Last week, while most gamers were off writing screeds about their disappointment with E3, Wii hacker bushing was drafting an open letter to Nintendo stating that he and fellow coders had found an exploit that allows stock Wii consoles to play copied games, and seeking cooperation from Nintendo to patch this hole in such a way that homebrew is left alone.
He quickly received a response from Nintendo -- or, rather, a Gmail address for "Nin Tendo." "Tyson Green" (also the name of the Halo 3 Multiplayer Design Lead) sent a curt message stating that while Nintendo didn't approve of people messing around with their console, he wanted to talk about this piracy issue.
Of course, that one is a fake, as are many of the responses posted. But bushing indicated that, while most of the emails he received and posted were fake, he did in fact receive correspondence from the for-real Nintendo.
We all know how piracy is very bad for the gaming industry. But, this is a first for us. it seems those filthy pirates are not only counterfeiting discs, but also creating knock-off hardware, as evidenced by the fake Wiimote and nunchuk you see above. Thankfully, site YYJoy has done a lot of hard work to make sure you aren't one of the folks unlucky enough to buy one of these.
Not only do they compare the quality of construction between Nintendo's official first-party hardware, but they also do a thorough inspection of the packaging, providing us with tips on how to spot these knock-offs on the shelf.
Only a few weeks after pirates figured out how to install Virtual Console games on their Wiis for free using the Twilight Hack, a clever trick for running unofficial code on an unmodded systems, hackers have expanded their counterfeit offerings to allow bootleg copies of WiiWare titles.
We're not yet sure if online modes are working, but the fact that pirates can install Japanese WiiWare ROMs/WADs on a US system, as shown above with Family Ping Pong, is impressive (and criminal!). Considering how fast the Wii's piracy scene has been moving, someone will likely soon release instructions on how to bypass microtransactions and install downloadable content updates for free, too.
How long will it be before Nintendo steps in to end these shenanigans? Will that mean the end of Wii homebrew, as well? See, this is why we can't have nice things.
Presented with a new toy to play with, Wii hackers have gone right to work producing a variety of game mods with the recently released Trucha Signer. For those of you out of the loop, the application allows programmers to run augmented games on chipped Wiis -- the gore-enabled Manhunt 2 mod is a good example of the software's possibilities.
So far, a lot of the developments focus on making it easier to play pirated copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but there are a few non-piracy-related modifications, too:
Today is the day where we stopped believing in everything good in the world.
As you can see in the above video (which we suggest you avoid if you don't want to see the first 5 minutes or so of the game's opening gameplay segments and cutscenes), the reported pirated version of Super Mario Galaxy that was leaked online is a reality and we now live in a world more dark, cold and evil than we could've possibly imagined. Hopefully, based on this video, Nintendo's pack of lawyers can hunt this person down and physically beat the price of the game out of him resolve the issue at hand.
Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a paraphrase, but Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed the company's plans to sell Wii consoles in China next year. Although Wii hardware is currently available in China, all systems are imported unofficially or distributed through third parties. Nintendo thus wants to start official distribution soon.
According to Iwata, Nintendo's first priority is to meet the demand of existing markets, but he recognizes the potential in tapping the Chinese market. That makes a bit of sense, seeing how China has a population of OVER A BILLION.
We do wonder, however, if Nintendo will be able to compete with the already existing option for cheap, pirated Wii consoles in China. Unless Nintendo can introduce cheaper systems into the market, or get rid of the existing piracy, folks might be swayed to buy the mod-chipped consoles that play both U.S. and Japanese games. Even with piracy, though, we're sure that Nintendo will move plenty of systems in China and make even moremoney.
Posted Oct 25th 2007 6:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Apparently GameStop/EB stores have been receiving full Super Mario Galaxy discs to use as in-store demos. On the store systems, gameplay is restricted to 10 minutes, but the restriction is not inherent to the disc ... which means that if an unscrupulous EB employee were to sneak off with the disc and rip it, he or she could then make the full game available online.
Which is exactly what has happened. Soon, people who wouldn't buy the game anyway will be playing it for free, weeks before its release. We don't know where it's available, and we're not going to look, and neither should you. Of course, the dumped game will only work for chipped Wiis.
For some reason, we can't muster up the expected level of outrage for this egregious crime. Sure, a guy broke the law, but very few people will actually download this, and we're pretty sure that Super Mario Galaxy will do a nice amount of business. Besides, you totally don't get a free coin when you steal the game. Right?
During a court-ordered raid of Supreme Factory Limited facilities, over 10,00 game-copying devices and chips were seized. The whole seizure lasted three days, as Nintendo representatives seized devices used to copy DS titles from the internet and other devices that allow Wii game discs to be copied. On top of the equipment, there was also massive documentation of ties with a French company, explaining the scope of this illegal operation.
"Piracy affects the entire video game industry, from large companies to independent developers," says Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director for anti-piracy. She goes on further to say "It can destroy years of hard work by a team of very talented software developers, who strive to create games consumers enjoy playing. Copying the developers' work and spreading the game files globally is blatant stealing."
