Chinese Console Rip-offs

I must say, some of these are just depressing.

I must say, some of these are just depressing.

http://www.sharenator.com/Console_clones/-Apathy-

Before anyone reports -Apathy- for advertising, that link is to an article, not a site selling fake consoles :P

I find them both funny and disturbing. I was amazed to see the Polystation on sale in a big-name retail store here in Australia. It's like, how did that clear legal? #1 they all have illegal roms on those carts (albeit ancient arcade games) and #2 the intellectual property rights of Sony is being violated by them copying the look and feel of a patented item.

oh please, like America don't make cheap ripoffs

I've had plenty of sodas, cereals, etc etc etc that makes it look similar to another brand, but is not.

Exterior design looking similar, and name looking similar is not something that's illegal. Misleading yes, but not illegal.

oh please, like America don't make cheap ripoffs

I've had plenty of sodas, cereals, etc etc etc that makes it look similar to another brand, but is not.

Exterior design looking similar, and name looking similar is not something that's illegal. Misleading yes, but not illegal.

TriangleHard

If you read the posts in here again, carefully, you'll see that not a single person accused the Chinese console rip-off designs of being illegal. What was deemed illegal was the potential ROM content in those consoles. The cheap imitation aspect of these consoles are, as you say, just that -- imitations, rip-offs, misleading, and what have you, but not illegal. Agreed. But take a look at what's running on them. Those files could be illegal, depending on whether or not they're copies of software that have entered public distribution (which I highly doubt).

Anyway. I think it's pretty fascinating how these shoddy knock-offs exist. On the one hand, you've got people who want to file a lawsuit for ripping off an IP, or housing illegal software. On the other hand, it's interesting how radically different some of these things can actually be once you use them. I saw an iPhone rip-off on the subway once that wasn't an iPhone, or even an iPod, but a handheld poker machine. My friend who runs a Guitar Hero tourney at her bar gave away, not too long ago, an iPod Nano rip-off that the winner said had a whole boatload of features and capabilities that no iPod has ever had. I'm not advocating or demonizing anything about those devices, by the way; I just think it's amusing and fun to see how people (mis)use popular imagery.

This is funny.

I was actually planning on starting a thread about the console clones I see sold at the mall around this time every year.

Every Christmas season I see kiosks set up at the mall that sell consoles loaded dozens of NES or Genesis roms. They always come with a controller and a light gun that looks like an old western six-shooter. If memory serves me they sell for something like $30-50. I took a close look at one of the boxes one year and it had pictures of the games it came with - most of them appearing to be commercial games. Some of the names of the games were changed, i.e. the name Super Jump Man under a picture of Super Mario Bros.

I'm seeing these things being sold at malls in the US. I don't understand how this is possible in a country where grandmothers are being sued because their grandsons are downloading movies onto their computers.

EDIT: As clarification - the consoles I'm seeing for sale don't actually look like any current- or past-gen console. They're just loaded with seemingly illegal roms.

I don't know what is sadder, the chinese making these sad excuses of game consoles or the people who buy them thinking they are getting a deal. Why, just why they do this?SciFiCat

I'm thinking well-meaning grandparents are the target audience for these things.

It's not surprising that we're seeing so many cheap knock-offs out of China. After WWII, Japan was the source of cheap, shoddy knock-offs. No kidding! Japanese cars used to be synonymous with "death trap". They copied successful products (mostly from the USA), but as their industries developed and the country became stable, increasingly built up, and wealthier, so did their products and technology.

Right now China has many opportunities for entrepreneurs because so many consumer demands simply haven't been satisfied. As China sheds communism and its industries develop, it too will stop being known for shameless knock-offs of a more successful country's products.

the fact that they are sold in, say, my mall, leads me to believe they must be legal. otherwise, they wouldnt still be there after years.OneWingedAngeI

Since it isn't a criminal matter but instead a civil one, it requires the company (like Nintendo) to press a suit against the company knocking off their products. The reason then that they're still on shelves may not be simply because Nintendo didn't think they had a case, but instead, just didn't think it was worth it to pursue them in court. Trials cost money and these knock-off companies don't have much of that, so there likely won't be a settlement fee big enough to even cover the cost of their lawyers.

I find it interesting that the one company that did go after the people knocking off their console and actually successfully stopped them quickly exited the industry when their console that was being knocked off then failed.

a good point, it just seems highly strange that nintendo would not protect its' most important IPs. i know that nintendo was officially investigating these things at one point, which suggests they figured it wasnt worth their while (unimaginable), or something came up to stop them from pursuing.

I like to watch people review these sort of things on Youtube.

But you got to give them credit. Some of these aren't actually half bad actually, but the only problem is that they try to rip-off other ideas.

Like, some guy reviewed the Wii rip-off, and the controller actually worked, but the games were just terrible rip-offs of other games, and they were definitely lacking.

imo China could produce it's own quality gaming console, but they seem more willing to rip off something, and try to sell that instead.

I'm actually interested in fakes, so long as I actually have the real thing, then I find them funny.

But anyone who buys them as a substitute for the real thing, well that's pretty sad. Plus, oblivious parents who buy them for their children, thinking they're the real thing is pretty terrible. Unless they're really bad kids...