Xbox Mods: Piracy Headaches Can Make Korea Suffer

While we at QJ do like the power homebrew gives to creative minds and talented persons, it’s still distressing to see piracy occurring as a result of the misuse of the same technologies. The technology enhanced by crafty programmers is value-neutral in and of itself, but their uses are always open to abuse. The spread of XBox 360 piracy in Korea is one of the bad aftereffects that can be definitely be blamed on the greed of particular retailers.

Seoul is now awash with marketplaces selling modded XBox 360s, the sellers of which acquire a minor commission for their task. Since the hacked consoles are able to play fake games just as easily as original ones, these pirated games eat into the sales of original titles, especially since the pirated games for less than half the price of originals.

What problems does this sort of activity pose, you might ask?

Not much apparently, according to Do Jung-han, XBox Korea’s product manager. “We will not place too much attention on it,” he says. “The users of pirated consoles will not benefit from software upgrades through the XBox Live network. So we don’t think many people will try it.” Perhaps he should recant that statement, as the effects of piracy are more far-reaching than an immediate loss of revenue.

As QJ covered earlier, there’s a reason behind the high price of games. Consoles are sold for less than production price, and games offset the difference and help make the platform profitable (note how this was taken from someone who oversees the overall management of the XBox’s marketing strategies). Lackluster sales, therefore, do not have as big an effect on overall profits for a game company as compared to game sales. Software upgrades wouldn’t be too much of a deterrent to people looking for cheap games. In the long run, this also hurts long-term development of future consoles, and lackluster game sales can also herald the scrapping of highly publicized games if the numbers don’t add up in the corporate scheme of things.

Look also at Korea as a whole. Korea is Gamer Central and, it can be argued, is responsible for the worldwide spread of MMORPGs. There are more MMOs available for players there than any other place in the world, with even newer ones still in development. The big business of online gaming in Korea also takes a hit from players preferring to get their fix through piracy, which makes them go OFFLINE to get their fix.

It’s a scary, dystopian thought presented here, but it’s also potentially true. As much as we love homebrew, it’s piracy that gets to us, and it’s a shame that some folks have decided to cash in on the skills.

For those who think piracy is harmless, allow us to paraphrase Shakespeare. There are more things in heaven and earth, dear gamer, than can be dreamt of in your philosophy.

Via The Korea Times

While we at QJ do like the power homebrew gives to creative minds and talented persons, it’s still distressing to see piracy occurring as a result of the misuse of the same technologies. The technology enhanced by crafty programmers is value-neutral in and of itself, but their uses are always open to abuse. The spread of XBox 360 piracy in Korea is one of the bad aftereffects that can be definitely be blamed on the greed of particular retailers.

Seoul is now awash with marketplaces selling modded XBox 360s, the sellers of which acquire a minor commission for their task. Since the hacked consoles are able to play fake games just as easily as original ones, these pirated games eat into the sales of original titles, especially since the pirated games for less than half the price of originals.

What problems does this sort of activity pose, you might ask?

Not much apparently, according to Do Jung-han, XBox Korea’s product manager. “We will not place too much attention on it,” he says. “The users of pirated consoles will not benefit from software upgrades through the XBox Live network. So we don’t think many people will try it.” Perhaps he should recant that statement, as the effects of piracy are more far-reaching than an immediate loss of revenue.

As QJ covered earlier, there’s a reason behind the high price of games. Consoles are sold for less than production price, and games offset the difference and help make the platform profitable (note how this was taken from someone who oversees the overall management of the XBox’s marketing strategies). Lackluster sales, therefore, do not have as big an effect on overall profits for a game company as compared to game sales. Software upgrades wouldn’t be too much of a deterrent to people looking for cheap games. In the long run, this also hurts long-term development of future consoles, and lackluster game sales can also herald the scrapping of highly publicized games if the numbers don’t add up in the corporate scheme of things.

Look also at Korea as a whole. Korea is Gamer Central and, it can be argued, is responsible for the worldwide spread of MMORPGs. There are more MMOs available for players there than any other place in the world, with even newer ones still in development. The big business of online gaming in Korea also takes a hit from players preferring to get their fix through piracy, which makes them go OFFLINE to get their fix.

It’s a scary, dystopian thought presented here, but it’s also potentially true. As much as we love homebrew, it’s piracy that gets to us, and it’s a shame that some folks have decided to cash in on the skills.

For those who think piracy is harmless, allow us to paraphrase Shakespeare. There are more things in heaven and earth, dear gamer, than can be dreamt of in your philosophy.

Via The Korea Times