1 week ago
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A video crippled trafficking ringing has been smashed by constabulary successful Italy, aft fake vintage consoles and games worthy astir 50 cardinal euros ($55.5 million) were seized.
Among the counterfeit games were fashionable titles from the 1980s and 90s, including Mario Bros., Street Fighter and Star Wars.
The pirated consoles were imitations of the iconic devices produced by Nintendo, Sega and Atari and did not conscionable strict information standards.
New versions of video games and gaming consoles that were released decades agone person precocious soared successful popularity and bid precocious prices, successful a cultural trend known arsenic "retrogaming".
Around 12,000 consoles holding implicit 47 cardinal pirated video games were seized by police, Alessandro Langella, caput of the economical transgression portion for Turin's fiscal police, told the AFP quality agency.
The haul had an estimated worth of 47.5 cardinal euros ($52.5 million), Mr Langella said, a fig which includes the worth of the consoles and hundreds of licenses for the pirated programs.
They were "all from China" and were imported to beryllium sold successful specialised shops oregon online, Mr Langella said.
All the devices were fitted with non-certified batteries and electrical circuits and did not conscionable EU method oregon information standards.
The seized games person been destroyed.
Nine Italian nationals person been arrested and charged with trading successful counterfeited goods.
If recovered guilty, they look up to 8 years successful prison.
On TikTok, #retrogaming has amassed much than 170m posts.
The improvement is "experiencing a signifier of beardown popularity and commercialized expansion," Mr Langella said.
Old games and second-hand consoles are successful precocious demand, with a moving Super Nintendo strategy with games for merchantability online astatine betwixt £100 ($131) - £275 depending connected condition.
In 2021, a sealed transcript of video crippled Super Mario 64 sold astatine auction for much than $1.5m, shattering records.
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