, Nintendo almost always shoots for as close to a world-wide launch as possible. There is not this 8-month gap between launch in the US and launch in Europe like other consoles do.

You have to remember Nintend

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[7Prime]

Will someone please mod this Troll to hell? We don't need to see this kind of BS here. He has nothing new to say, and what's worse is, he's got a sheer assaholic way of saying it, and the putdowns are infuriating. It's not censorship, it's called, "we all want to be able to ignore you, but you've got a big mouth, so shut up."

Re:Hmm

[644bd346996]

Do you have any evdience? The world you describe sounds plausible, except that it assumes that Nintendo cares about media buzz more than profits. In the real world, it is Nintendo that cares about profits, and Microsoft and Sony that care about media buzz. Note that Nintendo is earning a profit and getting media buzz, but MS and Sony are only getting media buzz (and a lot of that buzz is negative, too). I don't think Nintendo needs to be playing with supply in order to boost their long-term profitability.

In fact, I don't see how an artificial shortage could help Nintendo at all at this point. They are already guarenteed at least some (positive) buzz from the geriatric market, so the Wii is not in danger of disappearing below the radar. Right now, the Wii needs to build up a large installed base so that third party developers will take it more seriously and actually make games that are well suited to the Wii.

Re:

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

Evidence? Yeah.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Press-Start-Contin ue/dp/0966961706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1676673-52286 18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176322150&sr=8-1 [amazon.com]

Artificial shortages have been a Nintendo tactic for years now, and that book documents it in great detail. I can't prove that they're doing it *now*, but I really can't imagine Nintendo's CEO saying "Hey, guys. Remember that tactic that's worked like crazy for 20 years? Let's stop doing that and try something completely new." Nintendo doesn

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

So, to make things clear, you DON'T have any evidence... you have a link to a book that describes events from over a decade ago.

Dude, lots of people on Slashdot were predicting Gamecube-level sales for the Wii before launch. If you can find me someone who seriously predicted sales of this magnitude, I'll accept your research skills, at least.

Re:

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> Dude, lots of people on Slashdot were predicting Gamecube-level sales for the Wii before launch.

I think the key there is "people on Slashdot." People from Nintendo, who have a lot more experience selling game systems than people from Slashdot, were predicting a great launch.

> If you can find me someone who seriously predicted sales of this magnitude, I'll accept your research skills, at least.

I don't think anyone predicted sales at this level, not even at Nintendo. However, I stand by my original po

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[zippthorne]

If people from Nintendo thought there would be a lackluster launch, what do you think Nintendo's announced predictions would've been?

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[MeanderingMind]

I don't think you understand the implications of that book.

Nintendo restricted the number of titles a developer could release in a single year to 5. That seems a rather large number now, but then developement cycles were much faster. The measure was taken to combat the "shovelware" which had been a major factor in the industry crash.

Not everything Nintendo did in those days was benevolent or good, but artificially creating shortages of systems was not one of their activities. They didn't produce as many cop

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[Chris Burke]

The "buzz" surrounding the Wii has already peaked. By it's very nature, buzz is not something that is sustainable over long periods of time, because it all depends on peoples' emotions and emotions are fickle. It's already been over four months of being sold out. Kids who wanted one for Christmas are still holding the IOUs they got from Santa instead. It is perfectly clear to everybody that the Wii is extremely popular and an unexpected runaway hit. Everyone who could be driven to want one by hype has

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[account_deleted]

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Re:China does need to do more

[djupedal]

but the fact is, if China never gets its act together on IP, it'll never be attractive for more than grunt work R&D
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...

Homebrew?

[Guspaz]

Many products used in homebrew on the DS are manufactured in China, even when designed by western teams. I wonder, does Nintendo consider such flash carts and loaders to be "counterfeit" products?

Re:

[ProppaT]

I think a large part of what Nintendo is talking about are bootleg games. I buy a lot of second hand games from flea markets and when I'm looking at GBA and DS games, I always look carefully at the label on the game. A lot of the games at the flea market are clearly counterfeit. I've also seen a resurgence of retro controllers (SNES in particular) that are "new in the box" pop up at a lot of flea markets and small game stores. I'm fairly sure that these are knock offs as well. I doubt they've been sitt

Re:

[amuro98]

Yeah, the money saved buying pirated goods gets spent on....more pirated goods.

How the heck this got marked as "insightful" is beyond me...

Question: if you didn't have the money to buy the legitmate product in the first place, what "savings" are we talking about here? If I can't afford a $50 item, so I steal it, I haven't "saved" anything.

"I'm sorry mr. store owner, but I can't afford to buy anything, so I'll just steal it - but don't worry - I'll spend savings elsewhere, so I'm still doing good for the ec

Hmmm....

[MarcoG42]

Perhaps I'm just daydreaming, but it seems to me that if the market wants what these 'pirates' are producing, wouldn't the companies being infringed upon be better off just buying them up? They could sell more, at a cheaper price and still make a huge profit. I'm not saying I'm for making the big, mean corporations bigger and meaner, but if they can't keep up with demand or sell for what people are willing to pay, then nuts to them. The products can't cost all that much to create or the 'pirates' wouldn'

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[InsaneGeek]

The cost to make isn't in the physical media. If I measured cost to make the linux kernel only with physical CD media, I would then say that the kernel is worth less than a a single US dollar. All the thousands and thousands of man hours worked to get the kernel to it's kernel state are completely ignored under your model, because you assume that the cost to deliver the physical media is where the value is, when that actually is the least costly and least profitable part of the business.

