Microsoft at it's best.

  • Thread starter Tom M
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That's it, I'm moving to Australia. Who's coming with me? And who's giving me a bed for the first few weeks I'm there?
 
Australia sounds good, and if everyone was as nice and intelligent as Vat_man seems to be I'd be there in a heartbeat. Too bad some of the other Australian members seem like dips, ruining the idea.
 
Gawsh I hate microsoft. Money n power hungry bastardz.

Right, so they firgure out that mod chips and exist and the way to solve this is to remove themselve from the market? :mad: Even though I would be happy to see them gone :lol:
 
I think i'm not one of those "dips" ;) But if you are nice i can give you a house...a house in the bush next to my house...:P :lol:
 
Originally posted by DODGE the VIPER
I think i'm not one of those "dips" ;) But if you are nice i can give you a house...a house in the bush next to my house...:P :lol:
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No, but If I say no to anyone else, it'll really start narrowing down the field. ;)

And I don't need a house if it's warm enough. I'll just sleep in trees like a Koala. ;)
 
Frankly, I see nothing wrong with Microsoft's stance there. Mod chips that allow pirated software to be used *should* be banned by law. By not banning those chips, legitimate customers end up spending more because they have to make up the slack caused by the thieves. I hope that more companies take this stand.

Further, I don't think it says anything about MS cutting and running from the console wars. MS is just protecting their investments in an atmosphere that (for whatever reason) decided to attack them.

Rumors tend to support Nintendo going the way of Sega in 2005 (probably keeping GBA as their only gaming device and doing well with it) and I see no reason to disagree with them. Don't expect Microsoft out of the console wars unless they "win" them...
 
You need to have a working knowledge of Australian Trade Practices legislation to understand the decision. The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has been particularly incensed by the DVD region scheme, labelling it anti-competitive - the idea being that if a consumer is able to source something cheaper from overseas, then they should be entitled to buy it - you have to remember the population here is less than 20 million, so the potential for large overseas suppliers who control distribution is much larger than it is in the US.

As such, this ruling allows people to modify their consoles to play games from overseas - and thus by extension it is legal to supply chips to allow those modifications.

IT IS STILL ILLEGAL TO SELL, BUY OR BE IN POSSESSION OF PIRATED GAMES!! In fact, the same supplier, who Sony was attempting to prosecute for selling modchips, did get convicted of selling pirated games and copped a pretty substantial fine (like 6 figures or so).

What MS is actually crapped off about is that people can modify their X-Boxes to play US games they sourced from overseas, cheaper than they could get them here.
 
Unfortunately, the same mod chips that allow for playing cross-region DVDs allow for playing pirated games. Without the mod chip, pirated games could not be played and there is no incentive created for piracy. However, if mod chips are allowed to exist, then there is HUGE incentive to pirate games as you can buy one legitimate copy of a game for $50 and start pumping out games for $20 or less a copy endlessly. The pirate make something like 1000% profit because he doesn't have any licensing fees and this cuts brutally into the legitimate games market, keeping prices higher than they should be to make up for the losses due to piracy.

While I'm on the side of people who are just legitimately enjoying legitimately purchased games on legitimately purchased equipment, I also recognize that without the mod chip, the incentive for piracy does not exist. The market isn't there to exploit. With mod chips, there is a huge financial incentive to exploit.

Just out of curiosity, how much of a markup do you see between US and Asian/European region games?
 
Originally posted by bwdemon
Just out of curiosity, how much of a markup do you see between US and Asian/European region games?
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No idea. Flicking through Amazon the differences are pretty marginal, although items on sale are about $10-20 Australian cheaper. This is about availability, too, don't forget.

To give you a bit more background, pretty well all the CD distributors here got busted for price fixing about 5 or 6 years ago, which included a certain well known games manufacturer, so they did to an extent make a rod for their own back on this sort of thing here. In the wake of that, 'parallel importing' was allowed for CD's and that has had an impact on prices.

And look, I agree with you on the piracy issue - I believe 90% of modchips are installed to allow users to play pirated games. I was simply reporting a bit more of the background to the case. I don't have a modchip in my PS2, and didn't have one for my old PSX. I don't know how they're going to police that, but I'll give you a tip - making game more expensive ain't going to help!
 

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