Topic: iQue Doing Well in China

[WindyMan]

Nintendo's odd little gaming device is selling well in some of China's major cities.

Source: http://biztech.nikkeibp.co.jp/wcs/leaf/CID/onair/biztech/pc/282186

The iQue Player, Nintendo's crack at an anti-piratable gaming device in China, is selling well in the country that is known for producing pirated games.  Major Eastern Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou were the first to offer the product to consumers, and Nintendo wants to distribute the product further into China, eventually hoping to have the product available in "thousands of stores."

The iQue uses proprietary media cards that slide into the controller-shaped player, and is Nintendo's best effort in trying to prevent illegal copies of their games being distributed in China.  Sony was planning on releasing the PlayStation 2 in China this past Saturday, but decided against it at the last moment, citing an "unfavorable environment," one that Nintendo and the iQue seem to be doing well in.
 

[yacool]

hehehe

I hope Sony loses millions of dollars from pirated games

Mwahahaha

[Knoxxville]

Hope?  It's practically guarranteed!

[vudu]

China: PlayStation 2 Launch Delayed

Quote
In a statement the company said the delay was due to the current "unfavorable environment" in China. No new launch date was given at the time of the announcement.

looks like the threat of piracy was too much for sony.  it'll be interesting to see if the ps2 ever gets released in china.  if it does, it could spell doom for the ique.  who would want to pay money to play games from one to two generations ago when you could be playing current generation games for free?  (i already know that comment is going to have ten people jumping at me arguing that old nintendo games are better than current ps2 games.  don't bother.  i already thought about that.  regardless, free > not free.)

[Olpus]

In my humble opinion iQue is a bad move for Nintendo... They could sell the Gamecube: it has a good protection from pirates thanks to the little DVD's.





But when Planet Gamecube will be fully operating? It is almost a week that is down, boys!

[KDR_11k]

You can be 100% sure that the chinese pirates could copy even GC disks.

[WindyMan]

Oooh, thanks for that update, king.

[ghostVi]

It's not like everyone in China can afford to spend $40 for a game. They need to go real cheap to sell well there.

[Radical]

It is important to remember that while "sony is losing millions of dollars, it's practically guaranteed," you should know that Sony is in it for market share., and overall they will make more money (just in the next generation.)

ps. i own a cube, not a ps2, not an xbox.

[mouse_clicker]

Quote
if [the Playstation 2 is released in China], it could spell doom for the ique.

Not quite- PS2 piracy even here is pretty rampant, think of how it would be in China? Sony would lose millions upon millions of dollars.

Quote
You can be 100% sure that the chinese pirates could copy even GC disks.

GC piracy is already a reality, through a glitch or something in PSO. It's still very difficult and very expensive, though, making it very impractical.

[BlkPaladin]

The games are about $10.00.

[Epitaph]

Its not expensive to pirate gamecube, nor difficult the only problem is that it requires internet, a computer, bbadapter pso. Which is quite a few things but not that much. Its also far from being perfected often making games run glitchy and without saving. That said its not very good yet and no one has found any means of dooing it differntly. So technically nintendo could release it in china but they must know of flaws that could be exploited and don't want to have them discovered.

[manunited4eva22]

there are other ways of getting around it, there are a few shady sites out there that have ripped apart the gamecube and dumped parts of the bios.  There will be a way to boot from a computer hard drive directly at somepoint, probablly not before gamecube is outdated, but it will still happen none the less.

[Michael8983]

"It is important to remember that while "sony is losing millions of dollars, it's practically guaranteed," you should know that Sony is in it for market share., and overall they will make more money (just in the next generation.)"

It's not that simple. Temporary losses for the sake of gaining marketshare and recognition do not always lead to long-term gains and we've seen a ton of over-ambitious companies learn that lesson the hard way in recent years.

[KDR_11k]

The chinese don't just pirate (copy and sell for a few bucks) but also counterfeit. Counterfeiting is more dangerous than piracy, much more dangerous. These people have proffessional equipment. You couldn't distinguish between a real and a counterfeit game anymore. Look what's happening with the GBA already!
Counterfeiting is also to blame for exploding Nokia phones. Not even stores notice the difference... until it goes boom.

[Don'tHate742]

"Counterfeiting is also to blame for exploding Nokia phones. Not even stores notice the difference... until it goes boom."

haha are you serious? there are phones out there that explode?! That's funny in a sidistic way.

Anyways, Nintendo should of released the gamecube in china. It would of probably withstood two years or so before being cracked. By that time a bunch of people would of bought the console, and the games just to see if they could crack it. They would mess up the GC and probably buy a new one and try again. Piracy = more hardware sales but also = fewer software sales. If it withstood more than two years then the GC would be a huge success. Plus after two years...i'd welcome the piracy of GC hehehe.

[KDR_11k]

I'd give it at max 2 months. Those people are professionals. Your average pirate might not be able to manufacture GBA games, but the counterfeiters are. They probably have CD-presses as well. Once they pick up you can forget buying a game from eBay, since it will be counterfeit in 9 out of 10 cases.

[dabestgoat]

there is a computer store down the road from me that sells mini dvd-r's that are 1.5 gigs.  I have seen sites such as this one http://www.nforce.nl/index.php?do=listsection§ion=20 that are advertising iso's that have ben made.  You can also purchase a boot disk to load import games.  I dont know if this is true to work, but obviously it is on its way.  There is a broadband network adapter which obviously transmits the games, someone just has to make it transmit the info instead

[KDR_11k]

You could only burn a GC disc by modding your DVD-writer. Those things aren't standard DVDs.
Yes, the Freeloader can crack the region protection, but, unlike mods for other consoles, it does not circumvent the copyprotection.