Piracy is still a very big issue for game developers, especially in Third World countries where the purchasing power is extremely low compared to developed nations, hence the need for everything pirated. Word on the street has it that Nintendo and Hong Kong authorities managed to break up a major piracy operation for both Wii and Nintendo DS platforms earlier this week, but I find this move pretty pointless especially when it is so easy to download ROMs from the Internet and copying them over to other third party solutions like the R3 or M3 card on the DS. Take note – Game Addicts in no way condones piracy and pleads you to work for the games you love – that way, developers will see their efforts being rewarded and they will then work harder on future titles for your enjoyment.

Here’s some word from Frank Yu on next generation piracy in China.

I know the pirates and the modders in China. They are able to chip the Japanese Wii but the US Wii has more protection. For games like Paper Mario, that needed a firmware update on the Internet which even modded Wii’s could get. On the new Metroid, the Internet update does not seem to work for modded Wiis this time…(no doubt) a solution is being created.

Yes, the Xbox 360 hardware is totally broken for pirated games…however, if you leave your mod chip active MS will detect it and shut you out of Xbox Live. I have heard rumours of mod chips that can be switched off so that it toggle between a modded Xbox and an unmodded one to go on Live. I have brought many MS Xbox people to the shops here in China that do the modding (its not illegal to install the chip as far as I know but it is illegal to technically sell the console). Folks at MS are always impressed by the speed and workaround that hackers and modders do to the motherboard. Of course we don’ t tell them we’re MS…there are a lot of foreigners who go to these shops too.

What do you think could be done? Do you think lowering the price of original games to match the locals’ salary would solve this dilemma?

Source: Play No Evil

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