Well, turns out Gamecube isn't immune to piracy, however much we'd like to believe otherwise. Our staff look at this.

Gamecube piracy in China!? What do you make of it?

The Enigma: It makes no difference that it was in China because piracy is a worldwide issue. It's good to see that at least one of the big three companies is clamping down on it, but it's still an ongoing situation. 300,000 copies being siezed is a good thing, it shows that Nintendo is aware of what's going on, and that they're willing to take action.

Perhaps this will be the start of a worldwide, long needed clampdown on piracy. Or perhaps not. Either way, at least Nintendo is making a big deal of it.

Dringo: China is the hardest place for Nintendo to release anything due to the Piracy issue. Many techniques are being employed, Nintendo even discussed releasing old games in China (e.g. SNES ones) to help counter-act it. Nintendo really want to be the first to crack the market without losing money, which is what they will do with rife Piracy.

The Gamecube has escaped being pirated due to its protection system, but Chinease pirates will be the first to beat it even if there isn't a disc the right size. Naturally if Nintendo go for the throat in China and scare the pirates away except those small time pirates like the ones in Europe and America then Nintendo can release games in the country and make a fourtune.

Ash: Piracy is bound to be all over the place in any big electronics business its how its dealt with thats the concern. Nintendo seem to be determined to stop it in China and I don't blame them. All companies like to make money, its not a secret, and piracy doesn't help. I just hope Nintendo can find a solution, and it can start a global crackdown on piracy.

Blackbird: First thing I said to Tim was: "see, I told you they would..." Get serious: did you really expect the NGC wouldn't be hacked? People spend their whole life trying to hack/crack/modify their consoles. So far they managed it with all other consoles, it was just a matter of time...

bjlangley: Ahoy there! Pirates are the scourge of the seven seas of the gaming world, only interested in the ill-gotten gain of their pieces of eight.

Piracy will always be a problem in a society full of people not willing to pay their own way, feeling that the world owes them something.

Even though game prices have dropped since the NES days, with new releases often at �44.95, the fact that games are much bigger, more involving, and generally better still doesn't mean that people will be happy to pay �35.95 when they can get the same product off the back of a lorry for a few quid.

Tim: Piracy is and will always be a problem in the videogame industry. Every console is bound to be hacked, some faster than other. However, I must say I am suprised with how long the GameCube is holding out. Not that I think Nintendo's system lacks in security; on the contrary, I think that Nintendo has designed a perfect system. They knew they had to quit the cartridges some day and they came up with this original system. I am sure Nintendo shocked Sony and Microsoft by showing off the creativity of the Nintendo GameCube. I wish Nintendo good luck tracking down the pirates and stop them from harming the videogame industry.

Conor: Can a system be impossible for pirates to hack? Probably not. But Nintendo have created Gamecube so as to pretty much minimise piracy. It hasn't been a gigantic amount seized compared to something like the Playstation, and it does seem to be an isolated incident.

I don't really see this getting out of hand, but I do fear it. Lets face it, the Chinese authorites aren't going to stop the problem anytime soon, but I can confidently predict we won't be seeing guys arriving in schools across Europe with pirate GC games in their backpocket. I don't see this problem growing too much thankfully.