14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has started December with their usual anti-piracy initiative, this time taking place in Germany, where a couple of shops that sell modded Wii consoles and mod chips have been notified to destroy their illegal stocks. It seems that those "mod joints" will have to report their sources, in order to allow Nintendo to reach to the bottom of this underground industry.
Such chips are used to bypass copy protection and add a couple of new features to Nintendo's hot gaming device. The most famous of all mod chips is surely Wiinja (the one that you can see in the article's adjoined image), which, according to i4u.com, adds these features: Non Swap / Direct Boot, Boots Own Region WII Backups Directly, Boots Own Region Gamecube Backups Directly, Boots Imports Gamecube Backups by SWAP, D2B Drive Support and Improved Read Method, Includes AudioFix, MultiDisc/MultiGames, Support DVD-R and DVD+R (Burn +R on DVDROM Booktype), Universal EUROPE/USA/JAPAN Wii Console Supported and Stealth Mode to the Wii console.
Seems that Nintendo's getting ready for Christmas, while checking out the European market and getting some unpleasant piracy-related news. This summer, we've seen the Japanese company involved in major anti-piracy moves, like the one from Mexico, where the authorities confiscated hundreds of thousands of pirated Wii software, including Mario's illegal twin, "El Senor Jumpo". Also, in August, dozens of houses and shops from the US were raided by the US Customs in an attempt to shut down all modding businesses.
The UK has also had its share of modding scandals, but they usually involved police searches and prolific modders getting arrested and ready to do time or pay a huge fine. Cleaning up the market of illegal products seems a good idea, specially if you plan on topping the Christmas console sales, so this must be Nintendo's perfect plan.