Wii is region locked, DS is region free. I have no interest in modding the DS because I can buy games online that are cheaper than here in Australia, or not available here. I mod the Wii (legal here dont forget) to do the same. X360 and PS3 are region locking their 'premier' titles, that way they can slap an extra $30 on them for no reason but they are now in Australia, I dont like paying $120 for a game, its rediculas $90 is bad enough. Like I said earlier the rip off prices in Australia is so bad even the government is now involved.

The only region locking I would support is a 2 region system. Normal price for region 1, and a massivly reduced price for region 2. Region 2 only being available in the poorer under developed countries. everyone else can pay the same price, not twice the price just because its in Australia or England.

RedOne

I live in New Zealand - Wii Games can reach 120 dollars. That would be fine if our dollar is low but its not, its at around 78-80 us cents so thats me possibly paying around US$95 for a game!

who in their right mind would pay that much for the average game? An A+ title sure but what about the others.

Therefore i am better off modding->importing->enjoying.

juliopalio

@RedOne: exactly. ps1 and the ps2 too an extent were easily able to be piratable, hence their success.

juliopalio

1. Doesn't matter where you are, piracy is easy to get access to, if you know how and where to find it. It's the same as stealing or other illegal activity,there is no way you can stop it unless every individual are determine to do the right thing, but there are always a handful of people will do it.

2. I bought piracy games and if I like it enough I will buy the original, there are some pirated games I purchased/download, play it for 5-10 minutes and never touched it again.

3. In some country, getting an original copy of a game is really a pain, for example Indonesia. Back in the days of SNES, I only own around 8 original carts not because I'm supporting piracy but I simply cannot purchase the original anywhere (no internet back in those days).

4. Someone mentioned how piracy can kill consoles (ie: Dreamcast). No, it's not true in my opinion, bad games kill consoles. I love my Dreamcast, still play it occasionally nowadays but thinking back, just not enough good games to keep it afloat, PSP anyone? I have the knowledge and easy access to piracy for it, but I haven't touched my PSP since DJ Max 2 released and yes,I bought the the original.

5. The big cheeses always pull out a big numbers where they say they lost x millions amount of money because of piracy. Wish I can believe this,
it's all statistics.

At the end of the day is to educate the mass about the right thing to do, which is lacking in video games industry.

neobooper

Zombie_Crunch

Atrius

keepitreal_ay

So really, whine about something important and I'll stop playing "I feel sorry for you" on my world's smallest violin. I have no clue how Nintendo got their $762 million figure, but if any of you think for even the briefest moment that piracy doesn't cost the industry tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year, you're nuts. I'll make sure to remember that "brilliant" logic the next time a company pulls a Sega and bellies up because they couldn't turn a profit. Cracking down on piracy/illegal mods may not prove the saving point for a company, but every little bit helps (especially when you consider the fact that the raids focused on major sellers and distributors of mod chips rather than individuals who steal games).

Terinije

Rebochan

The number of actual pirated games I had, which I could have got on the high street, was one; Tekken 3. Which I later purchased a real copy of. Nowadays I'm not a kid, so I'm able to afford genuine import hardware (Although when Sony decides they don't like that either, what can you do? Just keep hush-hush about places that sell stuff.)

A lot of modding would be reduced if gamers weren't divided up into regions that got treated differently, and with that the temptation for piracy would be reduced. Would it stop it? Of course not. Would it help? Yes.

Mister Adequate

-

1. "They wouldn't have bought the games anyway!" We have *no* proof of that. Of course a pirate will claim that it's not "good" enough to spend the money, but in that case, why'd they dump the money into modding their system in the first place to play the pirated game in the first place?

2. "I'm poor!" You know what? Every person who's told me this is nowhere close to poor. Internet connection, console hardware worth several hundred dollars, state of the art PC...but funny, as soon as it comes down to paying for the games, suddenly they're "poor". Furthermore, people who are actually poor still don't steal. They go without luxuries.

