Xbox 360, Wii fall to Asian piracy, PS3 resisting
We got a tip from one of our friends in Southeast Asia that gave us an idea of how the darker side of the console war is being waged there. It currently looks to be a square-off between the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 in the pirate market.
According to our source, modded Xbox 360 consoles have been available in the Philippines for some six months now, which was followed by the Wii whose modded versions started shipping barely two months ago in the country. Amazingly, the Wii is slightly more expensive than Microsoft’s game machine. This may be attributed to the short supply of the console in the global market.
More on piracy in Southeast Asia after the jump! We give you the full scoop on price quotes, bundle packs, a pirate’s mini-XBL, and a look at the progress of Blu-ray piracy. Things on the other side of the globe are far different from what you’d expect…
We got a tip from one of our friends in Southeast Asia that gave us an idea of how the darker side of the console war is being waged there. It currently looks to be a square-off between the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 in the pirate market.
According to our source, modded Xbox 360 consoles have been available in the Philippines for some six months now, which was followed by the Wii whose modded versions started shipping barely two months ago in the country. Amazingly, the Wii is slightly more expensive than Microsoft’s game machine. This may be attributed to the short supply of the console in the global market.
Our source says that a basic modded Wii package that includes the console and five pirated games of the buyer’s choice sells at an average price of about 20,000 pesos depending on the customer’s bargaining skills. That’s roughly US$ 400, which is significantly pricier than the un-modded ones that we have in the U.S.
If you’re really into the machine, you can shell out 22,000 pesos, or about US$ 440 to get the fully loaded package. It includes all the accessories and 20 bootlegged games of your choice.
The Xbox 360 is a little closer in terms of its legitimate price point stacked up with the modded one. The basic package, which is very similar to what you get with the Core model here, sells for 19,000 pesos (US$ 402) and comes with just one controller and five pirated games. If you want the total package, you can get the one that sells for 23,000 pesos (US$ 486) where the dealer will gladly give you the unit, two controllers, headsets, 20 games of your choice, a 20GB hard drive, and a dandy cooling fan. The tipster said the pirates are working on a system that will allow owners of bootlegged games to access Xbox Live.
More frighteningly, our tipster says some of the dealers of the pirated gear are speculating on establishing a private server that can host a “pirate’s mini-Xbox Live environment.” The idea may seem a bit ambitious, but similar things have happened before. Hobbyists have been able to establish private servers which host Asian MMORPGs so that users won’t have to pay for prepaid subscriptions. Games for both the Xbox 360 and the Wii cost 280 pesos (US$ 5.92) a piece.
Only the Sony PlayStation 3 has so far withstood the pirate’s dissecting knife. To date, there is still no modded PS3 anywhere in Asia which has been successfully marketed. The danger, however, has not passed as our informant asked a store owner if there’s hope that the high-end console will be modded. Amazingly, the man said “Blu-ray is giving our suppliers trouble, so you might have to wait until next year.”
Our asset tells us that next-gen consoles are pretty new in his country and prices are still “relatively high.” He says everyone expects the listed prices to drop by some 30 to 40 percent after a year. The same goes for bootlegged games. Thanks to Merc for the info.
