Bootleg GBA Games are Okay with GameStop - WUT?!

Tsukento

Tsukento

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Earlier today, I browsed around a new store that opened up just across the street from me. As I was checking their GBA games, something stuck out at me. A Pokemon LeafGreen game wasn't exactly...green. It was a bootleg cartridge with a fake LeafGreen label slapped on. Just behind it was another one. Behind that one were two authentic LeafGreen games.

I tried to think nothing of it, but come on, that should stick out like a sore thumb when the cartridge is GREEN while the other is dark gray. You'd think it'd end there, but it doesn't. Sure enough, to go along with LeafGreen, you have a bootleg FireRed. So now that makes three bootleg GBA games in the case. So I did some more browsing.

I counted a total of 18 bootleg GBA games sitting in the glass case. The labels were different from the authentic ones, as were the GBA logos. Hell, Mario Kart for the GBA had "Game Cassette" instead of "Game Boy Advance." This ranged from Pokemon to Mario Kart, to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Advance Wars 2, to even the god awful Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis.

So I talk to one of the employees about the fact that they're selling bootleg games. He tells me to hold on and has his sidekick take care of me. I repeat what's up only to be told the following...

"Well if the games don't work, the customers can return them within 7 days for a refund. As long as they work, it's fine."

He then goes back to do his thing, pretending the complaint had no merit to it.

So uh...how does one report a store about this?
 
I once saw a demo copy of Mario Kart for the gba for sale. Demo copies for gba don't have a save feature. I let an associate know and he said he'd take care of it. It's still sitting there right now.
 
Gamestop associatesa are stupid, most of them couldnt spot a botleg if their life depended on it. how are there so many bootlegs in your area? i have never seen a bootleg gameboy cart...ever!!
 
Not for nothing, but is anyone really surprised that some hourly-waged worker doesn't have any clue that there are bootleg carts? He probably thought the TC was just bullshitting him or something.
 
Report them to Nintendo's piracy thing, as stated above. I keep thinking if you report them to GS, the employee will simply use the "But they had seven days to return it if it didn't work" excuse to the head people. They would probably agree with it, and let it slip. But, Nintendo will drop the hammer on their asses.
 
i once bought a bootleg for the original gameboy at a gamestop. at the time i didnt know any better.. it was a 26 in 1 cart. i tried selling it on ebay but it got pulled, thats when i found out it was a bootleg. but at least a rare bootleg :)
 
[quote name='hec204']Besides them being bootleg, are they still playable and do they do everything an original does?[/quote]
Some games, like Pokemon, won't work if they have some functionality with DS games.
 
[quote name='eliter1']Can you call the cops on them? They are selling pirated games which is illegal.[/quote]
Doubt it's worth it. The cops won't really care.

I did call up Nintendo, though. Gave 'em the info needed and they said they would be having someone look into it.
 
[quote name='Bioshocked360']Kind of off topic but I saw a Japanese copy of Phoenix Wright 2 at Gamestop today. Anyone else seen imports at gamestop?[/quote]

Yeah I've seen the import version of the PS3 Gundam game. Also I have seen a few PSP import games. I think Gamestop takes import PS3, PSP, and DS games because there the systems aren't region locked.
 
So, I just helped open up the new GameStop in the area. In order to be stocked, the warehouse sent us a bunch of games.

Probably half our GBA games were either demos or bootlegs. I was the only person who noticed (because apparently most people don't know what to look for, regardless, they're dumb.) I ended up e-mailing the head inventory control person, and she had us destroy them. It's retarded how little most GameStop employees 1) don't care, and 2) aren't trained on this stuff.


And back to the OP: No, it's not ok with GameStop. You've just got stupid people at your store.
 
I'd probably be one of the clueless people who wouldn't notice a bootleg even if it were right in front of my face. To me, as long as a game works and it plays 100%, that's all that matters to me.
 
The only way around this, is to report this to the big N.....Nintendo should know this....let's see how gamestop responds to the big N......
 
