How to spot a fake DS game?

J7.

J7.

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So I see all these DS games on ebay for cheap, but they're all from Hong Kong or China... Like... the FF titles for $13-15 with free shipping. So how does one spot a fake DS game, is there anything to look for?
 
I was just thinking this myself. GBA bootlegs are fairly easy to spot, but has anyone actually seen a DS bootleg? The artwork is probably blurry, but what else is noticeable?
 
they usually come with a warning 'do not' remove sticker.
they do not save.
they have a battery inside...that dies so does the game.
this is what i have found from personal experience.
 
Those are great links guys. I wonder if there's any way to tell from the outside of the game box without being able to inspect the cover art firsthand closely.

I see a FF IV ds game for $6.99 from Hong Kong, I look at his feedback, guy has sold hundreds of DS games for quite cheap, and everyone has left him very positive feedback. A lot looks like parents have bought the games for their children. Then I checked out the very few negatives, and person clearly states "fake ds game". Also has people give - for defective or low quality headphones probably also fake.

Yet, Ebay does nothing, when these pirates are making thousands of dollars and hurting real companies, while not paying import taxes and hurting our country as well. AND if you want to sell a game on ebay these assholes tremendously lower the value of your personal property.
 
[quote name='J7.']Those are great links guys. I wonder if there's any way to tell from the outside of the game box without being able to inspect the cover art firsthand closely.

I see a FF IV ds game for $6.99 from Hong Kong, I look at his feedback, guy has sold hundreds of DS games for quite cheap, and everyone has left him very positive feedback. A lot looks like parents have bought the games for their children. Then I checked out the very few negatives, and person clearly states "fake ds game". Also has people give - for defective or low quality headphones probably also fake.

Yet, Ebay does nothing, when these pirates are making thousands of dollars and hurting real companies, while not paying import taxes and hurting our country as well. AND if you want to sell a game on ebay these assholes tremendously lower the value of your personal property.[/quote]
I would say the best way to protect yourself would be to just not buy anything that would ship from hong kong.
 
[quote name='jlseal']I would say the best way to protect yourself would be to just not buy anything that would ship from hong kong.[/quote]
And watch out for anyone selling ds games because they may be trying to get rid of a bootleg they mistakenly bought or buy and resell bootlegs.
 
[quote name='J7.']Those are great links guys. I wonder if there's any way to tell from the outside of the game box without being able to inspect the cover art firsthand closely.

I see a FF IV ds game for $6.99 from Hong Kong, I look at his feedback, guy has sold hundreds of DS games for quite cheap, and everyone has left him very positive feedback. A lot looks like parents have bought the games for their children. Then I checked out the very few negatives, and person clearly states "fake ds game". Also has people give - for defective or low quality headphones probably also fake.

Yet, Ebay does nothing, when these pirates are making thousands of dollars and hurting real companies, while not paying import taxes and hurting our country as well. AND if you want to sell a game on ebay these assholes tremendously lower the value of your personal property.[/QUOTE]


saw one feedback

Box was fake game worked great


Dude if they box is a fake then the game is a fake DUH !!!!!!!!
 
This has become a real issue, IMO. I buy a lot of my games on eBay and I too have noticed an increase in sellers from Hong Kong selling games at prices far below the MSRP. I have no doubts these are fake. I would not risk it. I would report them to eBay, but in all honestly there are thousands of listings. :(
 
[quote name='Law_Professor']This has become a real issue, IMO. I buy a lot of my games on eBay and I too have noticed an increase in sellers from Hong Kong selling games at prices far below the MSRP. I have no doubts these are fake. I would not risk it. I would report them to eBay, but in all honestly there are thousands of listings. :([/quote]
You should report them, otherwise it just hurts us. We get fake defective games, lose money, country loses money, and when we goto sell on ebay we can't make as much for our 'overpriced' games. Getting rid of only a small amount will help as many of them host hundreds/thousands of games each. Sure, they'll probably come back but its better than having them there all the time and having at least some portion of the fake games removed.
 
