Because of the recession, piracy might get to new heights this year and the latest ELSPA raid seems to prove that it’s a correct statement: the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association raided a small factory in the UK last week, resulting in the largest ever seizure of illegal game copying devices in the UK.

The company, whose name was not made public due to legal reasons, was also trading the illegal games online. And they had quite a catalogue, since the ELSPA together with the Metropolitan Police discovered more than 50,000 illegal game copying devices, along with counterfeit games console peripherals for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. For the moment the exact value of the confiscated items is not known, but I do believe that we’re talking about hundred of millions…

The business is believed to have imported more than 38,000 illegal game copying devices, some 32,000 of them imported since December 2008. And the exports? Unknown.