I have deided that the higher ups at EB/GS are just as savy as we would be if we ran a gaming store, but it's the employes in some areas that make the store crappy.
 
[quote name='Tsukento']Earlier today, I browsed around a new store that opened up just across the street from me. As I was checking their GBA games, something stuck out at me. A Pokemon LeafGreen game wasn't exactly...green. It was a bootleg cartridge with a fake LeafGreen label slapped on. Just behind it was another one. Behind that one were two authentic LeafGreen games.

I tried to think nothing of it, but come on, that should stick out like a sore thumb when the cartridge is GREEN while the other is dark gray. You'd think it'd end there, but it doesn't. Sure enough, to go along with LeafGreen, you have a bootleg FireRed. So now that makes three bootleg GBA games in the case. So I did some more browsing.

I counted a total of 18 bootleg GBA games sitting in the glass case. The labels were different from the authentic ones, as were the GBA logos. Hell, Mario Kart for the GBA had "Game Cassette" instead of "Game Boy Advance." This ranged from Pokemon to Mario Kart, to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Advance Wars 2, to even the god awful Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis.

So I talk to one of the employees about the fact that they're selling bootleg games. He tells me to hold on and has his sidekick take care of me. I repeat what's up only to be told the following...

"Well if the games don't work, the customers can return them within 7 days for a refund. As long as they work, it's fine."

He then goes back to do his thing, pretending the complaint had no merit to it.

So uh...how does one report a store about this?[/QUOTE]


This is exactly what happened to me when I called them out on it at a Gamestop near my house, ironically it was a Pokemon game as well, I was almost gonna call the police on them for selling fake merchandise, because I know the police here have answered these types of calls. The problem is by the time the cops got there they probably would have hid the fake merchandise so it could not be found. My solution was to shout something to the fact of "this gamestop sells bootleg GBA games" into the store, which was filled with customers at the time.

It was the manager that talked to me about it too and he really didn't care, even though it takes a whole 3 seconds to check for bootleg games.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']This is exactly what happened to me when I called them out on it at a Gamestop near my house, ironically it was a Pokemon game as well, I was almost gonna call the police on them for selling fake merchandise, because I know the police here have answered these types of calls. The problem is by the time the cops got there they probably would have hid the fake merchandise so it could not be found. My solution was to shout something to the fact of "this gamestop sells bootleg GBA games" into the store, which was filled with customers at the time.

It was the manager that talked to me about it too and he really didn't care, even though it takes a whole 3 seconds to check for bootleg games.[/quote] Yeah, I saw a fake copy of pokemon ruby in GS. I told the workers and they booted it up and it looked exactly the same, and just dropped it back in the case.

GS would not bother hiding the fake merchandise. They don't even know what merchandise is fake. lol
 
I doubt anything is going to happen to the store or if employees are going to get fired. The employees don't check every little thing that comes into the stores to see if it's been bootlegged. The only thing I see happening is a DM coming in with LP, check every GBA game and if it matches what appears to be a bootleg, they pull it, write it up as a loss and destroy it.

The employees aren't running a bootleg operation so nothing is going to happen to them.
 
I helped set up a new store that opened last week and there were a few bootlegs. Didn't bother saying anything though. The games were shipped from the GS warehouse.
 
Definitely call the Nintendo number or contact them via email...I remember on the Nsider forums(back when they were alive) there was this one admin guy who was the head of the piracy department and he busted tons of places and fined their asses, mainly in thanks to the rabid Nuntendo fans. (aka me and millions of others)
 
I saw a Pokemon GBA cart for $29.99 without a label -- the cart had POKEMON written on it with a sharpie. It looked rather suspicious to me, I almost wonder if that was a bootleg cart. Probably not though.
 
