From the "forms of piracy we didn't know existed" department: Nintendo (and the police!) have cracked down on pirated Pokémon cards. Last month, seven stores in New York were raided by police, with counterfeit Pokemans confiscated and multiple arrests made. In addition, law enforcement officials seized about 1.2 million fake cards from a fake card factory (the factory was real) in China. According to a press release sent out yesterday, Nintendo and Pokémon USA are attempting to curtail the production and proliferation of copyrighted Pokémon Trading Card Game materials. The real surprise here is that people are still buying Pokémon Trading Card Game cards."Pokémon wants to send a message to importers and producers that we will not stand for the distribution of fraudulent Pokémon product," said Pokémon spokesperson, J.C. Smith. "Pokémon is committed to ensuring our fans receive the quality product they've come to expect." But which Pokémon do they have doing QA work?
[Press release available here]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-08-2008 @ 4:30PM
MRQueso said...
Yea, kids are still buying um, even at my school (High School) Kids sit in the library and Play Pokemon on DS and Card(40+ kids out of 4000)
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4-08-2008 @ 4:31PM
Donald said...
Alakazam's in charge of QA, what with its 5000 IQ and all.
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4-08-2008 @ 5:03PM
hvnlysoldr said...
That reminded me of the controversy over Kadabra's triple SSS being mistaken for SS of the Nazi secret police.
4-08-2008 @ 4:42PM
Mad Martin Kinderhook said...
I dabbled in the Pokemon TCG in my youth from the time it was first released in 1998 or 1999 to around 2003, when the craze died down and most TCG league locations were disbanded. I can attest to counterfeit Pokemon cards existing since the very beginning of the game--generally sold at shady 99 cent stores in the inner city or at flea market stalls ran by Asian immigrants importing all sorts of cheaply pirated and Engrishy goods from their home countries. Most were just poorly-scanned versions of Japanese Pokemon cards with babelfished text. I'm fairly surprised that pirates are still targeting the Pokemon TCG considering that it's all but dead (I most frequently see counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh cards now), but I'm even more surprised that Nintendo waited ten years to hunt the counterfeiters down (although, technically, the TCG belonged to Wizards of the Coast for the first half of its existence.)
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4-08-2008 @ 5:20PM
Psy said...
So it's all but dead now? Good. I got out of it around the same time you did, but for unrelated reasons*. I was kind of missing it lately though, and considered getting back into it. But it seems I won't have to do that if what you say is true. That wasn't me saying "good", by the way. It was my wallet.
*IRONY ALERT: the reason involved a girl that I hung out with at the local card shop on tournament nights who, after a bad decision on my part, I could no longer face. I subsequently stopped playing altogether since I could no longer play in the tournaments.
And that is my life story.
4-08-2008 @ 6:42PM
Conda said...
it's far from "all but dead", in fact its bigger now than i ever saw it in the Wizards days
4-08-2008 @ 7:58PM
Mad Martin Kinderhook said...
I find that pretty hard to believe. I know this is anecdotal experience vs. anecdotal experience here, but from what I've gathered in since I retired from the TCG it's mostly a NYC/LA/Chicago/etc affair now. Dedicated enclaves in the highest-population-metropolises, but nothing like the universal success it once enjoyed. I still maintain that it's become something very niche.
4-08-2008 @ 5:05PM
[.sm0ke.] said...
Gotta Xerox 'em all!
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4-09-2008 @ 11:39AM
sixtyfps said...
That was some massively entertaining coverage, JC.
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