A factory producing counterfeit video game, music and film discs with an estimated street value of £1million ($1,5 million) was shut down by the ELSPA in collaboration with West Midlands Police officers and members of Sandwell Council’s Trading Standards Department. And even though we recently found out that games piracy reached huge proportions I must admit that I am amazed by the huge amounts of money pirates are making for something that’s not their work, anyway.

Following the raid, over 30,000 illegally copied discs were confiscated, as well as 10,000 blank discs that were waiting in line. The majority of copied discs were housed in CD cases and it is believed that the purpose of the ‘business’ was independent sales and supplying discs for sale around the region. Seven computers attached to 35 DVD re-writers, three printers, 19 hard drives, 15 Xbox 360 consoles, two Wii consoles and a number of circumvention devices for ‘chipping’ games consoles were also recovered. Incredible, right?

John Hillier, head of ELSPA’s crime unit said: “The public should be aware of many other pitfalls of counterfeit games – some will even damage hardware such as consoles including PlayStation, Xbox and Wii. Other fakes will not play correctly at all. Most importantly, of course, pirated software comes with no quality assurance whatsoever – so if a game turns out to be faulty then retailers and publishers just will not replace them.”

Not to mention the fact that $1,5 Million worth of illegal video games costs the industry dearly!