CrunchGear

When searching for pirates on Google, this guy came up. I’m still giggling.

We allude to piracy here every so often. The Chinese pirate like its their job. A former Microsoft employee explained what’s what in the world of Chinese video game piracy. Not only is it out in the open, but it’s so easy even a caveman could do it.

Game piracy reflects general video game sales: the Xbox 360 is cracked wide open with games available even at the “We don’t sell video games” store; the whole Nintendo DS library can be bought on a DVD for around $12; few people pirate PS3 games because the PS3 isn’t as in demand there. All shocking facts, to be sure.

I remember once when I was 13, my uncle took me to a store in Chinatown where I was able to buy Final Fantasy VIII, just released in Japan and not available here for another several months. I paid $20 for the pirated copy. (It was selling for around $80 on various import sites.) And yes, I played that game from start to finish, not knowing a single word of Japanese, though I did eventually figure out the characters for “fire,” “attack” and the like.

Stay in school, kids.

The State of Next-Gen Piracy in China - A Report from Frank Yu [PlayNoEvil via Xbox-Scene]