Has anyone started seeing these at a used game store like Gamestop? I imagine a ton are getting sold on EBay and some of them will likely be traded in to a GS near you. So be sure to examine all used DS games you buy from Gamestop too.
 
[quote name='Josef']Has anyone started seeing these at a used game store like Gamestop? I imagine a ton are getting sold on EBay and some of them will likely be traded in to a GS near you. So be sure to examine all used DS games you buy from Gamestop too.[/quote]
I was thinking the same thing.
 
[quote name='Josef']Has anyone started seeing these at a used game store like Gamestop? I imagine a ton are getting sold on EBay and some of them will likely be traded in to a GS near you. So be sure to examine all used DS games you buy from Gamestop too.[/quote]

I sincerely hope that Gamestop has means to identify fake games.

In actuality, though, all of the fakes on eBay are obviously fake. I don't understand why these sellers get positive feedback. Are people stupid?! :bomb:
 
[quote name='Law_Professor']I sincerely hope that Gamestop has means to identify fake games.

In actuality, though, all of the fakes on eBay are obviously fake. I don't understand why these sellers get positive feedback. Are people stupid?! :bomb:[/quote]

Step 1: Quit asking impossible questions like GS identify fake games

Step 2: Quit answering your own questions in the same paragraph. People are stupid.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!

My wife bought one, #-o, from HK and it arrived fast, but I told her NEVER to do it again. She just got a pink DS and she wanted Tinkerbell so bad.

Only 17 shipped. The case was fake, the insert was fake, the manual was not even complete, and even the right one, only 4 pages long, and the cart was obviously fake.

Plays fine at least till now.

I told her to contact them and they refunded and didn't want the game back... excuse was something about "their supplier" :lol:
 
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I bought Rune Factory 2 and Mario Kart. Got them for $10 each by bidding, not using BIN, when it came time to ship I realized they were from Hong Kong (max bid was $10.50 on each, I then forgot about it until I won). and they wer obviously fakes....oh well prevents the kids from losing my mario Kart. The case is same, inserts and cover art look decent, the actual game feels a little bit thicker. Put next to my authentic copy of mario KArt, side by side, and it's an obvious fake.
 
[quote name='xycury']Step 1: Quit asking impossible questions like GS identify fake games

Step 2: Quit answering your own questions in the same paragraph. People are stupid.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!

My wife bought one, #-o, from HK and it arrived fast, but I told her NEVER to do it again. She just got a pink DS and she wanted Tinkerbell so bad.

Only 17 shipped. The case was fake, the insert was fake, the manual was not even complete, and even the right one, only 4 pages long, and the cart was obviously fake.

Plays fine at least till now.

I told her to contact them and they refunded and didn't want the game back... excuse was something about "their supplier" :lol:[/quote]

Like the man said, you pretty much answered your own question when you said from HK or China, Period.
 
[quote name='xycury']Step 1: Quit asking impossible questions like GS identify fake games

Step 2: Quit answering your own questions in the same paragraph. People are stupid.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!

My wife bought one, #-o, from HK and it arrived fast, but I told her NEVER to do it again. She just got a pink DS and she wanted Tinkerbell so bad.

Only 17 shipped. The case was fake, the insert was fake, the manual was not even complete, and even the right one, only 4 pages long, and the cart was obviously fake.

Plays fine at least till now.

I told her to contact them and they refunded and didn't want the game back... excuse was something about "their supplier" :lol:[/quote]


What did I do to you? Calm down.
 
[quote name='Law_Professor']What did I do to you? Calm down.[/quote]

:lol: Just making a joke. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough.

GS won't have the intelligence to look for bootlegs if they are in any way not obvious, like a CDR...

And people are stupid. That's it. Just stupid.
 
