Via Kotaku
Our good Gawker buddies over at the Consumerist, while remaining total assholes, did manage to spot a fascinating gamer-related story in between all their kvetching about exploding laptop batteries and fruit-flavored Cheerios: at least one Gamestop out there is knowingly selling counterfeit Nintendogames.
The complaint comes via Curmudgeon Gamer, who tried to buy a copy of Aria of Sorrow second-hand from a local Gamespot. He quickly spotted it was a counterfeit and schooled the loquacious pimple behind the counter about how you spot a fake cartridge.
Me: First key was the label. That one doesn't look like the one I own. Then when I looked at the contacts, I didn't see the word "Nintendo" on the circuit board. Look here at Game A. [I hand him Game A, pointing at circuit board]
Dude: Whoa. [he takes Aria of Sorrow from me] You're right, it doesn't say "Nintendo". That's cool.
Me: Yeah. If you peel the price sticker off, you can probably tell the back of the cartridge is slightly different. And if you take the case apart you'll see a nasty cheap battery and a blop of black epoxy or something over the main chip.
Dude: Whoa. Learned something tonight! [he hands back Game A, puts Aria of Sorrow back in case] As long as it's just between you and me, no problem, right? [he closes case]
Well, now it's between you, Curmudgeon Gamer and 200,000 Kotaku readers. But we'll be quiet, won't we, guys?