3. "If the game was good, people would pay for it." Or it's twin, "I liked it enough to play it for months on end, but not to buy it." Which really translates to "I shouldn't have to pay for stuff." Seriously, who honestly thinks stealing a game is a judge of its quality? How many people stole Barbie Horse Adventures instead of Halo 2?

4. "I'm just trying it out." This is similar to the last one, because usually "trying it out" translates to "playing the entire game over and over then deciding I didn't like it and didn't buy it." Or just forgetting the last part of "try before you buy." Or actually reverting to #3 with "It's not good enough to pay for." If there's no demo, too bad, so sad. Ask your friends, do your research, and either take a plunge or go without.

5. "It's the maker's responsibility to stop me from modding!" This is usually trotted out right after the maker has taken action to, you know, stop modding. There's no uncrackable hardware.

And if you think this has no effect on the market, think again. It was fairly recently that I was looking through Bethesda's Fallout boards when one of the developers named piracy as a leading reason for why PC development is dying out. The determination of pirates to continue downloading "Free" games has killed pretty much every incentive to develop on that platform. Pretty much every major PC release is now supplemented by or ported from a console version to recoup costs. If you tell me piracy has nothing to do with that, I will tell you that you're either an idiot or you're lying through your teeth.

Rebochan

"Wii torture pirates."

Terinije

that why the people mod their console and download them.

"Want to trial a game? Hire it."

how can people rent it if it not even release in the region??? yeah, right. that why they should have demo for game or even release at the same time for all region.

----------------------------------------...

i quite like the idea of online demo on the official website (e.g. Mario Striker Charge) which you use your wii internet channel to visit the site to be able to play the demo.

keepitreal_ay

I don't think it should be illegal to mod your console (but it is most places) and the DMCA is junk (but it's the law in the US) -- but really, piracy as a good thing? Please explain how that works, I've never heard of people "trying before they buy" they generally "try, then don't buy". Isn't that what a legitimate rental is for anyway?

Piracy was the death of Sega as a hardware manufacturer, so it's NOT a good thing, ever.

smork

muu

Waka in Japan

Milzo

mgslegrand

NameYourCharacter

keepitreal_ay

I live in Taiwan. I can only buy Japanese consoles and games here, even though I can't friggin READ or UNDERSTAND Japanese. So if I get something, I mod it so I can play US games that I order online.

And sometimes, the importers just don't get a specific game, so the only way to get hold of it in English is a pirated version. (Usually because companies like Sony like to prove how big their legal dept is and shut down importers that do a great job e.g. Lik-Sang)

Dunno about you, but I'd much rather pay my cash for an original that has a guarantee and is going to be of better quality, that is, if I could GET ONE that is.

Fix your stupid region protection crap first, then deal with the piracy that's left over!

Tarislar

Media, homebrew, and region-avoidance, modchips/hacks are cool.

Mode7

So what most of you are really saying is the people that are willing to pay money to buy these games to ensure more games are made, should finance the people that aren't willing to pay anything for these games?

I agree modding itself is an innocent act, but most modding ISN'T used so that people can play homebrew custom made ORIGINAL/FREEWARE apps/games. Most modding if even used for homebrew is used to play/use pirated games/apps.

Defending piracy is pointless, if people are such advocates of piracy why don't they convince everyone in the world to just not pay for anything, then lets see how many NEW 'free' games they can find anymore. yes obviously the games companies are going to make games/new hardware for free for people.

Even though I don't agree with some of these companies that create movies, games and apps the way regioning and pricing works. I disagree more with piracy because, being someone that hasn't bought/downloaded a pirated software in over 10 years, I've come to realise I'm one of those fellows thats financing those advocates of piracy so they can continue pirating and not pay a penny for anything.

charsuipau

Maybe if they actually stopped crippling their systems, gamers wouldn't go out and buy the things to DE-cripple their systems, and maybe tempt themselves into downloading games because the chip can do it. If it was 100% region-free in the first place (like their handheld lines. My, how being region free has hurt sales on THOSE. After all, the DS has no sales at all, right?), then repeat after me...

THEY WOULD NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM!

