Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
Say what you will about the cost of the goods, 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. We're not talking about an economy like the US where there is an argument for liberalizing IP laws; we're talking about an economy where there seems to be no reliable enforcement of IP rights except when the Chinese government needs to make an example out of someone to appease foreign interests. This is not a fight over fair use rights, this is a fight over whether there should be any practical protection at all for people who make creative works and do intense research.
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.
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.
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 official product if piracy was not an option. I agree that the piracy has to stop, but to pretend as though the RIAA or Nintendo would be the recipient of billions of dollars in added revenue if piracy stopped tomorrow is ludicrous.