Key Takeaways
- Italian police have seized 12,000 fake retro consoles containing more than 47 million pirated games.
- Turin’s authorities estimate the haul to be worth over $50 million.
- Nine people were arrested as part of the action and face up to eight years in prison if found guilty of trading in counterfeited goods.
Italian police have dismantled a retro game counterfeiting ring, seizing fake consoles and pirated games with an estimated combined worth of over $50 million. While details on the matter are limited, the seized goods reportedly infringed on Nintendo, Sega, and Atari’s intellectual property, among others.
According to a 2023 study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation, only 13% of games published before 2010 are currently available for purchase through legitimate means. The older a given title is, the less likely it is to still be retailing in any shape of form. This state of affairs gave rise to the popularity of all-in-one retro consoles, which are essentially emulators that come bundled with numerous classic games. With few exceptions, these products are typically never properly licensed and therefore considered bootleg materials.
Turin Police Seize 12,000 Consoles Containing 47 Million Pirated Games
One Italian operation specializing in the trafficking of such products has been dismantled by Turin authorities in mid-September 2024, AFP news agency reports (via France 24). Alessandro Langella, a Turin financial police official heading its economic crime unit, said that the action resulted in the authorities seizing approximately 12,000 consoles that stored over 47 million pirated video games. The confiscated products have all been imported from China for the purpose of being resold via online retailers and specialized retro gaming stores, the official said, adding that this helped in tracking them.
Police Say Their Counterfeit Retro Games Seizure Is Worth Over $50 Million
While Langella estimated that the combined value of the seized materials is in the ballpark of €47.5 million ($52.6 million), the official did not provide a breakdown of how Turin’s financial police arrived at this figure. Based on the cited numbers, the recently seized batch consisted of devices that stored around 4,000 pirated titles on average. For reference, many all-in-one retro consoles that can currently be purchased stateside are priced in the sub-$100 range, including those that come with tens of thousands of games preinstalled. This would suggest that this batch of 12,000 consoles may not have generated more than a low seven-digit sum in revenue were the traffickers able to sell it, even if the total value of the licensed games that it contained was theoretically much higher.
All of the seized hardware has already been destroyed. Turin’s financial police arrested nine Italian nationals as part of the operation. They have all been charged with trading in counterfeited goods and are consequently facing up to eight years in prison if found guilty. Apart from containing pirated games, another issue with the seized consoles was that they were equipped with non-certified electrical circuits and batteries that did not meet EU safety or technical standards.
A detailed list of the seized products has not been made public. However, authorities said that the now-destroyed retro consoles infringed on numerous intellectual properties, particularly those from Atari, Nintendo, and Sega. Street Fighter, Super Mario, and Star Wars retro games were among the most numerous pirated titles found on the seized devices.
