Nintendo wants raids, arrests and IP blocking for its ‘rampant piracy’ issues

Nintendo’s recent financial tumbles, such as US$15-million in losses during Q3 2013, aren’t being helped by piracy, which the 100-year old company says is both “extremely challenging” for them as it incurs “huge losses” in profit. To this end, Nintendo plans to block and convict pirates sharing its legendary game like Super Mario, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda. According to Torrentfreak, copyright holders (in this case, Nintendo) are allowed to submit a list of anti-piracy issues to the US Trade Representatives and outline the steps it wishes to take against the offenders. In Nintendo’s case, it’s to track pirates down and lock them up.

In the 60-page long letter of to the US Trade committee, Nintendo outlines its various issues, as well as sales figures for its consoles. A quick aside: Nintendo’s DS, 3DS and Wii have a combined sale output of over 200-million units. The Wii U has barely cracked 6-million sales – the strain produced from poor hardware and software sales, combined with rampant piracy (Nintendo is one of the only game makers to still use cartridges in its products, which are easily ripped and uploaded into ROM form) possibly resulted in this piracy tome.

Let’s stick with the most popular system then, the handheld DS and 3DS which Nintendo says is under fire thanks to game copiers: cartridges which take MicroSD cards filled with playable Nintendo ROM’s (make your own 100-in-1, for instance).

Piracy! Hide yer children and lock yer doors

It’s countries such as Brazil,Russia and Spain which Nintendo recommends be placed on a “watch list”, as the country has “no specific laws to protect IPO’s from unauthorised circumvention of properties”. Sites like Kickass.to, Torrentz.eu and Monova.org are the top culprits according to Nintendo. For total peer-to-peer downloads, Italy, Spain, US, Brazil and France are the top five culprits.

It’s the Mexican pirates who should be the most scared. At “infamous physical markets” such as San Juan de Dios, fake Nintendo cartridges are sold in the thousands, daily. Nintendo’s recommendation? “Nintendo believes raids run by Mexican authorities are still an effective way to deter criminal activity.” That’s right, Nintendo wants the police to kick down doors and smash heads, all in the name of protecting its interests. Isn’t Nintendo a family company?

Spain is a “piracy haven”, as eight of the thirteen e-Commerce sites which sell game copiers are hosted in the country. Nintendo’s solution is to block these the IP’s of offending sites. It’s a little shortsighted though, as the instant one piracy/e-commerce site is blocked, ten more will rise in its place offering the same products and downloads.

Piracy is part of a larger issues facing the great games giant. Its sales are way down, and interest in its next-gen Wii, the Wii U, is flatlining (the PS4 has almost sold more units than the Wii U has in its total lifetime). So while piracy is a major concern, not just for Nintendo but for all game makers, the company should perhaps address its sales issues before launching into a Michael Bay-style attack on the pirates of the world.

Nintendo’s complaints and recommendations can be read here.