We've heard a lot about piracy lately, from the seizure of modchips to GameCube games being sold under the Wii label, but one thing we haven't heard is what you think of the whole deal. Like most gamers, we're pretty firmly against pirated games, but modchips tend to send things into a gray area for a lot of the community. Should some modding be okay? Is there any way to draw the line and prevent piracy while allowing some mods? Do you even think there should be?Posts with tag modchips
Wii Warm Up: Your thoughts on piracy
We've heard a lot about piracy lately, from the seizure of modchips to GameCube games being sold under the Wii label, but one thing we haven't heard is what you think of the whole deal. Like most gamers, we're pretty firmly against pirated games, but modchips tend to send things into a gray area for a lot of the community. Should some modding be okay? Is there any way to draw the line and prevent piracy while allowing some mods? Do you even think there should be?Pirates rule the Philippine seas
After a tour of the country last year, Indian President Abdul Kalam described the Philippines as a "smiling republic." Wherever he went, Kalam was met with smiling faces. Well, you'd be grinning too if you saw how cheap their games are. Thanks to the black market, popular Nintendo Wii titles are priced as low as $5 in some shops. Piracy has become so widespread in the Southeast Asian country, even Sony admits that most of its Playstation software sold in the Philippines are bootlegged copies.
Filipino site GameOPS found that many stores also offer modchip installations. For about $51, you can have your system hacked to play these counterfeit games at the local mall or market. Furthermore, some shops advertise console bundles, selling imported and modded US Wiis with five copied games of your choice for around $450. Similar deals for chipped Xbox 360 systems with 10 pirated titles are actually cheaper at $388.
With such a high level of piracy already in place, Nintendo will have a lot to work against when -- or if -- it decides to finally launch the Wii in the Philippines.
Solderless Wii modchips on the way?
If you've been curious about fixing your Wii to dabble with homebrew or play titles from other regions, but don't trust your abilities enough to mess with the console's innards, there might be a solution in the works for you. WiiNewz forum member Takrin recently posted photos of his hardware project in progress, a prototype modchip that requires no soldering to install. With nothing to attach the modchip to though, how does it stay in place? Takrin suggests "double sided tape on one side" and "foam which presses it to your drive on the other." That doesn't sound like a very stable setup, but we hope to see this development spawn more sophisticated and accessible mods in the future. To be honest, if a monkey can't install it, we probably wouldn't be able to either.
[Via MaxConsole]
Wii piracy in China is serious business
And we're not being sarcastic at all. Apparently, when the Wii was introduced into the market in Shanghai, it retailed for a price of 3,000 Yuan, which comes to about $388 USD (we could be wrong, apparently there are different types of Yuan over there). Shortly after that, the consoles started showing up with modchips built into them and Japanese consoles imported into the region dropped their price to 2,100 Yuan, which is about $271 USD. Even worse, pirated games could be found VERY cheap over there, only costing 10 Yuan, or little over $1 USD.
The price for a console over there has shot back up to 3,000 Yuan again, which is likely due to the demand for the system being skyrocketed by the cheap solutions the piracy scene offers over there. This, of course, will definitely attract Nintendo's attention, hopefully causing the company to take action. But really, what action can they take?
See also: Wii circuitry changed to thwart modchips?
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