On Friday, Mexican police stormed 12 different suspected counterfeiters. They managed to come away with 15,000 counterfeit Nintendo products, including over 4,500 counterfeit Wii discs. Going down in a major "fayuca" (contraband) market in Guadalajara, it's yet another campaign against crime in the territory as customs agents also recently nabbed over 5,000 counterfeit products entering Manzanillo, from China.
"Mexico is Nintendo's largest market in Latin America, where the problem of video game piracy is widespread," said Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director of anti-piracy. "Since January, Nintendo has worked with law enforcement agencies worldwide to seize 100,000 counterfeit Wii games."
No, it has nothing to do with that not so super Mario. Instead, this has to do with pirated games. As an advertisement for the real deal, honest gaming software that frequents retail shelves near you, it shows that people who are looking for that pirated hook up won't get the real thing, but some kind of deformed product. So, do as the video says: buy games and don't support piracy.
Our undercover brother from another mother, GameOPS, has continued its documentation of video game piracy in the Philippines with more packaging photos taken at a Manila mall. The island nation's counterfeiters aren't content with just purposely mislabeling GameCube titles; they're taking a page from their handheld capers, packing multiple titles into one disc and selling them as unofficial Wii anthologies.
The 4-in-1 Zelda "Collector's Edition" pictured above contains the following GC/Wii releases - Four Swords Adventures, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina Time [sic] -- all for only 400 pesos (approximately $8.75). Further insulting the series, the offending shop also sells a Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders 2-in-1 pack for the same price, suggesting equal worth. That is some straight-up malarkey. Jump past the post break for more examples of this duplicitous practice.
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?
The last time we visited the Philippines, we stopped at a video store and picked up a movie labeled Anaconda 4, amazed to find that the horrible horror film had received three sequels which we'd never heard about. Imagine our surprise when we popped in the VHS tape later that evening, only to find that Anaconda 4 was actually Komodo, a completely unrelated B-movie with absolutely no anacondas in it whatsoever. It's a good thing we passed on Breakfast Club 3.
Filipino site GameOPS found that pirates are up to their old tricks again, copying GameCube games onto DVD discs and packaging them as Wii releases. Titles like Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition are advertised with new covers that've been rebranded with Wii logos and boxart elements. Unlike official GameCube-to-Wii ports, these don't even feature tacked-on waggle controls!
When asked about the "Wii" copy of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on display at ShopesVille, a department store in Manila's Greenhills Shopping Center, one of the salesladies explained that it's the same Metal Gear Solid release as the upcoming PS3 game. We bet that all the people who argued about the Wii not being able to handle next-gen graphics feel a bit silly now! Check past the break for a couple more photos of the counterfeit case jackets.
Posted Aug 2nd 2007 10:30AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement mobilized today against a major threat: modchips. In "the largest national enforcement action of its kind targeting this type of illegal activity", they executed 32 search warrants of suspected modchip distributors. Nintendo put out a press release, which can be found after the break, in support of the government's actions in support of their massive business. "Nintendo and its developers and publishers lost an estimated $762 million in sales in 2006 due to piracy of its products," said Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director of anti-piracy, presumably counting every known piece of pirated software as a lost full-price sale.
The government (and Nintendo) may see console modding as a black-and-white piracy issue, but it isn't at all. Modchips are primarily designed to enable the use of games imported from other regions, the locking of which on consoles is also used to lock out illegal copies. Turn off region lock, and you cut the audience for mod chips significantly. But even beyond opening up other regions, modchips enable users to extend the utility of their consoles in interesting ways. For an example of modchips being used for awesome, we point at the Xbox Media Center, which allows audio and video media of pretty much any format to be played on a $150 Xbox.
While Kenney Vleugels developed Wii Covermaker to help with designing packaging art for "back-ups" -- a practice we don't endorse -- this little application can still be pretty useful for easily creating CD jackets for games that aren'tpirated.
Wii Covermaker allows you to import images and attach to them a number of elements common to Wii game covers: ESRB and PEGI ratings, logos for several prominent developers and publishers, and a header strip. There are also options for you to drop in the "CD Type" and a credit for the boxart's author.
We would like to see a few more features, like an option for DVD covers and a header strip that better resembles the official one, but those will probably come with future updates. For now, we'll settle with this ersatz Zombies Ate My Neighbors CD case we've put together, wondering to ourselves when we'll ever be able to fill its empty plastic. Leave us to our sorrows and jump past the post break for a Wii Covermaker demonstration video.
Last week, while most gamers were off writing screeds about their disappointment with E3, Wii hacker bushing was drafting an open letter to Nintendo stating that he and fellow coders had found an exploit that allows stock Wii consoles to play copied games, and seeking cooperation from Nintendo to patch this hole in such a way that homebrew is left alone. 
We've heard a lot about piracy lately, from the 
