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ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip
ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip
GameIndustry - January 31, 2008
Submitted by sagexsdx (148) at 6:36AM PST on January 31, 2008
John Hillier, manager of ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said that the R4 – a cartridge that plays hacked games downloaded onto a memory card – is harming sales for Nintendo and making it the least-profitable console on the market.
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3apujanata posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 2:36PM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@deftangel,
Yeah, I also don't believe the 90% figure. 10% I can believe, but 90% ?
I think he is just spouting things, and the 90% figure made sure it was carried in the website, since it is sensasionalist (such a big round figure).
Anecdotaly story : When I was in Singapore, in Sim Lim City, in one of the shop there, I noticed a Japanese Family (father, mother, 2 daughter), and they bought 3 (three) R4 device. They came to this shop, ask the shopkeeper for the R4 device (not the other way around, of which the shopkeeper offer them R4, since it is more profitable for shop to sell original games). The 2 daughters both have pink DS.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
3lstormy10 posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 1:08PM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chipThis claim is completely unfounded and makes absolutely no sense.
First off, why is a European organization commenting on North American gamers? Secondly, the number of casuals that own a DS hurts the sales of any piracy device like the R4. Another thing is that even among the more hardcore gamers that own a DS (like myself and many of my friends), not many that I know own one a R4. Also another thing to consider is the fact that there is little possibility that this guy was able to get ahold of sales data or usage data for a piracy device like the R4. Lastly, everyone has seen that the DS can be highly profitable for any software company (Nintendo, Majesco, Capcom, Ubisoft, etc).[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 294 ]bids
2Jonman posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 12:23PM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chipbids
2sagexsdx posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 11:11AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@Laoldar,
well i don't know if you could say "impossible". aren't these sort of claims usually done through survey of x number of people and then statistically if the sample size is large enough, it could be stated to be representative of the whole?
anyway such a claim is so reaching:
* first off since he doesn't detail how he came to such a conclusion.
* second off considering that gamers are largely clueless about next-gen console media capabilities (my logic there being that it can be said that owners of 360/PS3 are generally more tech savvy than owners of ONLY the DS)[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 148 ]bids
3Laoldar posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 10:42AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chipbids
2sagexsdx posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 7:24AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@deftangel,
i dont see anything backing up his 90% claim. he didnt list how they researched that, what the sample size of the survey was, etc etc. what he said was "it is thought to be at 90 percent". whose thoughts? his own?
i also like how he only talks about the R4. the source article sounds more like an anti-advertisement of the R4 specifically.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 148 ]bids
5deftangel posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 7:15AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@apujanata,
90% is a shocking figure though and he explicitly referred to that 90% as users in North America. Brain Age sold ~650K, is he trying to tell me it lost just under 6m sales to piracy?
I'm sure the R4 has had an effect but he's doing himself no favours throwing numbers like that out unless he can genuinely back it up.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 291 ]bids
5apujanata posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 7:06AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@feelmyring, Since this is a manager of "Intellectual Property Crime Unit", he might talk to promote the need of such department for any publisher.
There might not be rampant piracy in the US, since the punishment is quite severe, but there are lot of it in other country, especially one where the punishment for piracy is not severe enough to act as deterrent. It is considered "stupid" for people to spend money to buy original game, as opposed to "pirated one".
I think John, as employee of ELSPA, is more concerned with Europe market, and he might be thinking about Spain or any other country in Europe where it is common to pirate things.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
3feelmyring posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 6:44AM PST on January 31, 2008. RE: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip@sagexsdx,
I think it's wonderful when people fire off statements like this without even thinking about them. 90% of the people who will buy a DS wouldn't know how to go about loading pirated games onto their DS, and the 10% who do probably aren't that concerned about the $30 a DS game costs. I only know 1 person who plays pirated games, out of probably 2 dozen DS owners. Articles like this make me mad; the ignorance of the people making the statements is astounding.[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 351 ]bids
15sagexsdx posted on Nintendo DS (DS) at 6:36AM PST on January 31, 2008. Article: ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip
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I'd say it's basically impossible. How many DS units have been sold in North America? Over 20 million? To accurately sample that population you'd need to survey over 3000 people and ensure that it was representative of the group (kids, seniors, etc). Unless his group is representative, it's entirely meaningless.
That being said, I think it's going to be impossible for them to even know WHAT representative means for the DS. It would require detailed survey work on what types of people buy the system, which only Nintendo would have. Besides, such surveys to determine that would miss the whole Brain Training group.