[quote name='guyinga']I saw a Pokemon GBA cart for $29.99 without a label -- the cart had POKEMON written on it with a sharpie. It looked rather suspicious to me, I almost wonder if that was a bootleg cart. Probably not though.[/quote]

That was probably just careless care :)

Now on the other hand, I've been ordering a few games via the big E online, and I noticed that a Pokemon LeafGreen I got recently is a different color green than another I have. Is that any indicator of "bad things" or should I look for something different?
 
It's not gamestops fault that they have bootlegs. If GS was making them and selling them then it would be but they aren't. They don't check GBA games when they get traded in and most people who are stilling buying GBA don't care either. I don't see why you care because you know how to spot them so you can choose not to buy them.
 
Import games can not be legally sold in america, thats how about 5 different mom and pop stores got shut down in Tampa. Bootleg games should be reported to the cops, the maker of the game, and the corporate office of the store. Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of a gamer besides crappy.

 
[quote name='SaraAB'] My solution was to shout something to the fact of "this gamestop sells bootleg GBA games" into the store, which was filled with customers at the time.

[/QUOTE]

It is a good thing I base all of my purchasing decisions on random people shouting. It helped me to avoid buying that bootleg GBA game. By the way, does anyone want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge off of me? I picked it up on my last trip to NYC.
 
I'm heading to GameStop right now. I've got a stack of blank cds and a sharpie with me. I'm gonna get a crap load of store credit for selling these used copies of "GTA IV".
 
i remember back when i worked at GS, the asst. manager (i was 3rd key at the time) took in a bootleg pokemon fire red game. he didn't even notice until i pointed it out to him and he felt really stupid. in all fairness though, a lot of the time there is only a manager in the store during the morning shift and it more than likely happened when it got extremely busy. now don't get me wrong, they shouldn't go saying "as long as it works it is fine" since it is not the real thing, because we ended up taking the bootleg out of inventory and destroying it. my point to this is that more than likely it was someone who usually could spot this, but with the lack of help managers get at most of the stores because of hours, it can be difficult to spot a fairly well-done bootleg of something like that when someone is trading in multiple things and you start getting a line.
 
[quote name='supermonkeyballer']Import games can not be legally sold in america, thats how about 5 different mom and pop stores got shut down in Tampa. Bootleg games should be reported to the cops, the maker of the game, and the corporate office of the store. Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of a gamer besides crappy.

[/quote]
I'd like to see some legal proof of this claim (the import games thing). Best Buy was selling import games a while ago, and I bet they wouldn't have done that if it was illegal.

Re: Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of gamer besides crappy

Go to hell.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']I'd like to see some legal proof of this claim (the import games thing). Best Buy was selling import games a while ago, and I bet they wouldn't have done that if it was illegal.

Re: Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of gamer besides crappy

Go to hell.[/quote]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/best-buy/best-buy-selling-import-ds-games-213226.php

According to that, not only was Best Buy selling imports, Fry's has been known to as well. Yeah, so illegal that two major US chains were doing it.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']I'd like to see some legal proof of this claim (the import games thing). Best Buy was selling import games a while ago, and I bet they wouldn't have done that if it was illegal.

Re: Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of gamer besides crappy

Go to hell.[/quote]


I don't think the selling of import games will get anyone in trouble. There are lots of stores that sell them that are located in the USA, such as www.ncsx.com. The problem comes with the modification of consoles. Alot of these places would also 'mod' your console which would allow you to play import (and also bootleg) games. This is illegal and this is probably what got those stores shut down, not the fact they were selling legitimate copies of import games.
 
[quote name='supermonkeyballer']Import games can not be legally sold in america, thats how about 5 different mom and pop stores got shut down in Tampa. Bootleg games should be reported to the cops, the maker of the game, and the corporate office of the store. Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of a gamer besides crappy.

[/quote]

You are an ignorant buffoon. Sure, a lot of employees may suck, but I would say if anything, they are not generally crappy quality gamers. Gamestop actually wants people that are knowledgeable about gaming.
 
