Millions of Wii Games Pirated in 2011

shakes head

So many Mario Sport's Mix pirates?
Well, it does have this "It seems interesting, but not interesting enough to buy it"-quality to it.

"Xenoblade Chronicles" was quite expected... I just hope American players will now buy the game big time.

Weird Kirby and Zelda aren't included - in my opinion. Galaxy 2 is more than a year old! And more than 1 million pirates!

Game demos would definitely solve this silly problem. Wake up NINTENDO.

Well, I wonder why Xenoblade is on that list, maybe it should have been a better idea to release the game in all regions, don't ya think?

@5 No, it wouldn't. Pirates will always be pirates. Most with a mentality of "Wow, this game is good. No point in buying it since I'm playing it now, though."

How do I know? Because, it's that obvious and most are too thrifty to pay for their games.

People can justify all they want. It's like me saying "It's okay to rob a bank.. As long as you pay the money back later or something."

Damn that just sucks!

Software pirates playing a game about lego pirates. Seems fitting

I wonder how many of these pirates bought the game, then pirated it so they could have the games in HD on their PCs.
I'm sure that number is MUCH lower than the amount of people who just pirated it without paying for it, but it's an interesting thought.

well maybe if their consoles didnt suck so hard people wouldnt have any need to want to hack their system (like how satisfied ps3 and 360 owners are). the wii can barely do anything! so to have fun people need hacks which then once its hacked, eventually people realize they can pirate games and so i blame nintendo for the most part. i could hack my ps3, but what for? thats all im saying. but people like "free" so there will always be pirates.

_{this is your final warning — stop bragging about hacking your console(s), it violates our Rules. if you'd like to discuss our rules with us personally, please feel free to get in touch — TBD}

Mario's Sports Mix? Seriously?!

Something about game pirating really irks me.

@KiroX777
PS3 wasn't pirated as much because it was only recently that it became hackable. I don't know about 360, since I don't care about it at all.

Heh, one of the most pirated games is a video game about pirates......ARRRRRRR MATEYS!

Not surprised. Although I'm very much against piracy (I ALWAYS buy games, as I hate downloading), I'm also very much unconcerned about these issues. In the 90s we had copyboxes, Game Boy carts containing 101 original games, etc. It's nothing new, and it will never end. Face it.

You can also wonder how many people downloaded games in order to try them before buying them? How many people bought these games after downloading? You never hear that. I'm quite spurious on these matters.

Wow, the irony, Pirates of the Caribbean being one of the most pirated games.

I am not for or against piracy just because at least half of the people that you play with online are usually pirates. I buy and don't pirate because I have a large amount of diposable income, but can understand why people pirate. The economy is tough now a days.

Am I the only one who surprised that the number of downloads SMG2 got has 128 in the first 3 digits?

Really? Video game pirates are nothing more than theives, to be honest. They're basically stealing the developers and publishers profits and playing them for free because they don't want to spend money on the real system and the real game.

Yes, games are quite expensive these days, but that's not an excuse for pirating a game! Honest people work their butts off to afford a game while pirates download it for free. Quite frankly, I'm disgusted.

Games are not more expensive than 20 years ago. In fact, the majority of games nowadays are vastly cheaper than the majority of games say 20 years ago. Except for the PS3 perhaps. The most expensive game I ever bought was Donkey Kong Country which was priced Fl 170,- which is 77,20 Euros nowadays! (almost the price of 2 new 3DS games together!)

But I agree on the fact that you must give credit where it's due (i.e. pay for what you appreciate). I think it's more a moral than legal issue as a matter of fact. I don't think so much of it as "Oh, everyone should buy the game I worked on." but more of "Look! A lot of people bought the game I worked on, and that keeps on motivating me." And a true artist isn't concerned with sale-figures either, he does things from the heart. And those are the people who I love and who I spend a LOT of money on.

As for myself, I never understood pirates. I never understood why people want to burn something onto deteriorating media instead of owning the 'real quality thing'. My guess is that they do not truly love videogames. They're more like junkies who are on the lookout for a quick fix. LOL

This is why ridiculous legislation like SOPA and Protect IP come up, because some people just can't realize that if they don't have the money for something optional they should either save up or get over it.

