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| Back in the days of the SNES and Sega Megadrive, Videogame Piracy was almost unheard of, since then and the Eight or so years that have passed Piracy of Videogames is a multi million dollar 'business'. I hear you ask Why is this so? Why are these injustices being done to those hard working nerds at Rare or Konami? There is more than one answer to this. Firstly Playstation - Sony opted for a standard CD to produce on their new medium back in 1996 and the pirates went wild with excitement and suddenly CD-Copiers began to spring up everywhere from Desks in California to a small sweatshop in Borneo. Another answer is that rather than shell out 30 UK pounds a game for the real thing you could go to a pirate and get a copied one for a fiver. Now, I'm sure you don't need a degree in Economics to tell you that thats an awful lot more games you can buy for your 30 Quid. A vast number of people have purchased a Playstation just to get pirate games at cut prices - games like the Final Fantasy Series and Tony Hawks have been doing the rounds among pirates for a few years now. Also it is possible to pick up a copy of a game that has not been released in Europe for the Playstation. But Back to Nintendo. Piracy of Nintendo games still remains small and isolated - what with the carts used for all systems up to the Nintendo 64. However, with the launch of the Gamecube in Japan back in September Pirates, within days, found out all the security features on it and how to disable them and time will tell to see if GC piracy rivals that of PSX. Personally I feel that Companies will not stop Piracy through the Moral high ground and should focus more on prevention rather than a cure. -Chris Shipman |
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