The store wouldn't get in trouble and I seriously doubt anyone would get fired for selling a bootleg game. MAYBE if the store had trucked in a shipment of, say DS games and had put them out on the floor and was selling them as new games, (I recall hearing a story on the news similar to this involving a gamestop) and they were found to be bootleg. Perhaps if a significant portion of the store's inventory for a certain system was found to be bootleg then they would get in trouble, but not likely for a few games. Especially when its a used product.

If they were really anal all stores here take your name and drivers license for trade in's (you have to be over 18 to trade games), and what you trade in, so they could theoretically pull the record and figure out who traded in that game then perhaps the blame could be placed on the person who traded it in (even though its very possible they didn't know it was a bootleg either).

This does not mean they should be doing it, but I would think as a customer of the place that constantly touts itself as the largest games retailer in the USA they would have a policy against bootleg games and they would know how to check for them. It just irks me that the largest games retailer in the USA does not care and does not check for fake games. Again, it takes about 3 seconds to turn a GBA cart over and look inside to see if it has Nintendo written on the connector in white printing, which is a telltale sign of a bootleg. It doesn't take long to teach this fact to someone either.

Its not the stores fault and its not even the manager's fault or even the minimum wage drone's fault, its corporate's fault for not having a policy against bootlegs in place and not properly training their employees to check for them. Bootleg games are illegal because they are not an original Nintendo product, now I am not a rabid fanboy of Nintendo but I firmly believe any retail store should not be selling bootlegs in any form for any game system.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']So, I just helped open up the new GameStop in the area. In order to be stocked, the warehouse sent us a bunch of games.

Probably half our GBA games were either demos or bootlegs. I was the only person who noticed (because apparently most people don't know what to look for, regardless, they're dumb.) I ended up e-mailing the head inventory control person, and she had us destroy them. It's retarded how little most GameStop employees 1) don't care, and 2) aren't trained on this stuff.
[/quote]
glad to know someone cares about situations like these at gamestop. i figured those idiots who sells them on ebay probably sold them to gamestops for cash/credit thats why they ended up with a whole bunch of them. im beginning to think that we'll see more for DS bootlegs. make sure to tell your coworkers about them as well because they are spreading quick.
 
[quote name='supermonkeyballer']Import games can not be legally sold in america, thats how about 5 different mom and pop stores got shut down in Tampa. Bootleg games should be reported to the cops, the maker of the game, and the corporate office of the store. Gamestop employees are rarely any quality of a gamer besides crappy.

[/quote]

Wow, you should be reported to teh cops for being retarded, lol. jk, but seriously.

Bootleg and Import are to totaly different things, Imports are games from other countries, they are totaly legal, but some of the big companies like sony don't like importers.

Bootlegs are copied games basicly the same as copying a CD and giving it to a friend, but alot more complicated.
 
[quote name='mrlokievil']It's not gamestops fault that they have bootlegs. If GS was making them and selling them then it would be but they aren't. They don't check GBA games when they get traded in and most people who are stilling buying GBA don't care either. I don't see why you care because you know how to spot them so you can choose not to buy them.[/quote]
Way to look out for your fellow gamers who might be interested in picking up some games but don't want bootlegs.

If you're gonna pay for overpriced used games, they might as well be legit.

Again, some GBA games DO NOT WORK with certain DS games. Like with Pokemon, you can't use the Pal Park feature to import your GBA critters to the DS if you're using a bootleg GBA cart. Not to mention, save files break down quicker due to the battery used in bootlegs.
 
Two GBA Pokemon games I bought recently from eBay seem to not be legitimate.

The code on the back of the cart is AGB-004. The game cart stickers are not "shiny". The Nintendo seal on the sticker is not "correct." The ESRB logo is not clear. The game, when loading a save, pops up a message "the save file will be loaded, the game can be played." And there are obvious craftsmanship differences between two similar titles I bought over a year ago, also from eBay.

Unfortunately, I didn't even ponder this being a possibility. I already left feedback and it is now beyond the seller's posted "returns" date. Do I have any recourse?
 
[quote name='Mileron']Two GBA Pokemon games I bought recently from eBay seem to not be legitimate.

