Nintendo Blames Piracy For Huge European Sales Drop

[Billion Backs]

Yarrr. Looks like pirates are to blame for absolutely everything.

Yeah, it's all them damn pirates, not the games sucking!

It's like the whole issue with movie reviews and early internet.

 

[Jason Danger Keyes]

I'm willing to bet my favourite toe that a majority chunk of the Nintendo software that's been pirated was from NES, SNES, Gameboy, N64, and GBA for use with emulator programs, none of which Nintendo sell anymore and therefore would not have made profit on anyway.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Nintendo can solve this at a stroke.

Create an online store (officially like) that allows the download of DS game onto flash cartridges in exchange for money, for a discounted price over retail.
Boom, problem at least partially solved. Nintendo can work out license deal with Flash cart makers, everybody makes money.
Of course Nintendo are too pig shit thick inwardly looking/internet technology averse to ever consider such a course of action.

I notice Nintendo fail to mention the complete lack of any DS releases worth talking about last year besides Spirit Tracks. That could have something to do with it...

 

[Hallow'sEve]

Pirates, the new witch hunt

 

[Zenn3k]

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact the Wii has pretty much run its course with the market of gamers, and most of the casual market that would be willing to foot the some $600 for the Wii Fit package has all but run dry.

Hell, I have a Wii, I got it on release day. It hasn't been turned on ONCE in over a year. Meanwhile I play my XBOX 360 daily.

I've simply grown tired of games that require flailing my arms around. I'd rather have my thumbs on the sticks with a cig hanging from my mouth.

Your products are losing appeal. You can blame illegal downloads of Super Mario Bros all you want, but thats not the problem.

You alienated the market that MADE you, the market that buys new games on a constant basis in favor of a market that bought the Wii Fit, and hasn't even THOUGHT about another game purchase since. You have only yourselves to blame.

 

[mega48man]

really? they're gonna blame piracy? oh yeah, let's hunt down that piracy, that darned dirty scoundrel of a verb. too bad no one WANTS to pirate games for the Wii of all things. maybe if the games nintendo made were worth buying then perhaps they would be worth spending the money on.

get real nintendo, the wii sucks compared to the 360 and ps3, and even the PC. and now that steam is coming out on the mac, even mac will be better than the wii. stop pouring money into R&D, no one wants to exercise, we want AC130 and tact nuke.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

This is kinda like how nobody makes viruses for Mac...it's not because it's better, it's because nobody cares. I can't fathom pirating a wii game, because I just don't care enough >_<; I'll buy the, like, 5 good games legally.

 

[camazotz]

If they're attributing a 50% loss of revenue to pirates, wouldn't that be tantamount to accusing up to half of your user base of being pirates? Ballzy, I gotta say.....!

If I were a Nintendo fanboi, I would feel a little insulted....

 

[tzimize]

Potential lost sales Nintendo. You can count it all you want, but potential does not mean the pirates came into your money vault and stole 10.7 billion.

I have been saying this since the first ludicrous claims of the gaming industry. Could be people are just sick off the wii and its casual "thing" too?

 

[Jamash]

I have a friend who bought a Wii and a DS with the sole intention of cracking them for homebrewing and to pirate games which he would hire from Lovefilm and copy.

After about a couple of weeks he just gave up, because there weren't even enough appealing games for him to pirate, and now his Nintendo consoles just collect dust.

I think that's the real problem, there aren't enough decent Nintendo games in Europe, not that people are pirating them.

I've been gaming since 1983 and have never even played a Nintendo game for more than 5 minutes, and have never owned one of their consoles.

Their games just don't appeal to me, not even when I was a child, I had a much better collection of Amiga games, and most of my gaming chums either had an Amiga, an Atari ST or if they had a console, it was either a Megadrive of Mastersystem. Throughout my gaming childhood, I've only known 2 or 3 people with a Nintendo.

Also, like my privateering friend, if I was a pirate, I couldn't be bothered to pirate a Nintendo game, let alone buy one.

 

[Wolfgurl]

Same ol' Piracy ordeal..

 

[Ghost]

238 million times. YES! Of course, that means 238 million lost sales. The Nintendo financial department at its finest. I mean, it's not like everyone who wants a Wii already has one, and we're certainly not in a recession.

 

[Flames66]

They do know there's a recession on and everyone is trying to spend less don't they?

 

[Serioli]

Potential lost sales Nintendo. You can count it all you want, but potential does not mean the pirates came into your money vault and stole 10.7 billion.

You obviously missed the bit in the report about my crews daring raid. Mnyaaaaaaah! *twiddles moustache*

238 million is approx the total male+female population of 15-64 yr olds for UK + Ireland + Germany + France + Spain + Italy + Netherlands + Portugal + Switzerland + Sweden (Me crew is rather large, Mnyaaaah)
(CIA factbook for populations)

 

[Harley Duke]

I used to be one of those guys who would defend Nintendo to the bitter end. When they first announced that the "Revolution" was going to be called the Wii, I actually stuck up for it. For a while.

Now that I think about it, the only real reason at release time that I wanted a Wii at all was so I could play that shiny new Zelda game without having to wait for the Gamecube version to come out. I stuck around for No More Heroes, but honestly, after that one game, my Wii sat around and got all dusty for...however long it took No More Heroes 2 to come out. If not for the fact that I don't own a Gamecube anymore, I'd probably hawk my Wii for drug money.

I pirate a game or two here or there, but not ones that I care about enough to drop a few bucks on. It's not like I have the cash lying around that frequently, and nothing Nintendo's come up with has really appealed to me in a long time now. If downloading a copy of Chrono Trigger for the SNES is helping put Nintendo back a kazillion bucks, well...let 'em suffer. I need the money more than they do, anyway.

 

[7ru7h]

Nintendo Peon: "Sir, our sales our down 50% from last year."
Nintendo Exec: "How is that possible?"
N.P.: "Could it be the way we have been treating our hardcore fans?'
N.E.: "No, that's not it."
N.P.: "Could it be our policies on release dates and prices?"
N.E.: "No, that's not it either."
N.P.: "Could it have something to do with all the crappy games we put out?"
N.E.: "No, and will you stop trying to think of logical reasons for this. There has to be an answer here that we just haven't thought of yet..."
N.P.: "Well, since it is obviously no fault of our own, how about we just blame pirates?"
N.E.: "..."

 

[De Ronneman]

They're nagging. Off course, they lose sales, but it's not like they're going bankrupt now...

I thought Wii was riding high. Noone can pirate a balanceboard...

I pirate GBA games, because they're very hard to come by lately. Also, they don't make N64s and (S)NESes anymore, so I think I'm allowed some fun.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

To be honest, they might have a point... at least on the DS. Of all my friends that have DS's about half have R4 cartrages and regularly download/share games with eachother. :/

 

[Enkidu88]

This is the big problem with piracy...

Let's face it, pirates aren't bringing the game industry to it's knees. What piracy is doing is giving the industry a convenient scapegoat, now instead of admitting that maybe, just MAYBE, it might be caused by badly designed games or rushed production. Now they can just say "PIRATES!!!" and call it a day .

 

[mike1921]

I have a friend who bought a Wii and a DS with the sole intention of cracking them for homebrewing and to pirate games which he would hire from Lovefilm and copy.

After about a couple of weeks he just gave up, because there weren't even enough appealing games for him to pirate, and now his Nintendo consoles just collect dust.

.

Oh my god, that's how publishers can stop pirating, become so unappealing that nobody wants to pirate your things.

Perfect plan