Guy that uploaded New Super Mario Bros Wii agrees to pay Nintendo $1.3 Milllion

I could take a lead pipe to someone's knees and not make a profit. I should still be sued though for hospital expenses.

Its not about his profits, its about the damage he caused.

Its not about recovery, its about sending a message to future violators.

There are many things in the message. Lets unfold a few of them.

1) One piracy act costs us X amount of money, proven by this judgment. (just because intellectual property is not a physical thing, doesn't mean you only need to repay us the value of a disk)

2) We will find you. (X amount of money is not trivial to us)

3) We will show no mercy. (you'll be held responsible for the damage you caused, even if you live in your parent's basement)


If the judgment was not incredibly huge, but rather at a discount price, it wouldn't be on this message board.
If it was at a discounted price, nobody would know about the cost and effort employees put in to provide this product to the customer.

I have a feeling that a company statement on Nintendo's website just wouldn't get many people to understand, or even read about this issue.
Nintendo for the win.

 

The realistic cost is a small fraction of that. I hoped nintendo was above this kind of behavior.

 

This game was released in AU before anywhere else; I'm sure it was downloaded tons. AU usually gets games released months after everyone else, but supposedly Nintendo gave them this game earlier than everyone else to kind of make up for it. Looks like it won't be happening again.

A Nintendo Australia spokesperson told GameSpot AU that apart from the loss of revenue caused by piracy of the game, the fact that an Australian was the first to illegally upload the game could jeopardise the release timings of future Nintendo titles. Typically, Australians have had to wait days and sometimes months after other regions for Nintendo games to be released locally. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was a rare occurrence where Australia received the game earlier than any other territory.

"Nintendo Australia is always pushing for games to be released here at the same time as the rest of the world, so we were pleased to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii before anyone else," the spokesperson said. "Unfortunately, due to the actions of this individual, future release dates may be affected for Australia, which is disappointing for us."

 

1. How do you know that? Do you have any data on the downloads, or even the math used to calculate the damages?

2. Part of the total might by punitive damages.

 

I do think that people who actually buy games don't illegally download, as well.

 

You realize that this is the settlement that the guy agreed to right? That means his attorneys believed that he would be on the hook for more if he went to trial (or at least more when you included attorney's fees, etc).

As for the cost, there is no way that the realistic cost of developing a new game is less than 1.3 million (australian dollars approximately 1.14 million in US dollars). Developing the game, programming the game, marketing the game, etc - it's going to cost more than a million.

It's not like this number came out of thin air. I'm sure Nintendo's lawyers had research to back up their desired amount and the guy's defense attorney's looked at it and made a counter offer. This seems like a pretty low settlement honestly. I'm sure it doesn't feel that way for an individual, but from Nintendo's point of view this is a piddly amount done more to make a point and deter others from doing this in the future.

 

He should be fined this much just for contributing to the Wii piracy scene...everybody knows the Wii fails =)

 

No...why do you think some xbox owners own two? One is for the legit games they purchased so they can play online and the other is hacked to play games for free.

Same as the DS, there are people who purchase games for it...but the majority download them because it's so easy.

 

$1.3 million dollars is getting off easy. The game at $50 a pop would have to be downloaded only 26,000 times to cover that cost.

Some people are actually wondering if a game is illegally downloaded that much? Are you kidding me? Try much much much higher.

Most Pirated Games of 2009

TorrentFreak takes a look at the top pirated games of 2009, and according to the torrent tracking blog, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the "absolute winner" on both the PC and Xbox 360. On the Wii it was Super Mario Bros.
With 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version alone, the game more than doubles the achievement of last year’s ‘winner‘ Spore. Modern Warfare 2 leads both the PC and Xbox 360 lists, by a landslide.
PC Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000) (Nov. 2009)
The Sims 3 (3,200,000) (June. 2009)
Prototype (2,350,000) (June. 2009)
Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000) (Sept. 2009)
Street Fighter IV (1,850,000) (July. 2009)
Xbox 360 Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000) (Nov. 2009)
Street Fighter IV (840,000) (July. 2009)
Prototype (810,000) (Feb. 2009)
Dirt 2 (790,000) (Sept. 2009)
UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000) (Mar. 2009)
Wii Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

New Super Mario Bros. (1,150,000) (Nov. 2009)
Punch-Out!! (950,000) (May. 2009)
Wii Sports Resort (920,000) (July. 2009)
The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000) (Feb. 2009)
Mario Power Tennis (830,000) (Mar. 2009)

While I'm sure these aren't going to be a 100% accurate, but you get the ballpark estimate... This guy got off easy. Way to go Nintendo!

 

Have you downloaded any games for Vivi lately, chow? :grin:

 

I wonder what Nintendo plans on doing for all those pirated games sold in Asia. They sell like hotcakes for only a minimal fee of about the equivalent of $1.

off topic: I really regret getting a Wii.. it's as if they're target age group is reduced by a year, every year. There aren't any decent new games. Everything seems dumbed down and simplified.

I'm definitely getting a 360 next time around

 

Now let's all go to Mary's; I'm on the wall mural there, y'know.