The code on the back of the cart is AGB-004. The game cart stickers are not "shiny". The Nintendo seal on the sticker is not "correct." The ESRB logo is not clear. The game, when loading a save, pops up a message "the save file will be loaded, the game can be played." And there are obvious craftsmanship differences between two similar titles I bought over a year ago, also from eBay.

Unfortunately, I didn't even ponder this being a possibility. I already left feedback and it is now beyond the seller's posted "returns" date. Do I have any recourse?[/QUOTE]

I would contact Nintendo's anti-piracy department and give them the name of the seller. You may be able to go back in your ebay history and retrieve their name and phone number too, give them that information as well.

Remember the only way you can tell a real gba game from a fake is to look inside the game at the edge connector, you should see Nintendo and some numbers in a white color (there are variations on the printing) just make sure the printing is there. I have never seen a bootleg game that had the printing on it.

You definitely want to check those games when buying them, and it is true that they don't work if they are bootleg. Most of the time when finding a used bootleg I would assume the battery would be already dead as they use poor quality materials to produce the game. I had a bootleg cart (it was found for nothing) and I found that my newest SP (graphite black with the brighter screen) would not even load the game, while other gameboys in my collection did.

The bootleg carts are also the wrong size, they are almost always too large for the system, so this could lead to edge connector damage on your system in the future. Not a good thing if you want to preserve the integrity of your system, like I do with my graphite black system.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I would contact Nintendo's anti-piracy department and give them the name of the seller. You may be able to go back in your ebay history and retrieve their name and phone number too, give them that information as well. [/quote]
They were purchased within the last 3 weeks, so that's not a problem. Unfortunately it may not get me my money back though.

Remember the only way you can tell a real gba game from a fake is to look inside the game at the edge connector, you should see Nintendo and some numbers in a white color (there are variations on the printing) just make sure the printing is there. I have never seen a bootleg game that had the printing on it.
Click to expand...
Hmm, yes, you're right, I do see something inside the "good" carts.

The bootleg carts are also the wrong size, they are almost always too large for the system, so this could lead to edge connector damage on your system in the future. Not a good thing if you want to preserve the integrity of your system, like I do with my graphite black system.
Click to expand...
Also there is a very noticeable click when putting the game into my original GBA, and there's also a marked difference in the slot-side of the cart - some of the innards are showing - compared to the "good" carts.

Thanks for the comments!
 
You can also tell bootlegs by the weight of the cart, and also the color. If it's a darker shade of gray (almost black) and heavier than normal, it's bootleg.

And any pokemon game that's not in a colored cart is bootleg.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']And any pokemon game that's not in a colored cart is bootleg.[/quote]

They aren't gray.

If they were I'd have instantly picked up on it.

They're very close, color-wise, to the "originals", but they're not exact.

And me, being green/brown colorblind, being able to discern that difference, is pretty
telling.
 
Yeah, I heard they are able to fake the colored plastic of the cart now so it makes it even harder to spot the bootleg, if its a different color the bootleg will jump out at you, even if its just slightly off. It may be harder with the Pokemon carts though. It used to be they couldn't fake the clear colors but now they can so its impossible to tell if its a bootleg unless you look inside the cart for the markings.

My eyes are really trained, I can look into a case at gamestop and pick out the bootleg even if its just a different shade of gray, the difference is very obvious so if you put a bootleg cart amongst a pile of normal carts, any human being should be able to tell which one is different. I tried this with the one bootleg I had and almost everyone I asked was able to pick it out right away. I am pretty much the master at spotting bootlegs.

The only games you really have to worry about being bootlegged are the mario's, castlevania's, pokemon's, tactics ogre and any other rare, valuable or extremely popular game especially first party games.. Someone isn't gonna bootleg a copy of demikids for example, but mario bootlegs are very common.
 
I contacted Nintendo about it the night I made this thread. We'll see how that turns out. In the meantime, I did snap some pics of a few games at the place earlier today.

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