In a raid executed last Sunday, 85,000 "discs" of pirated software and other counterfeit goods were seized at an East Yorkshire market. One notable bit of contraband brought in by the haul was a pile of carts marked Volume 9 DS Games, each cart loaded with £6,000 ($11,859) of DS games according to the Entertainment Leisure And Software Publishers' Association's team of "forensics experts."
The ELSPA reports that the Volume 9 DS Games carts have been circulating for the past month and contain approximately 200 commercial releases, which explains where the £6,000 estimate sprung from (£30 x 200). We did the math -- well, actually, our calculators did the math -- and you would have to mow about 593 lawns to raise enough money to purchase that many games. That is, of course, assuming you're not one of our smart (and handsome) readers who follow our regular posts on video game bargains.
We know a few of you out there are pirates -- you make sure to rub it in our face whenever we lament about overpriced new releases and expensive imports. Have you bootlegged anything close to £6,000 of commercial DS games? Have you packed all those black-market ROMs into one cart to create your own Volume 9 DS Games collection? And how did you end up spending the money that should've gone to the people who worked hard to create the products you filched?
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
4-11-2008 @ 12:58PM
foosnark said...
I'm both a developer and a musician who's released albums. However... I'm an MMO developer so that's kind of pirate-proof, and am very indie so I recognize anyone stealing my music had about a 0.000000001% chance of ever paying for it in the first place. I simply gave my last album away as a free download anyway.
I don't like piracy, and I buy what I use.
I also think anti-piracy efforts are ultimately more harmful to both industries than the actual piracy is.
I own an M3 so I can play homebrew stuff. I thought maybe someday I'd install ROMs of carts that I already own, for the convenience factor of not having to carry those carts around... but I haven't bothered to do that yet.
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4-12-2008 @ 12:23AM
Ferdinand said...
That particular £6000? I don't know, it probably went towards the Mercedes. I know that the £60 a week I save by pirating PC games gives me my weekend weed baggie and a couple of Es for when I go clubbing. The PS2 modchip, now that beautiful thing provided the seed capital for my first business and my first million (age 24, hell yes). I guess you could say the hacked PSP covers my losses in the casino, which have been pretty hefty lately, but totally worth it - I can't get enough of the high-roller girls you get in there!
I've had my eye on a jetski, anyone recommend a good 360 modchip?
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4-12-2008 @ 6:53AM
Ethan said...
Er, yay.
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4-12-2008 @ 11:16AM
Brittany said...
Pirating is very good for trying out games. Like many have said, when you see a game in a magazine it's really hard to tell if it is going to be good or not. You don't want to support a shovelware developer by buying their game then later finding out how much crap it is.
I'm one of those people that will not buy used games because the money made from it is just profit to the seller, not the developer.
Support the developers that deserve it guys, if you pirate all the good games and parents of little kids who don't understand go out and buy all the shovelware for their kids... guess which business is doing better? Guess what kinds of games we are more likely to see more of?
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4-13-2008 @ 9:22AM
Omen said...
Games!? You can put DS games on flash cards!? All I have is pr0n.
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4-15-2008 @ 9:36AM
LimaBravo said...
Better late than never.
a) Piracy occurs because games do not cost $2 million dollars to create. Games cost bugger all to create. Game developers/designers/coders/etc need to stop gouging their wages for their really over rated talents. Most kids in their bedrooms do better work than the paid elite at the top of the chain ( see mod scene for details). Now corporate interest in distribution on the DS's unique card system will cut into that BUT ..... How much does a blank DS card cost really ? How much does the burning cost ? GBP£40 a card I dont think so. I doubt it costs £30 either or £20. Mebbe £10 if you including the game costs, the manual & printed covers. Mebbe.
b) Games released in the US in March dont reach UK until April. Their both in same language easier to pirate, play & finish than wait for release in UK.
c) The M3/R4 cards allow connoiesuers to carry there games in one easy to not lose card :D & you can watch films & listen to music & read books & read comics & ....
Why didnt Nintendo figure out a propriety ROM system where only registered owners could play their officially downloaded/installed games on a Nintendo approved 8 Gb ROM card of doom that doubled as a media player.
d) As mentioned earlier, A pirated copy is not a sale far from it. All the titles I own on PC/NDS are pirated first to see if the makers deserve the cash from a purchase.
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4-22-2008 @ 1:00AM
Seb656 said...
YAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! I just found this thread.
I have plenty of DS roms and plenty of prOn. I love my DS. Want to know the truth? Most pirates wouldnt pay for the games anyway. If you told me there was no way to pirate the DS I wouldn't have bought one. I only steal that which I wouldnt waste my money on. I am sorry if your a developer but you will survive (the music industry has). As for publishers, BURN IN HELL!! Espically EA.
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4-22-2008 @ 10:09AM
Verme99 said...
Well, I live in a country without official Nintendo representation. I pirate games in my Supercard. How Am I suppose to buy all the games that I want? Import them all? for each import I need to pay 60% of the TOTAL value of the package (including the shipping value).
I think Nintendo is getting enough money from me, since I bought DS, DS lite, GBA and GC systems (this one I bought imports, just cause I got a good scheme in USA to get games cheaper). Otherwise, they woilr never see my money.
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