The folks at the Entertainment Software Association took a trip to Mexico recently. They came back with nice tans, a slight margarita hangover, oh... and 91,200 copies of illegal videogames.
The ESA raided a massive marketplace in Guadalajara, Mexico, and it was there that they seized the 91k of illegal game copies. Also found were 130,000 videogame cover inserts and 3,200 empty game boxes. With the help of Mexican law enforcement, they managed to seize a whopping 20 tons of illegal game goods.
San Juan de Dios Market (pictured above), one of the largest markets in Guadalajara, is known for selling illegal wares like this huge lot of games. The ESA hopes that this raid will help discourage the sale of illegal game copies in the future.
“Piracy in markets such as San Juan de Dios hurts businesses engaging in the legitimate distribution and retailing of computer and video games,” said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA.
Not cool, Mexico. Not cool.
[Via GamePolitics]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
4:29 PM on 11.10.2008
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I don't have any comment on this story; I just like this dude's hat.
Why I'm so mad I might have to the police auction.
Now where was that again?
Thats a shit load of games.
"a whopping 20 tons of illegal game goods."
Bad Mexico! That shit leaves a nasty footprint in the environment. Torrent in the future.
Unless they are selling pirate games from older systems like dreamcast and below. ANd if that's the case, who cares, the games aren't sold anymore anyway.
And if they are selling bootleg copies of games for the newer systems, and they run on legit systems, I must be doing something wrong.
The empty game box thing I don't understand either. I have a few myself, and go check gamestop, I'm pretty sure they have close to that many empties per store.
I really want to know what illegal games they had, and if this is just some bullshit scam. I mean, you can go to any ANY comic/toy/game convention and pick up bootleg shit.
It doesn't discourage people from selling it, it just makes the business of the people still doing it rise.
They're real asses, they actually complain to the government stating that "The police doesn't let us work"
Jesus Christ.
I usually ask them "Hey guys, do you have any cocaine?" they look perplexed and I just say "Well it's illegal to sell, just like all this junk" then they get mad and try to start a fight or something.
We'd see 100 AAA games a year if we could kill off all this crap.
Tennis shoes, clothes, DVD movies, videogames, anything you want and could be "cloned" is there.
@free touch, they sell current-gen illegal copies of games (Xbox 360, Wii, NDS) and last-gen (PS2, Game Cube, GBA) ones.
You want to know what's the worse: Right at the exit of this market there is a legal videogame store called GameXpress (I worked there 6 months) and most of the people go to the market to buy modded consoles and illegal games.
The other face of the coin is that here in Mexico, games are sold at 150% its real price at least: would you buy a US$90 copy of Soul Calibur IV? How about an US$300 DS Lite?
I'm against piracy, but I'd like that videogame companies could do something so we (mexican gamers) can buy games at a more fair price.
I have known gaming piracy since 1997 and those who buy the pirate titles are the lowest social class, is not like every single store in Mexio sells piracy, hell no its a bit hard if you ask me. I mean, games have always been designed for the mid, mid-high and high class, it being leaked by the poor people is nothing surprising.
That said, pirated games look like shit after all, they are burned in Verbatim CDs, labeled with sharpie and the cover made in an HP printer.
Go tell a parent that has been saving the whole friggin' year to give his children a PS2 for Christmas, that he cannot buy some pirated $1 games for them to play, and instead he must shed $50 or $60 for an original game (that's how much a 19 dollar PS2 game costs here, after taxes, shipping, and the cut from the store)
I'm fortunate enough to have a job that pays well, and I can afford originals for my PS2 and Wii library (I like to collect them, I understand their value, and modchips and pirated media eventually ruin your console), but I totally understand the position of those who can't. I only know two other people here that buy original games, and we all have to get them from Amazon, because if you ask for an original game around here, people look you as if you were asking for a metric ton of meth.
I heard a rumour a while ago that San Johny (or San Juan, or Taiwan de Dios) as an intel community and they know when this raids are gonna happen.what they do is they take out the defective or unsellable stock. that way whoever performs the raid (mexican authorities or the ESA)gets to dump this stock instead of them.
for a lot of people legal gaming is just unnaffortable and there's so much money circulating in places like this a lot of people's economy depends on it. You'd require a massive change in the country's heart for this to stop and..it's just not gonna happen anytime soon.
When I was younger I used to buy pirated psOne games by the pound because they were cheap and my parents said it was O.K. as I grew up and learned otherwise I started to value my console and my games, started buying only legit games in legit places which has also thought to value quality over quantity but I wonder how many other people see this and of course...how many people can afford it.
I heard a rumour a while ago that San Johny (or San Juan, or Taiwan de Dios) as an intel community and they know when this raids are gonna happen.what they do is they take out the defective or unsellable stock. that way whoever performs the raid (mexican authorities or the ESA)gets to dump this stock instead of them.
for a lot of people legal gaming is just unnaffortable and there's so much money circulating in places like this a lot of people's economy depends on it. You'd require a massive change in the country's heart for this to stop and..it's just not gonna happen anytime soon.
When I was younger I used to buy pirated psOne games by the pound because they were cheap and my parents said it was O.K. as I grew up and learned otherwise I started to value my console and my games, started buying only legit games in legit places which has also thought to value quality over quantity but I wonder how many other people see this and of course...how many people can afford it.
So, given the recent crisis, gaming is a really expensive hobby. Moreso here in Mexico, where even people that can affor original games, prefer pirated so they can buy even more. Only true gamers buy original games, and even we proud soldiers of the controller have to face rising prices and other necessary expenses.
The Solution? A traty between customs on high-end electronics is necessary to even out the price. It may seem hard to do, but the revenue would go to the roof, since high costs would no longer be a deterrent for purchase.
I bet you that by next week they could raid again and find the same ammount of stuff.
On the other hand, zone restriction on consoles exists just to [fornicate] non-japanese and non-US players on the [fornicating] [buttocks], nothing more, because the pricing is the same or even more, and a simple text translation doesn't take more than a couple of months, so ¿why can't they release the game on europe at the same time?
If they don't have legal presence and distribution on our third-world countries, ¿are they really losing on sales with pirated media here? We don`t even appear on the charts for the quarterly sales reports. At least piracy promotes the console sales if nothing more, and those are some units Nintendo and Sony didn't make the effort to distribute here, so they account as US consoles sales.