Pirating is wrong no matter how you look at it, and if a game is overpriced then wait for it to go on sale or the price to lower. Often times price isn't even an issue, as I hear many cases of smaller $2.50 PC games get pirated a lot as well. It's just people feel entitled to not have to pay for their entertainment.

Piracy of games is wrong.

You honestly believe releasing Xenoblade would have significantly lowered that number? Look at Super Mario Galaxy 2 and then try to convince me that

Personally I believe in working for things instead of stealing them however I can.

Honestly thought these numbers would be way higher...

@Wizzrobe That is true, however, money is a lot harder to come by and stuff is getting more expensive, so people are weighing up whether they eat or play Xenoblade.

I agree that it's not about sales and all, but with sales comes more money that then fuels progression to make even more awesome games. Pirates are kind of taking that game and not feeding anything back into the developers pockets so that we can get another game from them. That's when I start thinking that pirates are both stealing sale figures and money from the developers who worked long and hard to create it.

And in the worst possible conclusion, if the developers don't get enough money from that game (because of over-pirating) to fuel progression into other projects, they are in effect stealing us of another game from that dev.

@lz

Yes, I think if they released Xenoblade there wouldn't have been as many downloads. This game wouldn't have gotten much, if any press if it weren't for operation rainfall. I'm sure it's a good game, but it doesn't warrant Mario Galaxy type numbers. You'll also have a lot of people who may not have pirated normally who justified it, because they COULDN'T buy it or afford to import a Euro or Japan console for one game. Now that they've played it though, they may not have enough incentive to buy it, only harming sales next time. It will be interesting if Ninty's strategy of keeping their cards close to their chest with Xenoblade will work. The Operation Rainfall movement will lead to more sales due to increased free publicity. Or most of the die-hards that really wanted to play it pirated it already.

Also, the Wii doesn't really have a useable system to boot online modders like the Xbox and PS3 do (see Mario Kart Wii hackers). With no reason to ban people and have removal of online play as a disincentive you'll see more pirates.

I don't pirate now because I like my system to be clean and legit for warranty/ system safety reasons, but I totally understand why people do it. I looked into it a while back and almost tried but was afraid of the learning curve to doing it safely.
Games are crazy expensive. I have a solid job and income but I still can only justify buying a couple retail games (and lately a whole new system) about every year. Games started out about 50$ each years ago and have stayed the same ever since. It was way overpriced back then and still a little overpriced now. The prices almost never go down (ok, a couple really old games get 30$ treatment years later, but not as a rule). I know dev costs are very high now but not for every game. And with the sales numbers the way they are for bigger games theres just no justifying the huge pricetag especially for the shovelware that takes a few months to design.
I can only take chances on used games or Pirated ones if I could figure out how safely. Otherwise I pick up Zelda or Mario games and thats about it. I'm finally able to get more through WiiWare, and the 3ds downloads because they're priced closer to realistic for this market.
Why is it so hard to understand why someone would pirate when it's become so easy to do and really is not hurting the larger companies, who are making money hand over fist. I guarantee no one is trying to pirate Angry Birds or even things like the 'Art Style" games because they've taken steps towards new concepts at prices people can afford. It is NOT at ALL like kicking over an old lady on the street and stealing her money. These companies bloat their prices so much that the effect on them is so minimal they only notice enough to sue so they may lose a few million less and have smaller bonuses for the higher ups. Can someone seriously tell me that you think some programmer is now homeless living under a bridge because kids are downloading too many ROM's? Thats ridiculous.
Now pirating games from small developers making tiny 10$ games, THAT'S hurtful. But clearly those downloads won't make this list, EVER.
Has anyone ever been afraid of the videotape FBI warnings and not copied a favorite movie? it's laughable, we've all copied old tapes. Has Warner Brothers gone out of business because of it? Of course not! Same deal.

