$125 for that piece o'crap??? I'd rather get a DS

..but thats about the right price for crap.

This Vii console looks so closed to the Wii, and even the same spells so close to the original Wii. What privilege does the Chinese have without getting sued? If you recalled an article earlier about ebay.com vs perfumebay.com and more strikingly windows vs lindows.

imo, the world should press the Chinese to respect intellectual properties rights and stop copying other people's ideas or products. This is just so sickening.

TROOLLLL!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!

This is the first time I've heard of the Vii?

I imagine they are gunning for parents who think their younger kids won't know better nor appreciate the difference? Its just kind of amazing that someone went that far to capitolize on a systems popularity.

Granted it doesn't have the functionality but when has that stopped people from bying things based on looks and notions in the past?

They have opened this box, there's only one PCB inside. The rest of the box is air. They did add a piece of metal to increase the weight though

Is that even legal ?

Isn't there a copyright of some kind for the Wii ?

Since Wii is the only console this generation that actually did something different and has new controls, instead of just upgrading the graphics and regurgitating everything else. XBox just added two more shoulder buttons, and PS3 tried to change their controller but look how that turned out /sarcasm (PS: Six-Axis doesn't count by any means, since it wasn't even announced till after Sony saw what Nintendo was doing). Any games that aren't on the Wii will most likely come out for the PC sooner or later and will control better with keyboard/mouse ^_^ So feel good with all that extra dough you spent on a "superior" gaming console, I'm sure the graphics will look nice on a mega- 500inch plasma dlp 2160q TV

Article: I'm actually surprised that Nintendo hasn't filed a lawsuit against the maker of this, since it's pretty obvious the inventor didn't "create" it. I see this thing going nowhere.

Technically, Chinese ripoffs like this do not break any laws. For a product to be copyrighted in China, the holder must also acquire a Chinese copyright. China does not acknowledge international copyright laws, only its own.

The only thing illegal here would be exporting the product out of China. At that point Nintendo can go after the export/importers.

So... if Nintendo has filed no copyright inside China, they can't go after the manufacturer.

i agree to morebeer....

had you seen cars that looks like lexus, bmw, benz or other name brand in china....? That's a shock at first...but u will get used to it there...man...i never know is it the real benz hit me on the street or a mimic....uhm..

I say we bubble them in and make them pay for new oxygen... LOL!

So what kinda heat is this thing packing?

Sounds like some folks have been drinking too much MPAA/RIAA koolaid. Did the Chinese steal the plastic molds or computer chips from Nintendo? No. Then what's the problem?

It has a different branding. They took a good idea and made a cheaper version of it. Competition, it's the capitalistic way.

check this vid out at http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?v=news&p=19796
It shows what is inside the "vii" It is some what funny and pathetic. The Wii doesnt have great graphics anyway but the vii is a joke. Check the vid out and see why the vii doesnt need a disc to play games

I wonder how many parents this holiday season are going to buy a Vii for Junior when they really think they're getting a Wii...

competition is not done by making a copy of something. competition is done by making a better product. if you copy what anyone else does, all you did was show everyone who really is better. thats why hyundias didnt do so well till they got their own look. thats why no one copies sony at all. they just make a better product. ;-)

For those who didn't notice....it's only a mild Wii clone. There's no optical drive of any sorts, and includes a dozen or so preinstalled games. Under the black flap are two connectors; one looks like a DE-9, and one I don't recognize.

I'm too lazy to look up what's inside, but they're probably made up of cannibalized Tiger games. They might look good as book-ends. :)

Sounds like someone who's been brainwashed by the Communist and think something so close to the original one should actually be allowed. That's like allowing someone to sell panasoonic (notice there are two o's not one) branded tv that looks very close to the real one but hey, that's competition (yeah right)

Maybe most of you don't realize a for a person to afford a Wii in China is like buying a Xbox 360 AND a PS3 in the developed countries.

Hello we have retard in the building! In the art world copying is called plagurism and it usually gets you a fail grade or arrested for fraud if you take it too far. The way to get the Chinese to change their thinking would be a blanket import export embargo. They want the benefits of capitalism with none of the restrictions that more civilized nations have put in place to curb the natural human desire to get as much money as possible for doing as little as possible. Yes it may hurt us for while too but it would hurt them more. They need to export to get hard currency and to sustain growth. A boycott of the Beijing Olympics may also get their attention - trouble is we have too many lilly-livered politicians.

Copyright protects creative expression like music and movies, not video game consoles. Patent law governs the functional elements of a product, and in this case there may be some issues with their copying of the Wiimote. The rest of the system is to functionally distinct to be an issue. The manufacturer might be found guilty of trademark infringement though because the name and overall appearance of the product are so similar.

Nope, you have to have some protection for the inventors or else nobody would innovate -- there would be no money in it for them if they could expect someone to make a cheap copy/alternative and distribute it worldwide. So its at least good that this is contained in China.

Yes, copying other people is one of the most pathetic things people do. But, it's not as if China is the only one or something. Look at the cars Lexus came into the USA with to start company -- utter clones of Mercedes models just with S-class headlights on an E-class size car -- minor differences. Look at the Kia Amanti. The world is full of this stuff. Consumers love copies. How can you blame companies for wanting to take advantage of this? If you are a company that is probably not going to be able to come up with your own design that is nearly as appealing as someone else's, then copying makes shrewd business sense. It's the consumer's responsiblity to either buy the copies or not.

