Italy’s financial police said on Friday they have dismantled a ring trafficking counterfeit vintage video game consoles from China containing some of the most popular titles of the 1980s and 90s.
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“Around 12,000 consoles on which more than 47 million pirated video games were illegally stored were seized, for an estimated value of more than €47.5 million (US$52.5 million),” Alessandro Langella, head of the economic crime unit for Turin’s financial police, told AFP.
The figure includes the value of the consoles and hundreds of licenses for the pirated programmes.
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The games included Mario Bros, Street Fighter and Star Wars, and the consoles imitated Nintendo, Sega and Atari franchises in particular.