@Token_Girl: I'm waiting for the day Nintendo rolls out something like the XBLA bans. that was a beautiful day in the world of anti-piracy, and frankly i think that kind of thing should be happening on a regular basis. :3

If you ain't got the money to buy the game yourself then that's just too damn bad. There's two things I hate in this world. Liars and theifs.
One thing though, Couldn't the title of this article have been Millions of Games pirated? Why are we only focusing on Nintendo's losses? Every gaming company is getting ripped off by these crooks. not just Nintendo.

@Ren: "I guarantee no one is trying to pirate Angry Birds or even things like the 'Art Style" games because they've taken steps towards new concepts at prices people can afford."
Actually you'd be wrong about that. I can almost guarantee that despite their efforts to make them affordable they are still being pirated.

I'm glad the general consensus is "pirating is bad". It's almost stomach churning when you meet someone who downloads the latest pirated games regularly and has no intention of ever paying for them. It's even worse when they think their thievery makes them "smarter" than others.

I'm all for homebrew and hacking and stuff, but piracy not only eats into profits of devs, it also makes legal homebrewers look bad.

@37 Completely agree. Lots of people cannot differentiate hackers and homebrew developers from pirates; they even think they're the same. Well, they're not. A pirate may hack a certain system, but a hacker doesn't have to be interested in piracy at all. It's the old story; It's not the sword, but the one who wields it.

Why doesn't our governments just do what China did to FB and Youtube? Block em

I'd never pirate a game. There would be alot of glitches and not having the complete version of it would bother me.

I wish people wouldn't steal games/music/etc like that when there is a legal way to get them. That kind of stuff is why honest gamers like me have to put up with stuff like that one bill about online piracy and annoying anti piracy measures on consoles. Like Rayword45 said, it also makes it harder to actually do cool things with homebrew that aren't illegal. I understand it with games like Mother 3 and classic games that aren't on VC but game design does take work and developers deserve some credit for it, even if you have to save up for a game.

People won't just stop illegally downloading games and music but I wish the people who pirate would stop complaining about SOPA and stuff. It is stupid and the government shouldn't be doing it but what else did they expect? The music, gaming and movie industries see them as a threat and they have money. The government has been doing a good job of ignoring the constitution. You knew something like this would happen.

As long as wii games in latin america cost around 100 dollars each (the good ones) there will always be pirated games in this region.

Let it never be said that pirates don't have a sense of humor.

I used to be a pirate. I understand why people do it. Money is tight these days, and downloading games is the only way people can play them anymore. I stopped, because it's wrong, and it's stealing. But people doen't care if they're playing the real legit version or whatever. As long as they're playing the game, they play it. You guys are pretty mad at them, but you have to understand: the economy is down, and money is tight.

@pntjr: people pirate whether they've got money or not. all that is is a handy excuse to make pirates feel better about themselves and their theft.

@PNTjr I'm in an average family of 4 living on one salary. I understand money being tight but if you don't have the money to buy games then you don't buy games. Same with other luxury things like eating out, going to the city and buying new toys and stuff. Shoplifting is still illegal in hard times too.

In an era full of loans and credit cards, people have a hard time living without luxury in hard times. Just because you can't afford a new game doesn't gie you the right to steal it. Other people who are in hard times worked hard on those games. I can assume that not everybody in the credits for a game are multimillionaires.

It comes down to this. Video games are great fun but they aren't necessary. Hobbies often have to be lower on the priority list in hard times.

And we do know how to save money when we need to. We have been working on getting out of debt. We don't use credit cards anymore. We don't eat out as often. We don't buy (or steal) games when money is tight. We need two cars but we have two used cars that we can afford. I'm not some rich kid telling all the poor kids how to act.

It's a very valid point that games aren't that much more expensive now than they were "back in the day," as @Wizzrobe said. And nowadays I'm betting games are a heck of a lot more expensive to make than the used to be.

I generally don't buy full-priced games. But I don't pirate them. If I want a new game--and they're just that: games, flashy big-person toys--I don't stoop to the arrogance of downloading it illegally to give it a try. I either buy it, wait till the price drops, or learn to live without my flashy toy for a while (or indefinitely).

