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Despite significant concerns over piracy, Nintendo Co. Ltd. is set
to enter the Chinese game market in late 2003. Earlier this year,
Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, told the Japanese business
newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, "We want to sell hardware and
software products in China within a year or two. Due to piracy
problems, we are studying several marketing methods, such as selling
machines several generations old, rather than the latest
models."
However, as Sony furthers plans to release PlayStation 2 in China
later this year, reports suggest that Nintendo's own business plans
for the country extend well beyond the introduction of a
last-generation console. Instead, Nintendo will likely launch
GameCube in China later this year alongside PlayStation 2. With
sales of GameCube lagging to PlayStation 2 worldwide, Nintendo may
seek to defend the market, first and foremost by preventing Sony
from gaining a first-mover advantage.
Anti-piracy efforts have shown promise over the last decade in China
as threats of trade sanctions and, more recently, the country's
induction into the World Trade Organization have provided the needed
incentives for the Chinese government to take action. In its first
year of WTO membership, China took a number of steps on the
legislative level to meet its intellectual-property protection
commitments to the WTO. However, reports indicate that enforcement
of these intellectual-property laws remains ineffective as China has
yet to allocate the necessary resources to aggressively enforce
protections.
In 2002, worldwide piracy cost Nintendo an estimated $649 million in lost
revenue. During the year, Nintendo managed to seize more than one
million counterfeit Nintendo products worldwide. "Nintendo
has never been more aggressive in protecting our unique global brand
and our key intellectual properties and China can expect the largest
share of our attention again in 2003," commented Jodi
Daugherty, Director of Anti-Piracy, Nintendo of America.
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February
26, 2003 |
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Rick - Editor in
Chief, GameCubicle |
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