A joint raid carried out by Trading Standards and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has led to the apprehension of a man accused of video game piracy offenses. A sting operation had been carried out, in which participants visited the unnamed Staffordshire man to have an Xbox console chipped, and to purchase several illegally copied games.
After the games were taken for examination, there was enough evidence to get a search warrant. The raid turned up over 1,000 pirated video games, including over 700 Xbox 360 games and 300 Wii games. Around 100 PlayStation 2 games were also found. Three Xbox 360 consoles and two Nintendo Wii consoles were seized.
The man admitted to running his operation through Gumtree.com for the past two years. “Our team in the Intellectual Property Crime Unit (IPCU) will step up its fight against counterfeiters and illegal chipping services in 2009. Such illegal activity can pose real health dangers for the public and certainly deprives gamers of any proper quality control. Furthermore, it can cause the industry to lose vital income and with it jobs across the UK,” said Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA.
An investigation under the Proceeds Of Crime Act has begun to determine the criminal gain from the illegal activity.
Result for: wii games
According to Macquarie Securities analyst David Gibson, Nintendo makes $6 USD operating profit on each Wii unit sold, making it the only “next-gen” console to make a profit on the actual unit.
The analyst also noted that Sony makes a decent sized loss on each PlayStation 3 sold and that Microsoft has the potential to break even on each Xbox 360 console sold, but still may not.
Besides making profit on each console, the Wii sells the most software of the new consoles, selling an estimated 220 million units for 2008. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are estimated to sell under 130 million units each.
Nintendo also capitalizes on its position in the market by selling 60 percent of the Wii games itself compared to only 15 percent for Sony and 30 percent for Microsoft. The Wii’s top selling games are all developed by Nintendo.
Hiroshi Kamide, director of research at KBC Securities, Japan, added, “The key thing about Nintendo is they want their things to be at price points that anyone can respond to.”
Result for: wii games
After the latest figures from the NPD Group showed that the Xbox 360 was once again lagging substantially behind its competitors in US sales, Microsoft has cited a “shortage in console availability” as the main reason for the lagging sales.
The 360 sold 254,600 units for the month while the Nintendo Wii sold 351,800 units and the Sony PlayStation 3 sold 280,900 units. The console equally trailed its competitors for January.
“Our retailers are telling us that Xbox 360 is selling as fast as they can restock, but due to this high demand, Xbox 360 is experiencing temporary shortages,” Microsoft said in an e-mail. “We are working as quickly as we can to replenish inventory.”
The email also threw around other stats saying that the 360 was leading in competitors in other areas of the market. According to NPD those stats are true, with “$159 million USD being spent on Xbox 360 games in January, compared to $131 million on Wii games and $80 million for PS3 games.”