Since finishing uni, I've never had a problem with buying games (probably got a problem with buying too many!), even though I buy a whole lot online (don't need to pay more than what I have to).

But I don't really see those figures as lost sales though. I wonder how many of them would bother buying the game if they could afford it anyway? I'm not saying it's OK, but it would be interesting to know how many people would buy the games legally if they had the money and pirating wasn't available.

@joevox316 You two need some perspective. Video games are more expensive to make now, but also realize that the video game industry has exploded over the last 30 years. More people are buying video games now than ever before. This isn't business as usual.

@Lohengriehn Sounds like somebody didn't get what he wanted for Christmas.

Having no money is an awful excuse for stealing something for fun. Get back to me when you're trying to justify stealing bread to feed your family or something that actually works as a moral dilemma.

@Squiggle55 Exactly the point; nobody, and I sincerely mean NOBODY, is entitled to these games regardless of how high they're priced. They aren't required to buy them, and in fact not buying them because you can't afford it is exactly the case of living within your means. There IS no logical basis for pirating video games something BECAUSE it's merely an optional form of entertainment.

The whole "They have enough money as it is, one pirated sale wont affect it much" also doesn't have a valid basis, millions of dollars and tons of man hours are put into these things and just from galaxy 2 alone if everyone had paid at least $30 (not an unreasonable price in the slightest, though I think it may still go for at least $40 in some places) they lost over $35 Million in sales. Why? Because people think they're entitled to games they have no business playing if they disagree with the price.

Besides, there are solutions. You can in fact buy cheaper games on Nintendo consoles, buy or borrow used copies from stores or your friends, (or heaven forbid, WAIT until it naturally drops in price) or better yet there are free games out there if you REALLY need a fix and are in that much of a financial bind.

It really doesn't matter what way you look at it; pirating always boils down to people thinking entertainment is a right and not the privilege that it is and they don't want to pay for it.

@C7_ Those solutions wouldn't make Nintendo happy. If everyone who pirated Super Mario Galaxy 2 had bought a copy used instead, it would still cost Nintendo over $35 million in sales. That's something to think about.

This is not counting the modded Wii consoles that accepts pirated Wii games.

As an alternative to piracy, it is still very possible to legally game on the cheap. Just pick up last generation's games. $30 for a used Game Cube, plus like $12 or less per game title. You'll have to search around a little, but it sure beats $150 for a Wii + $50 dollars per game. Or, if you're really retro, $19.99 for the FC Mobile NES Clone system, and like $2-$5 per NES cart. Buy a whole stack of cartridges for cheap! The publisher still won't see any of your money, but at least you're supporting the local economy if you browse the second hand shops, and you'll likely discover a whole lot of great stuff you never knew existed! With a bit of diligence, even rare gems like SNES Super Mario RPG can be had for less than current generation games.

FYI, retro game collecting can get addictive! I started with an NES in 2002 and have every Nintendo console ever made, sans Virtual Boy.

Pirating ist nicht gut. (I think)

I don't have a principal problem with pirating (music, books or games in the 90's, usually pc, or something). But I just can't pirate Wii games. It breaks my heart to think of Nintendo here, to take some crappy cd and burn on it some wonder like SMG2.. if you can legally buy it and it does not cost ridiculous amounts, then when it comes to the Nintendo Wii I will not pirate. Wii is just too much full of heart, and modding it in any way is sacrilege to me.

When they announced that Vita will not include manuals anymore, it is another reason to pirate though.. if you pay $40 a game and you don't even get a manual..."go here to download" (you might as well download more) next there will no box, no cover, and the CD will be plain too.

That just gives those millions of pirates an excuse to play their Wii's at least.

A couple of notes:
(1) Pirating games is illegal. None of the justifications or excuses given by people who choose to pirate software will change that. If you can't afford new games, then play old ones. If you can't afford old ones, consider playing some of the many games that are available (legally) for free on your PC instead.
(2) These numbers wouldn't translate directly into sales, no matter what. If something is available at no cost then people will take it "just because" - they won't necessarily use or appreciate it. I have no idea how many people would have purchased those games if pirating wasn't an option, but know that it's only a fraction of the numbers shown.
(3) @Token_Girl: I'm probably in the minority, but I totally think that Xenoblade Chronicles* deserves Mario Galaxy-type numbers for sales/downloads/whatever. Yes, the game really is that good if you are an RPG fan; more to the point, it's also much newer and not currently available for $20 or less to a huge audience of game-starved, North American Wii gamers.

