The anti-piracy unit of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and some of its associates recently conducted a raid which yielded 85,000 pirated discs at the Walton Street market based in the Hull. Included among the acquired goods were illegally copied Nintendo DS games stored on discs marked Volume 9 DS games, a total value of around £ 6,000.

Each disc is said to contain around 200 games for the Nintendo DS. ELSPA's forensic experts pointed out that while these discs have already been in circulation for four to six weeks, this is the first time these kind of discs have been discovered in the UK.

The raid was conducted by Hull CID officers, Hull Trading Standards, the Riverside Neighbourhood Patrol Team (NPT), ELSPA's IP Crime Unit, Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), as well as representatives from Adidas and Nike who worked to identify illegally copied games, music, as well as counterfeit clothes.

John Hillier of ELSPA reminds gamers of how piracy affects the entire industry with the following quote:

Piracy costs the games industry dear - just like that of any other entertainment industry. Making good and inventive games is an expensive and creative process, with some titles today costing £20m or more to develop. To make a quality title involves teams of highly skilled professionals, from programmers and graphic artists to voice actors and musicians. When a pirate sells illegally copied games they undermine the viability of our industry. The worst-case scenario is that pirate activity could cost the jobs of some of the creative talent and that would be a catastrophe.

There are other things which the public should be made aware of about counterfeit games. Some of them will damage hardware, such as PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles. Others will not play in PCs and consoles at all or, if they do, the quality of the graphics or gameplay mechanics may be impaired. Finally, pirated software comes with no quality assurance – so if the games do not play properly then retailers and publishers will not replace them.