Overlord44

MetaKz

In fact, half the people I know who bought a PS2 Slim bought it simply because it was easily moddable. Really, this is just another way to generate sales.

I know this sounds crazy, but I have a feeling it's true.

Providence

RJG

That's pretty much commonplace in any company or any financial analysis. "Losses" tend to be defined as the eventual value of an object as opposed to the cumulative value invested into it. IE: say the eventual object in question is a $10 wrench and it starts off as a $1 piece of iron. Something goes wrong in the first step of processing that iron and it's no longer any good. You'll never see the official line as having lost a $1 piece of scrap iron; it'll be losing a $10 wrench.

Aesteval

Recoil

So what does Nintendo to? They leave the same damn exploit in the Wii! If Nintendo isn't going to even try to protect their system then they will have piracy.

CaptCaveman

I swear, you people would fight for anything anti-microsoft, nintendo or sony........

SoCalClone

NumberFourtyThree

"The ability to play games from any region is the number one reason people get into console modding in the first place."

Hmmm, I don't know about that. I think it's about 50/50 to be honest.

dead_red_eyes

"But shouldn't Nintendo be responsible for making consoles that can't be modded?"

Almost anything out there today can be modded, it's pretty hard to make something that can't be modded these days.

dead_red_eyes

Darkest Daze

All this money spent on anti piracy could be spent on making games. The fact is: people pirate all the time. People who pirate won't suddenly start buying games when they can no longer pirate, they will simply stop playing games altogether.

All this DRM nonsense adds costs to the consumer. It's a losing battle. Hardware makers should just start making their shit region free and stop artificially setting higher prices in different territories. The ability to play games from any region is the number one reason people get into console modding in the first place.

RJG

TOCATL

Yeah, and what's with those ass-backwards buffoons forcing us to use grid power? Shouldn't they be responsible for generating perpetual-motion power for their consoles?

Homage

Also the recent wii discs have firmware updates up on them that brick a modded system. Hehe!!!

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Violating warranties is the owner's perogative, and EULAs are still a legal grey area. The 360 is region locked depending on game, and the majority of games are locked to specific regions. www.play-asia.com has a 360 region compatibility list.

DrWyrm

it also seems like the majority of people posting missed the multiple articles about nintendo changing the circuit board layout of the Wii to prevent early mod chips from working. it isn't just NOW that they are working to stop the modding... they've been doing it all along.

defferoo

More systems should be like the DS/GBA and PS3/PSP, and let you play games you bought legitimately regardless of the region you bought them in.

DrWyrm

Wrong the pirates and their enablers constantly admit that if they couldn't pirate they would have to buy the items they pirate.

Mod chips violate the warranty and end user agreements of the hardware. Import players guess what you got software utiliteis or you could buy the foreign hardware like every import orientated website tells you to.

Could you honestly explain why there are ds mod chips or other hardware that claim to remove the ds region coding? There are ps3 modchips and the ps3 is supposed to be region free as is the xbox 360.

You got this thing called renting and trading. Funny how piracy enablers never mention those two alteratives that are more guaranted to not get in trouble with any laws as well as get a more high quality product.

You also seem to be unable to admit that counterfeighted goods are lost sales. Funny that when you actually dig into how corporations tally their money lost to thrift, piracy, counterfitters you actually see they are underestimating the losses by a huge margin.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

People always try to pull the "they wouldn't of bought it anyways" or the "free marketing" argument, but the truth is - those aren't things a business can rely on to sell their products, merely poorly founded unproven excuses and not guarantees. A business has the right to legally protect their products. This was all carried out through unquestionably legal means - unlike the tactics used by some other organizations.

As for the "America's Tax Dollars at Work" argument, give it a rest. The government is made up of many different sections that carry out many different tasks. This happens to be one of the tasks that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for. Good for them, they did their job.

magicat

Still, just going after modchip shops is a going a bit far. I can understand shops that sell illegal copies of games, sure, but just chips themselves?

