NVIDIA Boss Weeps For PC Piracy

NVIDIA's Roy Taylor is not, as you can probably hazard a guess, a fan of piracy in the PC games market. So much so that, while speaking with Eurogamer, he's made an impassioned plea, employing the language of the youth of today in order to get his point across:

I think that we've arrived at a point now where I don't know how anyone could ever possibly justify pirating a game. I just don't know how anyone could consider that a cool thing to do - it's not. It sucks.

NVIDIA bombards PC game pirates [Eurogamer]

Mass Effect Copy Protection An Opportunity To Use The Adjective 'Draconian'

No Madden 09 On PC? Blame Pirates

Piracy's a big issue on the PC. I can't turn a blind eye to the fact that it's very difficult for us...and we lose money making a game. At some point, I have an obligation not to bring out products that lose money.

UAE State Enforces God Of War Ban

A UAE national said he was one of the people who was shocked to discover that the game was distributed in commercial areas, including the Central Souq, Al Rolla and sports shops in Nuammiya. "I knew that it was banned, but many of my friends were able to buy pirated copies from Dh5 to Dh10. I was shocked to see how much it contradicted Islamic values," said Khalid Bin Deemas, adding that it was dangerous as the video game was popular among children.

Nintendo Goes After Paper Pirates

Sure there's plenty of video game and computer game piracy going on around the world, but what about those nefarious paper pirates? The nairdowells who spend their days copying Pokemon trading cards, not digital assets.

Well Nintendo is on to them too.

In one case on March 26, law enforcement in New York raided seven stores that were known fronts for faux Pokemon cards, seizing thousands of cards and making several arrests. In another earlier this month a Chinese production facility was raided and nearly 1.2 million Pokecards seized.

Nintendo says that during the past 16 months alone more than 47 million counterfeit pokemon cards have been seized at facilities around the world. One seizure alone in China netted 26 million cards.

"Pokémon wants to send a message to importers and producers that we will not stand for the distribution of fraudulent Pokémon product," says Pokémon spokesperson, J.C. Smith. "Pokémon is committed to ensuring our fans receive the quality product they've come to expect."

Wait, hold the phone! Pokemon have a spokesperson? Where the hell have they been during the long plight of the caged Pokemon. Why haven't they had a word with Gabe?

Nintendo Spooks Retailers Into Pulling R4 Carts

Another Mexico Raid Snatches 28,800 Pirated Games

Piracy and Casual Games

A couple of weeks ago, Reflexive's director of marketing Russell Carrol issued a 'startling installment' of his regular Gamasutra column. The issue? Piracy, DRM and casual games. His conclusion, based on data from Reflexive, was that 'for every 1,000 pirated copies we eliminated, we created 1 additional sale.' Well, some people had a hissy fit and he's back with some more data and discussion of the issue of piracy:

The 1000:1 ratio is really, I think, the key takeaway of the article. Several people have grasped that and started applying it to different numbers in the industry, and the results are very disappointing.

Clearly, if we could always have a big gain from a fix that maintains itself, it is worth spending the time to fight piracy. However, since that isn't always the case, it can sometimes (often?) be pretty discouraging to try and stop piracy.

One of my favorite blogs deals with the issue of piracy relatively frequently, and I'm interested in the pirated goods market in Asia - but Mainland bootleggers are the least of some companies' worries. I think as long as people are selling things, there are going to be people out there trying to figure out how to get it for free; but I'd be curious to know what companies have found to be most successful in terms of trying to stem the tide.

Piracy & Casual Games - The Follow-Up [GameSetWatch]

THQ Creative Director Rants On Piracy, Death Of Iron Lore

Chris Taylor - Secure PC Gaming Is The Future

If PC gaming is to survive, the old ways must die. So says Gas Powered Games boss Chris Taylor, who believes that rampant piracy will kill the industry unless a move is made towards secure games - games hosted on a server that require player authentication in order to play. In fact, Taylor says that such a move could not only save PC gaming, but potentially lower prices all around.

"It inconveniences a little but now they know why. And then we can get the economics back in line and maybe we can actually start offering it up at a lower price point in the future. So it will come around full circle"

Square Enix Cuts Down Sword Pirates

Odds are many of you already own one or more Final Fantasy replica weapons - and that frightens me - but at least they are generally of the more shoddy, unlicensed sword replicas you were likely to find on the cheap via eBay or Bob's Discount Cutlery Emporium. Now Square Enix is taking steps to get those sharp, pointy objects out of the hands of fans, having filed a federal lawsuit in the Central District of California against those whole would infringe upon their intellectual property. At least four manufacturers are named in the suit, which came about after the US Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol seized a crate of counterfeit swords designed in the style of famous Final Fantasy weapons. Square Enix investigated, and while many resellers ceased their rampant reselling, the companies targeted by this lawsuit refused to cooperate, calling down spiky-haired justice upon them.

Street Fighter IV, The Pirated NES Version

Thanks, Torokun!