The losses are adding up, and Nintendo is not happy.
Nintendo of America has asked the US Trade Representative to encourage governments around the world to crack down on piracy of Nintendo video games and systems. This was done under a process through which the US Trade Rep acquires public input.
The video game company claims to have lost $975 million to piracy in 2007. Jodi Daugherty, senior director of anti-piracy at Nintendo of America, attributes this rash of counterfeit Nintendo games and systems to Nintendo's success in the industry:
"The unprecedented momentum enjoyed by Nintendo DS and Wii makes Nintendo an attractive target for counterfeiters. We estimate that in 2007, Nintendo - together with its publishers and developers - suffered nearly USD 975 million worldwide in lost sales as a result of piracy.Nintendo will continue to work with governments around the world to aggressively curtail this illegal activity."
China remains a hot spot, the greatest source of Nintendo's piracy woes. On the other hand, Korea exceeds its massive neighbor in terms of illegal distribution via the internet. Mexico and Brazil have also been named.
The ESA already filed a similar report earlier this week. Of course there are the usual trouble spots, but according to the ESA, Canada is guilty of letting pirated games into retail circulation. Meanwhile, an "online piracy explosion" has afflicted Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. The Middle East and Eastern Europe are also considered worrisome locations.
It sounds as though we're a little behind in terms of our piracy rates. Perhaps if Nintendo was slightly more generous with their supply and distribution...
forums
I know they made Windows Genuine Advantage or w/e, but is that it?
The only type of piracy that I don't agree with is when a person not associated with a company sells its products at a lower price. The type of piracy that I agree with is one where no one spends or makes money.
Furthermore, companies don't seem to realize that much of the general public do not know how to get pirated material online. Even if they do, they have to go through all sorts of risks- viruses, corrupted files, tracking, and of course time. Unlike going to a store and immediately picking up a copy of the game you wanted, you have to wait downloading a file for a week. with all of the shit you have to go through, companies should not make a big deal out of it; they are still making their millions/billions of dollars.
nintendo has made more than enough from the wii and they still complain?
so what's new, piracy was always there and will always be so just live with it, they say they lost 975M USD, did someone ask them how they earned from the ds/wii?
and what would they do with their money anyway? would they give it charity, build a hospital or something? HELL NO!
they would just fatten their pockets
Company's have expenses. Such as, paying their employees. Such as, the electric bill, which, for a company that spends most of it's time on computers, should be fairly high.
The top guys are going to get their money no matter what. If they get more money, chances are the pay raises for everyone. Budget cuts won't affect the big guys in comfy chairs 'fattening their wallets'.
However, if Nintendo, like any other company, doesn't make as much as it used to, budgets get cut. Suddenly, they don't have room for that worker at the bottom of the food chain, and now he has no income and his family starves.
Good job, assholes. You just starved an innocent man's family because you couldn't do without pirating that game.
To say in your own words,
"Suddenly, they don't have room for that worker at the bottom of the food chain, and now he has no income and his family starves.
Good job, assholes. You just starved an innocent man's family because you couldn't do without (insert lame excuse in here)."
I'm not standing up for piracy, I just think your argument fails in the whole 'no income and starving family' thingamajig
the money they have are more than enough to pay workers and expenses
if they really cared about them then they would pay them more than they do
you don't just blame everything on piracy and you're done, suddenly all the blame goes to piracy and you're clean
and say that no more piracy would exist and nintendo earns the double of what it says it's lost, what would happen then?
would all its employees earn a raise?
ask yourself that
or would the world be a better place?
no way dude, just...no way
companies like nintendo, sony or m$ have lost track of how much money they have, they only want to get more and more, everyone wants money nowadays, companies ike that grow greedier by the moment
Nontheless, x_revenge, what you are blatantly saying is that it's okay for everyone to steal from Nintendo because they are rich. Eventually, they will begin to run out of money if this trend continues.
I used to think nintendo was an OK Company, now they are just as bad as Micro$oft.
Can anyone say they wouldn't be.
Right, so one guy being paid minimum wage for about a year makes each game? amazing insight.
Regardless though, it's generally a bit more, although the Wii and DS are the cheapest systems to develop on for publishers due to their SDK pricing structure and established toolset.
If they were pulling titles off with only $20k then one could really claim that the DS prints money for gaming companies. haha