Altima NEO

The old "We lost x millions" is a fraudulent argument. Even Microsoft admitted to be accepted globally you have to be able to be pirated, without piracy you dont sell as many. Nintendo learned that making piracy of their games too difficult or impossible made them lose out, nearly going bankrupt. Why do you think the Wii was so god damn easy to mod straight up? And now, after its popular and established they are removing the very easy mod step?

Ahh well Ode to Australia, land where we are always so screwed by international companies out government made it mod chips legal. We have professional chains of stores just dedicated to their instilations. Reason? We pay twice as much for every game as anyone else does, just because we are in Australia.

RedOne

I will be modding my Wii this winter so I can play US games because Nintendo Europes scheduling department is run by morons.
Nintendo could stop me by employing capable staff at their European office who will ensure games are released quickly and also by ensuring big Japanese titles are released without region locking.

I'm not saying that this would stop piracy all-together but it would certainly remove the temptation for a lot of people whom' like me want a mod-chip for legitimate reasons.

TokeYo

Bullshit.
There, I said it. It's the same with music and movies (though movies to a lesser extent).
To claim every pirated version as a legitimate loss is just damn greedy, not even half the people who download something will buy it.

Tcata

roflcopter616

Zio

Captain_Canada

CRACK > ISO

I woulda wrote shit loads...
but I ain't from America
I am disgusted

what ever happened to those games that loaded and said:
"say no to drugs"

seems the games industry doesn't give a fuqqing pinch about how our societies turn out....

AS LONG AS IT DOESNT HURT THEIR QUARTER EARNINGS

biobob

xiphos

on a side note, i think theres alot of people who pirate software because they don't have the money to play all those games and ironically, they wouldn't be playing them at all if it wasn't for piracy.

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

TOCATL

I guess SONY learned the hard way from the PSP.

SovMish

whitey9

I think a big selling point to the non-elementary school DS crowd is the fact that piracy is so simple on that machine.

This reminds me of the whole Napster/Metallica thing, but on a much much much much smaller scale.

whitey9

Sloopydrew

It does play any region game though, but when they already have the ability to burn stuff with it, why buy all the games?

eld

Umm, since when? Homebrew is 100 percent legal, mod chips are 100 percent legal. What most people fail to see is this, allow me to break it down..
You can own a gun, as soon as you shoot someone or kill someone its illegal. Same with mod chip, home brew is 100 percent legal, pirate software then you have a 24 hour buffer to destroy that media, unless you own it.

This is stupid, and screw the war on drugs and illegal guns, get those mod chip makers, just goes to show how tax payers money hard at work.

_skitzo_

And what the earlier commenters said is indeed correct; most of the time, pirates wouldn't buy the games they download anyway. However, because they downloaded them, if they're good, then they will tell their friends about how good the game is, and their computer-illiterate friends will then go out and buy the game, because they trust the opinion of a guy who has access to all games and would be able to say "hey, this is worth buying."

Piracy should be looked at as free marketing rather than a drain on the market. Look at Halo 2. That sold what, 9 million copies? More? Yet the French version of the game was leaked a week or two early. San Andreas was also leaked early, and sold considerably well. Madden sells out the ass every year, even though it gets easier and easier to pirate.

Vigilant Gambit

soulscremereturns

If you take away a modders ability to steal, it's not like the motherfucker goes straight and narrow. They usually burn every single game they can get their hands on, regardless of whether they'll play it or not.

A friend of mine bought a modded PS2 in Iraq, got a bunch of games. It stopped working, he hasn't touched a console since. They really aren't losing that much money.

whitey9

AndroidKing

soulscremereturns

Midda

JOAT

Somehow I doubt they lost that much... most of those folk probably wouldn't have bought most of those games. It's usually not the people that have the money to buy games that do this, instead it's the people who don't have the money.

Fujoshi

asianmacker

That $762 mill could be used for development of more (and better quality) titles for the people who always pay for the legit copy of a software.

I don't think we will ever see a console that cant be modded however. It's just a matter of time until someone cracks it every time.

205GTI

Fetus_God_of_Love

crobat62

debloon

How does Nintendo go about seizing property??

Serro