How Console Piracy Affects Gaming

Thanks to GameSpy for posting a three-part article discussing the problems of pirated console games, and the steps being taken to combat the problem. The article talks to IDSA boss Doug Lowenstein, and suggests that "..console piracy is a worldwide industry, as multi-national as wireless telephones or McDonalds hamburgers.", also contrasting the piracy problems of the major manufacturers: "Nintendo's piracy problems are more localized than those of Sony and Microsoft. While GameCube piracy has not been a problem, Game Boy piracy, on the other hand, has proliferated."

Comments

Lik-Sang

[jnguy]

When Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo banded together to make Lik-Sang stop selling its "back-up" products, I think it stopped piracy only to a certain extent. Now people just go else where. There will always be pirates and people that buy and make illegal games. Piracy affects the ability for certain game makers to make good games, because if they don't recieve income from games in the past, they will be unable to create games in the future.

I once saw one of those...

[ronfar]

I once saw one of those multi-cartridge Gameboy advance cartridges. I can't say where, of course, but rest assured I immediately reported the perpetrators to the BSA.

I didn't notice any problem with the quality of the games, I guess extensive play will be required. <bsa-protection>What a pity I immediately destroyed the cartridge in disgust at the ripping off of the poor software giants and movie studio execs who had licensed their preciousss IP.</bsa-protection>

However, if I had played it extensively, I'm sure I would have noticed some of the false advertising on the box compared to its contents. While the four gameboy advance games (Harry Potter/Mario Advance 2/Lord of the Rings/Shrek: Hassle in the Castle) I'm sure would've been as advertised, I noticed that Dig Dog (sic) was shown on the cover as having Doraemon characters in it, I guess due to Dig Dug's resemblance to an earless, robotic cat and Doraemon's relative popularity in SE Asia. There would've been some wierd games too like "King of Ghost."

Yes, 115 games in all... but most of those were old gameboy games that I doubt would sell outside of Asia anyway... like two Majong games...

<bsa-protection>Oh well, all hail BSA/MPAA/RIAA and their continuing war against copyright infringement. Their neverending quest to screw up every computer everywhere and crush legitimate reverse engineering projects like Bleem!, Gameboy Advance Flash Cartridges and Freecraft has inspired me to behave morally whenever I see anyone try to infringe their preciousss IP.</bsa-protection> Of course, some might say that in such a war, morality has become a gray area....