*Importing and buying a second (used) Wii console to play the game on wasn't cheap... but I've gotten more than my money's worth already and have dozens of hours left to play. Unless NoA specifies a release date for The Last Story soon, I'm going to import that game (along with Pikmin 2 and Another Code R) as well.

@gamesake: in order for those games to turn up on 'Used' shelves in stores, though, people would've had to buy them first. Considering they've already got their sales numbers, I'm sure Nintendo would love to have even a fraction of those millions of sales that went to piracy instead, even if the rest went only to purchase used afterward.

You have to remember that all forms of illegal crimes can and often do feed others a complex criminal economic web. For example something as supposedly harmless as pirating a game or dvd can help fund child trafficing (that Amnesty International's and UNICEF's words not mine btw).

BTW, I'm sure I saw Xenoblade available in the online sales at GAME's website for under a tenner. Amazing what crap people spend money on and what they don't eh...

I don't like the capitalist extremism of the various industries of the world including the game's retail industry, but that is no excuse to turn to crime. That's weak.

Thats frustrating.... 950,000 potential missed sales for Xenoblade..... argh...

Pirating the Mario game just makes me sad inside....

Also pirating Xenoblade....of course angry fans, with no sign of the game coming to shores, have downloaded the game en-mass under frustration.
Now that the tabled have tipped in our favor it would be a good idea to support that game with our own dead presidents and show us we want more of these types of games through sales numbers.

@LEGEND_MARIOID Amnesty International might have a difficult time connecting the dots between organized crime and downloading Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Weird that game pirates like to play lego pirates. Is it some kind of full circle game?

I don't know if this has been said here before, I didn't read all of the comments, but I think the reason Zelda wasn't in here is because it requires the MotionPlus. If it didn't, it would no doubt be at the top.

@Swiket You and everyone here knows that if it was possible to download a car off the internet, we would all do it!

Lol, Lego Pirates of The Carribean

I don't pirate myself but if it was easier to do safely I probably would. Serious lack of perspective here as someone said. I don't think pirating is "right", but there is a world of difference between copying a game from the internet somewhere and stealing personal property. And funding Human Trafficking? Seriously?! Thats the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
The people who are standing on such a principled high horse here are the same people who often live at home and don't buy their own games or haven't held down a job to cover their own life expenses. So basically the argument is this: If you play copied games you are a sniveling criminal with no regard for decency, and you're also into crime, drugs and violence (the things that often bought or pirated games promote).
If you want to honestly engage in the deluge of high tech gaming that is out there you don't deserve to unless you are independently wealthy so as 'common folk' you should be happy with last gen, old, or bad discount games. Wait for the natural drop in price?! When does that happen?
Why did the Wii dominate when the other HD systems were already the tested fantastic experiences? Price. Why did the 3DS sales just recently boom? Price. Why are the crappy ios games selling like hotcakes? Price. Why don't people consume more Organic and local foods in the U.S.? Price.
Also remember that these are digital copied games we're talking about. Not physical product. This is not lost revenue, it's less profit. The choice to not properly pay the lowly coder is that of the upper crust who sit at the top and collect profits. It hurts smaller developers but doesn't even make a dent in Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft. The smaller numbers of indie games that are pirated are just enough to get the name out and spread good word to people who will buy the product rather than disappear into obscurity. Everyone has a computer system for their home and maybe a console with a game or two but can anyone really afford a library of all the classics without being super rich or pirating? I assure you people that pirate are not wealthy just by being able to pirate, they're just resourceful and want to have what they can't by the bloated economy built by the upper 1%. I'm still not saying it's 'right', but I understand the urge completely. More power to them.
Some of the best professional video editors I know can only afford pirated editing/graphics software and they have a right to access since the super rich could care less about actually providing support for those with less.
But then I guess we just don't deserve the expensive games of the elite? I'll stick to jumprope and a slingshot until I inherit millions from my old white relatives I guess. Isn't that how it's done?

