A Wii chipping factory has been tracked down to fraudsters in Leicestershire. An undercover sting by Leicestershire’s Trading Standards Department backed by the games industry’s own crime unit unveiled a counterfeit plot potentially worth £millions.
An undercover sting by Leicestershire’s Trading Standards Department backed by the games industry’s own crime unit unveiled a counterfeit plot potentially worth £millions.
As a result of enquiries made by TSD officers and investigators from ELSPA, the trade body for the country’s major games publishers, a home was raided in the Coalville area of Leicestershire this week. The raid, which was undertaken by Leicestershire TSD and police, turned up vital evidence suggesting the non-descript home actually housed sophisticated counterfeiting apparatus – including an industrial unit to churn out rogue console chips. At least two people have so far been arrested for their part in the ‘fraud factory’. More than 2,000 counterfeit chips, were recovered from the raid. These consisted mostly of Wii console chips although some were for Xbox 360 and PlayStation2 consoles. A number of consoles were also seized. After the planned trial, all the rogue chips will be destroyed – if only to avoid disappointment amongst the nation’s competitive children and parents.
RuckApr 13th, 2008 - 14:52:22
What a bad 'uninformed' report!
I love the made up quote from a supposed Nintendo staffer.. as if they walk about saying 'Chip it and you brick it' HAHA. Anyone that knows even a little about the mod scene knows thats not true.
Just to clarify fitting a Mod chip to a console in the Uk is not illegal, backing up your OWN games for your OWN use is not illegal.
The report says 'counterfeit' chips? Counterfeits of what? other mod chips?
The mod chips for the Wii do not copy any part of the Nintendo chipset.
So what are they Counterfeits of?
The report is simply wrong and badly researched. If the site was found to contain commercial pirated game disks then there is your story but this report seems to focus on the fitting of the mod chip as being the reason for the raid, which to any one informed know is within the law.
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