It's the equivalen

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[DrSkwid]

> I would then say that the kernel is worth less than a single US dollar.

that's overpriced

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[Tofystedeth]

The products can't cost all that much to create or the 'pirates' wouldn't bother making it and selling it for 1/4 or less of it's value, unless there was a nice fat profit involved.

Of course there's plenty of profit involved. They don't have to have to pay for big teams of marketing/executives/legal staff. Not to mention programmers/engineers/artists. All they need is 1 or 2 clever guys who can reverse engineer a cart, or crack a little code. Then its just the cost of pressing/burning CDs, or packaging

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[vux984]

Daydreaming is exactly what you are doing. Think it through.

Company A R&Ds a product through conception, marketing, design, and release. Suppose the unit cost to manufacture and distribute is $14/unit. Now if R&D etc costs 1,000,000 and you want to pay that back in two years, and you project sales at 50,000 per year. Then you'll need to charge $20 to cover that cost, plus a modest profit margin of say 15%. Your price would then be $39.99.

Company B, buys the product and replicates it, skipping all th

Mainland Europe release requires translation

[tepples]

it does NOT cost twice as much to ship a game made in CHINA to Europe as opposed to USA

Can you cite a source for this assertion? A shipment from China to North America has to cross the Pacific Ocean. A shipment from China to the British Isles has to cross both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Stop releasing games in USA months before they come out here

A game sold in the United States is acceptable if it supports only the English language. That won't fly in mainland Europe. Translation to five languages of the mainland costs money and takes time. No, I don't know why they have to release the game simultaneously in the UK+Ireland and in contin

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[Littleman_TAMU]

Can you cite a source for this assertion? A shipment from China to North America has to cross the Pacific Ocean. A shipment from China to the British Isles has to cross both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

You do realize you don't have to travel east all the time? You could, maybe, I dunno, go west. Anyways, GP was just rationalizing his piracy because he's impatient.

There is a limit to human patience

[tepples]

You do realize you don't have to travel east all the time?

So is shipping from China to the British Isles across through the Indian Ocean and through Suez that much cheaper?

Anyways, GP was just rationalizing his piracy because he's impatient.

Impatient? When is the North American release date for the Game Boy Advance game Kuru Kuru Kururin? Beyond the human life span?

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[amuro98]

You can always import - that wouldn't be illegal (at least, not technically)

With import stores dotting the internet, there's no excuse to outright pirate anything - not even games that aren't available in your region.

When copyright law bans parallel import

[tepples]

You can always import - that wouldn't be illegal (at least, not technically)

In some countries, the exhaustion of exclusive distribution rights under copyright after the first sale applies only to distribution within a country. For example, Title 17, United States Code, section 602 [bitlaw.com] appears to prohibit importing more than one copy of a given work. Tough cookies if the game is for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, or Nintendo DS, and you want to play multiplayer mode.

With import stores dotting the internet, there's no excuse to outright pirate anything - not even games that aren't available in your region.

You need to mod your console to play imports, or you need to buy three consoles. Which are you suggesting?

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[Guppy06]

"I just installed my WiiKey (Wii Modchip) 2 hours ago..why?.. cos I wanna buy cheap crap from china? HELL NO.. but cos I live in EUROPE and as most europeeans I am megaSICK of always getting hardware.. AND software.. last.. if not at all.."

You got a mod chip for the only one of the three consoles that was released in Europe at the same time as North America and Japan because you don't like having to wait behind other markets?

"They stop charging twice the price for a game over here as opposed to USA.. it doe

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[MemoryDragon]

Actually if you do a DS module import from the USA to Europe, you usually get the thing cheaper than over here in the store, also half a year til two years earlier.

Europe is just getting Metroid Prime Pinpall, which has been released in the USA in 2005, and there still is no release date for super paper Mario for now, while we get a drought of interesting games over here until summer (No Mario Strikers is not interesting at all, the only interesting game is Impossible Mission and that is a retro game wit

Anyone remember this?

[Mechsae]

A few years back there was a plug and play thing with NES games (mario, contra, duck hunt to name a few) in a cheap looking packaging without any nintendo branding being sold on boardwalks and mall Kiosks in the states. That has to be the most blatant infringment I've ever seen.

Re:

[Noishe]

yes

Yoda-tized

[Mr. Capris]

So...when I saw that Nintendo quote, the wording ("Commented Nintendo in a statement") really reminded me of Yoda. So I took the entire quote and put it through a Text-to-Yoda website, and got this...

Of counterfeit Nintendo products seized from retailers and manufacturing plants in China through the years despite the millions, only been one criminal prosecution, there has. Numerous factories, seized, where tens of thousands of counterfeit Nintendo products were, with only trivial fines or no penalty at

Annoyed

[jrieth50]

I'm just annoyed that everyone quoting piracy never says how many items they estimate on the black market, but always say - we lose $XXX BILLION DOLLARS every year,' etc... That is a red herring. You are first assuming that legitimate paying customers are reaching the market and choosing the cheap 3rd party knock off over the official product. People who pirate to pirate generally do not intend to buy - therefore reducing that figure by 1/2 to 3/4 as I think its safe to say half or more would not buy the of