@Ren: "more power to them"?
Just stop typing. Please.

Xenoblade!!! That game is epic, 10 hours in and its one of my favourite games of all time! ... Oh wait, it got pirated. Damn you Pirates!

I'm frustrated but I know I made my vote. Got my copy of Xenoblade reserved!

Just because something was downloaded 1,000,000 times doesn't mean there are 1,000,000 copies of it floating around. I often download things multiple times and it either gets lost, deleted, or who knows. Also some people just download for the fun of it, it's like being addicted to shopping. That doesn't make it right but it's probably not a lost sale.

I'm a budget gamer and I find there aren't that many games worth $50 or more. I can afford them yes, but the value just isn't there. The last 6 or 7 games I bought on steam for $7.49 or less despite being able to easily pirate them.

For now i just want to say it's discussions like these that make me realize why i love you guys so much. The vast majority of comments here either shows a great amount of integrity, interesting takes on the subject, nice personal stories or simply an amazing sense of humor. I hope i find the time to write a little something about this complex topic myself. Until then, thanks for being yourselves, people.

Beside the obvious fact that 1 pirated copy is not equal to 1 less copy sold (because it was not stolen, it was COPIED), there is no fact showing that it even has a negative effect (and no, saying it's obvious without further explaining is not enough) on the number of games sold in the long term.

So the question is about the legal and moral issue I suppose. Though without good studies on the subject this just comes down as to subjective.

And about supporting child trafficing - I am pretty sure this was connected to the illegal business with actually making hard copies of games and selling them (I have a hard time seeing how a none-profit business (illegal downloading) would be able to support anything).

If anyone knows of a good study (read: not made by lobbiest) please point me towards it and I might just consider coming back to discuss this furthermore

@nmhbm: "Beside the obvious fact that 1 pirated copy is not equal to 1 less copy sold (because it was not stolen, it was COPIED), "

Actually it is equal to 1 less copy sold. If someone interested in the product doesn't buy the genuine thing but downloads the rom instead that is one sale lost. The fact that is was copied is irrelevent.

As an example, If a customer service person keeps alienating customers they won't want to buy from that business. While the business hasn't lost anything physical what they have lost are potential sales from the purchases those customers would have made if their experiences were satisfactory.

If the aforementioned hypothetical business didn't do something to improve customer satisfaction they would lose money and be unsuccessful.

In the same way if somebody downloads a ROM Nintendo would lose the potential sale that customer would have made if the rom wasn't available. So Nintendo still loses money. Does that make any sense?

Illegal copies of games supporting other criminal activities is actually really easy to explain if you think about it. Being free they are very cheap to produce and sell so a crook could make a nice profit to support their other activities by selling them to people who don't care if they're illegit or just don't know they're not genuine.

This is just sad. People will bash the Wii but they would rather steal games for the system than man up and buy them. So sad

Pirates are greedy, corporations are greedy, and both of them are trying to take as much as they can. Welcome to the galaxy.

If one looks at the titles mentioned; they either were terrible games, remakes, or had fatal flaws in releasing.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 — Garbage release, the same as the original just with a Yoshi.
Mario Sport's Mix — More garbage with a racquet and basketball thrown in for sport!
Xenoblade Chronicles — Released in the EU 9 months before the NA release, what were they thinking!!!
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean — Really yet another Lego game?
FIFA 12 — Yea... Garbage

This in mind is it really hard to see why they made the top of the list? They should look at some good titles like Monster Hunter Tri or Metroid Other M and then compare the pirated numbers.

But, some how this is an advantage, because you can download games that stores doesn't sell any more, like Muramasa the demon blade, Castle of shikigami III, or Japanese imports like Puyo puyo 20th anniversary, and you can have all your games in a HDD instead tons of discs, Nintendo may take advantage of some those piracy ideas to make it in a legal way.