According to an article in Gamespot, Nintendo is deep in the throes of a war with software pirates. The company claims to have lost $975 million in pirated wares last year alone. Nintendo made a statement saying "While China remains the primary source of manufacturing pirated Nintendo DS and Wii games, Korea has emerged as the leader in distributing illegal game files via the Internet."
I'm always surprised that videogame piracy doesn't get more attention - especially given the amount of ink generated by losses in the music and movie industries. I've heard anecdotal reports from insiders who put the total tab for piracy at more than $3 billion a year. Considering vidgames brought in around $12 billion in the U.S. last year, that's a big deal. What to do? Check out Valve Software, a game company which has developed a brilliant and brilliantly effective means of digital distribution called Steam. That's the future.