Taken from my just-written post in my Chrono Trigger thread:

My 10-point checklist in order of viewable order: (useful for any questionable game)

1. Shrinkwrap is the impossible-to-replicate-by-hand fold-over style.*
1a. Sticker of "poster inside" on the outside of the shrinkwrap.^
2. Opens with new-game smell (the bigger the booklet, the stronger the smell).
3. 43-page full-color instruction booklet.*
3a. Poster^.
4. Health & Safety Precautions booklet.
5. Registration Card*.
6. Nintendo & DS logo inside case*.
7. Cartridge sticker and insert are clear and sharp.
8. Cartridge is the exact dimensions and color as other carts.
9. Cartridge has game-unique code printed on the back.
10. Green chipboard has complex coding (not 001-01).

^: Only applies to Chrono Trigger
*: not all games have this, but when they do, you know it's real.

And I have to say after reading those articles: the "crooked sticker placement" and "corner of sticker isn't the exact same" parts are pure rubbish. It's rare to find a DS cart with a 100% straight sticker on it.
 
You could probably get any game you wanted for free from these Ebay sellers. Just buy a bunch of the bootleg games, receive them, complain that they are fake, and the seller will undoubtedly refund your full amount to discourage you from leaving negative feedback or ratting them out.
 
I ended up finding Electroplankton on eBay for like $35 plus shipping BIN. I thought it was a pretty great deal so I jumped on it.
Jesus...
First thing that tipped me off to it being a fake is that US games do NOT come in the European style cases (the wider clear cases). Then of course was the art insert looked like it was printed at home on an inkjet and the manual still had smudged ink.
The cart luckily loaded up and worked, but I know it's a fake.
The WEIRDEST part is that the cart still loads up in my DSi. So who knows there.
The seller (from Hong Kong, obv.) messaged me that if I changed my negative feedback to a positive they would refund me. I told them to shove it because I already filed a dispute with Paypal. Got every single penny back.
 
[quote name='JoeCamNet']
The seller (from Hong Kong, obv.) messaged me that if I changed my negative feedback to a positive they would refund me. I told them to shove it because I already filed a dispute with Paypal. Got every single penny back.[/quote]
:applause: thank you for doing the right thing.
 
My friend ordered a game off ebay one time, and on the back of it, it said "Nintondo". It was pretty amusing.

I like to be amused at the sacrifice of others.
 
[quote name='Kerig']And I have to say after reading those articles: the "crooked sticker placement" and "corner of sticker isn't the exact same" parts are pure rubbish. It's rare to find a DS cart with a 100% straight sticker on it.[/quote]

Yeah. I have to say about 75% of my authentic games have crooked stickers, so that is complete BS.
 
Alas, I just got nailed with a couple of Bootleg copies Tetris DS. I've been trying to find a few cpies of this to share with the more casual members of my family. This particular seller is US based (confirmed by the postmark on the package) and has ample good feedback. The price was also reasonable given the current rate Tetris DS goes for on eBay.

Thus far the seller keeps suggesting I resell the items if I'm not satisfied. I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt as I try to explain what bootleg means... If he doesnt get the hint soon I'm going to file with eBay and Paypal.
 
[quote name='foltzie']Alas, I just got nailed with a couple of Bootleg copies Tetris DS. I've been trying to find a few cpies of this to share with the more casual members of my family. This particular seller is US based (confirmed by the postmark on the package) and has ample good feedback. The price was also reasonable given the current rate Tetris DS goes for on eBay.

Thus far the seller keeps suggesting I resell the items if I'm not satisfied. I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt as I try to explain what bootleg means... If he doesnt get the hint soon I'm going to file with eBay and Paypal.[/quote]

A lot of those sellers in the US that sell a lot of bootlegs pretty much buy them directly from the people in Hong Kong who made the bootlegs for them, so they wont admit it. But you can still get that seller account banned for selling bootlegs blatantly.

I ran into a couple of these already. You just have to make sure the seller is not a newer seller and has a lot of feedback on selling DS games and no neutral or negatives stating its a bootleg. Most people dont leave negative feedback anymore to be honest if someone sells a bootleg, unless they see someone else complaining, then they might leave one too, but for the most part a lot of buyers dont leave them.
 
after 230 DS games from all over the place, stores, ebay, amazon, I have officially been hit by a seller located in the US with a bootleg FFT A2: Grimoire of the Rift.

