“About 12,000 consoles on which more than 47 million pirated video games were illegally stored were seized, for an estimated value of more than 47.5 million euros,” said Colonel Alessandro Langella, head of the economic and financial crime repression brigade of the Turin customs (north). This figure includes the value of the consoles and hundreds of licenses for the pirated programs.
Some of the most popular games of the 1980s and 1990s included Mario Bros., Street Fighter and Star Wars, and the consoles imitated those of Nintendo, Sega and Attari franchises in particular.
Up to 8 years in prison
The consoles were reminiscent in their shape and distinctive features of the iconic “retro consoles” of these famous brands, which have been put on the market in recent years thanks to the “retrogaming phenomenon”, which is experiencing a phase of strong popularity and commercial expansion,” said Colonel Langella.
Produced clandestinely in defiance of European technical and safety standards, the consoles imported from China were sold in specialist stores or online, on merchant sites such as Amazon, which collaborated with the Italian authorities. The operation led to searches throughout Italy.
