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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - China: The next frontier?

FishyJoe said:
Piracy is a much bigger issue with hardcore users, because they are the 'nerds'. Sorry if I offended anyone. The casual market is much less likely to pirate, simply because most don't have a clue about such things.

Sorry - wrong!

Obviously, the casual market in the US is vastly different from the market over here. The market over here simply doesn't work that way. 

I live in Hong Kong, 1.5 hours away from Shenzhen, the Special Economic Zone. I go there frequently. What I see is rampant piracy everywhere. Pirated Wii games are sold at the equivalent of US$0.64 (no, that's not a typo - that's sixty-four cents).

The thing is, (and this is the same for the DS) when someone goes and buys a console, be it a casual or hardcore gamer, they are immediately offered the "modified" package. This includes the modchip or pass-through. You can request for a non-modded package, but that is something you have to request - it isn't offered by default.

The storeowner will show you how to use the modded console to play pirated games with. Some stores offer starter packages that include a CD or two filled with games for the DS, or simply point you in the direction of the nearest pirated game store. Many console sellers even offer the pirated games themselves.

So even if the casual market here in China were comparably the same as the casual market in the US, they are quickly educated by retailers - and they become pirating experts in no time.



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FishyJoe said:
Even if Nintendo doesn't enter China officially, gray marketers will still import it if there is demand, which there seems to be plenty of. That works out pretty well for Nintendo too.

Demand is huge over here - you have no idea.

I still think the reason that Japan runs out of DSs and the US of Wiis is because Hong Kong and China are hoarding them all. We haven't had a drought of either console since the official Japanese/US launch.



Still I think it's better to be in demand than not wanted at all. Nintendo will still make money via the gray market which is better than nothing. I'm sure Sony would love to dump their excess PS3s on the gray market if people actually wanted to pay full price for them.

Oops, you posted before me LOL



FishyJoe said:
Piracy is a much bigger issue with hardcore users, because they are the 'nerds'. Sorry if I offended anyone. The casual market is much less likely to pirate, simply because most don't have a clue about such things.

 

Fyi.... Piracy is asia is not about downloading from the net, and burning it on a media. Piracy in Asia is walking into a shop and buying the game(includes casing and printing like original) for US$3 each. Nintendo will be the winner of the 3 due to piracy, until someone hacks PS3 and the cost of Blu Ray media drops.

 Btw, shops in China is selling Wii now at US$270, plus 10 free games. lol!



i showed my Wii to my dad, and after he got back, he advertised the Wii to everybody. he alone has made ~30 people buy Wiis. Now, i'm gonna tell you, it's actually not a good deal for Nintendo.

ALL their softwares are pirated. let me tell you how a Wii is purchased in china.

you put in an order at a store. you go pick it up the next day. for 300 RNB (~$40) extra, you can install a modchip that plays ALL the pirated games on the market. which, of course, is an ESSENTIAL option. all in all, you can buy a modded Wii for about $2200 RNB (~$290).

the pirated games sell for 5-10RNB (about $1US). EACH and EVERY game is pirated, from the Japanese games to US games. it takes less than a week for a game showing up on the mass market before it gets pirated, and that's if you're lucky--often times you see pirated copies BEFORE the game is officially released. my relatives typically buy 20-50 games. that's... 500RNB (~$60) max?

Nintendo getting big profits in China? that's a dream. a dream that won't be fulfilled for at least another 10 years. let me give you a comparison.

I spent the first 13 years of my life in Macau (now the world's largest gambling center). i grew up playing pirated games. Macau now has a GDP per capita comparable to those of Western European nations (though to be fair, per capita income is nowhere close). and guess what, last time i went back, you can STILL buy pirated games.

Nintendo is fortunate that they actually make a profit on Wii hardware. 1 mln units in china is ~$50mln in profits for nintendo, but they'd much rather shift that mln units to Japan or USA or Europe, where these 1 mln owners would actually buy $50 games which is where they REALLY make profits.

As much as I'd like Nintendo to expand into China, it's just not going to be worth it. They _could_ expand their manufacturing base so much that they make profits only off hardware in China, but I'd rather them focus their energies elsewhere.



the Wii is an epidemic.

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FishyJoe said:
Still I think it's better to be in demand than not wanted at all. Nintendo will still make money via the gray market which is better than nothing.

Of course.

I actually believe Nintendo took the "make a profit on hardware as well" approach because their consoles have always been pirated - with exception to the GCN - and every single console released by them have been huge succcesses over here - with exception to the GCN!

They make money, period. They don't have to worry about piracy in China because a) their business model is not entirely dependent on software, b) they still make money in hardware, and c) as far as anyone is concerned, anti-piracy measures in China are a lost cause anyway - and when you console is "unpiratable", no one in China wants it.

A good indication of this little theory of mine about Chinese consumer habits is the PS3. It sells like dog poo over here. The 360 has much better sales over here. Why? PS3 games still can't be pirated. 360 games can.

Compare that with the last generation: PS2 games could be pirated so it sold like hotcakes. Xbox games were also pirated, but given their late entry into the market they didn't make much of a dent. But the Gamecube bombed miserably in China.

Piracy is a major driving force behind consumer hardware adoption in China. I would even bet that Blu-ray will never take off in China unless the media can be pirated. 



i should add that, in fact, when i asked my relatives in china, none of them knew where to even buy non-pirated CDs. i went to a pretty big all electronics mall in shanghai two months ago, nintendo didn't have a store there.



the Wii is an epidemic.

thanks for the insight on China that stuff you can't really get anywhere.....




Lingyis said:
i should add that, in fact, when i asked my relatives in china, none of them knew where to even buy non-pirated CDs. i went to a pretty big all electronics mall in shanghai two months ago, nintendo didn't have a store there.

This I find very funny: There is a district in Shenzhen called Dong Men (Eastern Gate) that has a few DVD shops. Very few are 100% legit. Police know this, but do not move a finger. DVDs are dirt-cheap (1USD). Original DVDs by comparison cost around 3-4USD. But what is amazing is frequently the pirated DVDs are packaged much better than the originals!

I have inadvertently picked up a few fakes like Monk: Seasons 1-3, but I swear until you open the package (which was in a hard box with gold-paint embossed printing (expensive) you cannot tell. Even the DVDs themseves were printed in high quality CMYK. What gave it away was a typo - "Obsessive. Cocmpulsive. Detective." that I didn't notice before.

(In case you guys are wondering, I normally buy my DVDs original here in Hong Kong at a special second hand DVD mall - and they guarantee the movies against defects so it's not a bad deal - all I'm interested in is the content. If you are caught bringing movies from China into Hong Kong you get fined pretty heavily, not to mention the possibility of doing jail time, depending on the number of pirated movies you are carrying - not worth the hassle for a married man with children!)



Just remember, when all those Chinese get HD-TVs the Wii bubble will pop! (couldn't resist lol)