And I have to tell ya that it was blatantly obvious it was a bootleg. I mean to be honest I don't see why anyone even need a guide on how to tell a bootleg game apart from the real one.

First off, the DS case was not even cut seperately all the way. It still had some left over plastic from cutting the shape of the box out. The box was extremely flimsy and felt warped and the plastic was not very good.

The cover was okay, but if you look closely you can tell its a bootleg, and on top of that, the back of the cover was not the same as the real game.

Now we go to the manual. The material they printed the manual on seems nice and all, but when you open the manual, it has all the semantics in the first few pages about Nintendo, seizures, etc, but as you flip through you get page after page of one line reviews from online gaming sites, lol. Now to the cartridge. The sticker was terribly cut and the print on the cartridge was slightly off and leaning to the side and on the back, it actually had a serial number printed and also the Nintendo logo and the Pat portion, but it looks completely fake. The Nintendo logo is actually indented into the cartridge, but its a lot larger than the normal DS cartridge logo, trust me, I checked with like 2 dozen other of my DS games. And the serial number is actually smaller and squished together a lot closer. And as far as the serial number thats coded on the board of the cartidge, they were just random letters, all lower case printed all in the middle of the connectors.

But literally when I pulled it out of the envelope I could tell already I was screwed, lol. Oh well, I guess 1 in every 230 isnt bad ~_~
 
I don't understand what is so hard about faking a video game. Like why do they always have some random shitty label art, the wrong box or messed up manual? Can't they even photocopy correctly?

I am thinking their intended market doesn't know or care about how the game looks in comparison to the real game. Their customers just want to play the game for cheap. The manufacturers aren't interested in making the game "real".
 
[quote name='Zing']I don't understand what is so hard about faking a video game. Like why do they always have some random shitty label art, the wrong box or messed up manual? Can't they even photocopy correctly?

I am thinking their intended market doesn't know or care about how the game looks in comparison to the real game. Their customers just want to play the game for cheap. The manufacturers aren't interested in making the game "real".[/quote]

The funny thing is the back of the fake box isnt even the same as the one on the real box. I am sure these people bootlegging it in China are just taking stock photos of the games cover from when the game first was announced, and was about to release, because if you read the copyright too, they are from years before. Damn whores.
 
Well, had my first run in with a fake game today...:bomb: Been looking for a copy of Electroplankton for a while and the store checker through gamestop's website stated a store about 10 minutes away from my work had a copy. So I run in after work and see it sitting there for 49.99 used, but I had some credit so I didn't care bout the price too much.

First impression, clear, wide game case..interesting..is this how this game is made? Second, I examined the box art and all the holos were real, however flip it on the back and all of a sudden it looks like a worldwide issue. Multiple languages on the bottom. Look at the instruction book and also printed in multiple languages. I shoulda snapped a pic with my phone.

All in all, looks like an international version.
 
[quote name='xtreme_Zr2']Well, had my first run in with a fake game today...:bomb: Been looking for a copy of Electroplankton for a while and the store checker through gamestop's website stated a store about 10 minutes away from my work had a copy. So I run in after work and see it sitting there for 49.99 used, but I had some credit so I didn't care bout the price too much.

First impression, clear, wide game case..interesting..is this how this game is made? Second, I examined the box art and all the holos were real, however flip it on the back and all of a sudden it looks like a worldwide issue. Multiple languages on the bottom. Look at the instruction book and also printed in multiple languages. I shoulda snapped a pic with my phone.

All in all, looks like an international version.[/quote]

Yeah, Electroplankton is a notorious bootleg nowadays if you can actually find it. And those clear cases disguised as european version are notorious for Electroplankton. Sadface T___T
 
[quote name='TotallyEpic']The one way to tell is, if its less than half the price on Amazon, then it's probably too good to be true...[/quote]

not always true with ebay and all, but thats a whole other story XD
 
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