Nintendo Fined $143m for Price-Fixing

kyz writes "The BBC is reporting that the anti-trust branch of the European Commission has fined Nintendo 146 million euros (roughly $143m) for preventing its distributors from selling games as cheaply as they are sold in other European Union countries. For example, "prices of Nintendo products were up to 65% higher in Germany or the Netherlands than in Britain". Now if only the EU could do this with Microsoft, Levi Strauss and the MPAA members..."

Comments

Re:Do you think upon hearing the verdict....

[EnderWiggnz]

thats sonic, numbnuts - owned by sega.

much more accurate if he jumped in the air, ate a mushroom and some flowers and started throwing fireballs at them through his nose.

Re:Nintendo never changes

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny. As a matter of fact, I owned two NES decks, and I never received either of these, nor did I hear word from it.

I wonder if you got your mod points simply because people believed you, or if you're really telling the truth. Provide some links, please.

The cultural ruins of Europe

[joneshenry]

A century ago Europe dominated the world not just in the sciences and engineering, but in art, literature, theater, and music. Today the European continent lies in cultural ruins, a modern day Roman empire helpless against successive waves of outside invasion.

I think it will become evident that video games are part of the art of this age. In that context it is baffling that Europe has little influence in the current artistic project. Europe speaks better English and has longer historical ties to the United States, yet has eschewed participating in an industry whose size now is greater than that of the movie industry. Japanese, not European artists, are in their games and anime successfully fusing both Western and Eastern culture into the new world youth culture.

Fines for unfair trade practices do nothing to address the real problem, which is that Europe is not producing for itself its own fresh supply of culture. How is this possible given Europe's history, tradition, and diversity?

There is imbalance here which is not good for humanity. Social welfare systems cannot be the ultimate goal, statis cannot be the objective. The argument must be that in comfort creativity and discovery are enhanced. We must find a way to escape the paradox that Orson Welles stated when he said, "In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Re:Nintendo never changes

[Tokerat]

......eeexxcepptt it's quite a bit worse to murder someone?

You got free shit, dont' complain.

Although now that I think about it, why wasn't Nintendo ordered to price their games reasonably as well?