Andre Yoskowitz
13 Dec 2008 1:06
According to the UK police, a factory raid has netted pirated video games, DVDs and CDs with a street value estimated at £1 million.
30,000 of the counterfeit discs were seized from the factory in West Midlands, and there was an estimated 10,000 each of DVDs, video games and audio CDs.
Along with the discs, seven PCs were seized with 35 DVD re-writers, 19 HDDs, 15 Xbox 360 consoles and two Wii consoles. "Multiple" modchips were also found.
John Hillier, head of ELSPA's crime unit added, "Piracy, like that of any other entertainment industry, costs us dear. Making good and inventive games is an expensive and creative process, with some titles today costing £20m or more to develop".
"When a pirate sells illegally copied games they undermine the viability, value and creativity of our industry. The worst-case scenario is that pirate activity could cost the jobs of some of the UK's outstanding creative talent and that would be a catastrophe".
"The public should be aware of many other pitfalls of counterfeit games - some will even damage hardware such as consoles including PlayStation, Xbox and Wii. Other fakes will not play correctly at all".
"Most importantly, of course, pirated software comes with no quality assurance whatsoever - so if a game turns out to be faulty then retailers and publishers just will not replace them".