Yep, perfectly legal.
Americans don't seem to appreciate that there are more than 1.3 billion chinese, ore 4.3 times the american population.
China dwarfs the us in that respect.
In 2010 China will have 1500 Billion us dollars in the register.
So who will be the new master on this planet?
China is also increasing its military might.
China beat the us in Korea and Vietnam... so any future conflict will be decided in favor of China.

When I was in Iraq/Kuwait in 2003 I saw a TON of knock off PS2s and XBoxes. (is the plural of xbox xboxs or xboxes?) They sold them in every shop that sold electronics, and I'd bet money they were ALL made in China.

China are very developed and advanced.

But also, where do u think most of the stuff you use is manufactured? If you boycott China, they might boycott you back - then you would see just how much we rely on them. Look at eco-foot print offsetting. If China didnt make these things then they would cost So much more.

Article: It's just a cheap imitation - no panic.

Two points...actually one point and a story...
Bob, your comments gave me my first chuckle of the day...thank you. "China beat us in Korea and Vietnam...so any future conflcit will be decided in favor of China". That's an amazing oversimplification and leap in logic. As a matter of fact, it long-jumps 'over' logic into pure fantasy. Don't spew this stuff out, it only makes you look silly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. So put down the crystal ball, and join the rest of us in 'Reality Land'.

"..4.3 times the American population." Now I'm assuming that by 'American' you probably mean the United States, and are dismissing the fact that the folks in Mexico, and Canada might consider themselves as living in North AMERICA as well. Most Canadians I know bristle when they hear US citizens refer to themselves 'only' as Americans.

Now to my story...When I was in the Navy we stopped in Hong Kong for some R&R. WHile I was ther I picked up a couple of cheap CD's. When I got back to the ship, I opened up what should have been a Pearl Jam album, but turned out to be John Denver's Greast Hits...At first I was mad, but then I started to listen to it. Not only was it the wrong album, but it was an imitation of John Denver, with a Chinese guy with a bad accent doing the vocals...IT WAS FREAKIN' HILARIOUS!!! My shipmates and I probably ended up listening to that album more than any other during the deployment.

I mean, you get people 'oooh'ing and 'aaaah'ing over a miniaturized Commodore64 sold with a dozen games, without anything given back to Commodore for the firmware, hardware design, or to the original games' authors - and now, a firm that develops a cheap BUT different system gets 'oh, they're cheap knock-offs selling something that looks like a Wii'.
You do know where the Xbox came from, don't you? Where the Sega Master system came from? What was the basis for a Neo Geo? Why the design change for the Sega Genesis? Why the Mattel/NES trouble in the '80s? Even better, where did Windows come from? Where did .Net come from (hint: Java)?

In short: it is NOT copyright infringement, due to the hardware design being different; it is NOT a patent infringement, due to the functional design (no optical drive) being radically different; it is NOT a software copyright infringement, due to the games actually being original developments for this machine.

This machine is not touted as an innovation: it is, and never claimed to be anything else, than a standalone game station.

Thus for all of you out there drinking the 'Intellectual Property' coffee, here's what I tell you.

Before you crap on the Chinese's bent straw, remove the two by four planted in your eye.

Chineses created the PolyStation once. It was sold in the non-legal market and even on TV! It was very similar to Sony's PlayStation, but when you open the CD drive, there was a slot to put cartrigeds! Yes, cartrigeds! The controls were very similar too. I don't know anybody that bought it. The graphics were very close to... Atari 2600 to Snes, depending on the game.

Well... nobody should be. Actually, USA seems to be. They haven't the most valuable "money" anymore, since Euro is more expensive. And maybe England's is even more expensive. They have the best (?) army. OK, but, sincewe are not in war, and don't intent to be (I think), who is the master?

Sometimes we (people that are not "american") have theimpresion USA people or:
1 - Don't know anything outside USA or have a misconcept about them.
Ex.: in an interview, a man asked to more than 1000 americans in NY if they knew (it was some years ago, 2 I think) what country was the first in CO2 emissions. The answers: China, India, Brazil, ..., but they don't even thought abou USA! When the man thol them it was USA, they almost didn't believed him.
Ex2.: I tried it once. It's REALLY funny, man. I asked to an american hat came here (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) if he knew what's the capital of Brazil. The answer was so hilarious I couldn't stop to laugh. He said: "Sure! It's Buenos Aires!" Man, that guy was HERE! How the hell someone travel to a country without even knowing the name of its Capital?! Andnot just that, Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America (maybe not in area). Man, Rio de Janeiro would be a acceptable answer, since it's famous. São Paulo would be, too. But, Buenos Aires?!It's the capital of Argentina! Pelé is NOT Maradona! xD (For any american reading this: The capital of Brazil is Brasília. BRASIL > BRASÍLia)
Ex3.: I knew a guy that still believed Iraq had nuclear or chemical weapons, even after the inspection that found nothing but the desire for more oil.

2 - They know, nbut they simply think they're the masters of universe. (Just like He-Man)

For personal experience with tourists, I tend to believe in the 1st one.

Awesome! What I love about the advertising for this blatant rip-off of a video game console is that they use a blatant musical rip-off!

Watch the first video here:
http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?v=news&p=19796

From 0:55-1:37, when they introduce Olympian James, you can clearly hear a rip-off of the distinctive theme from the 1998 Winter Olympics, by David Foster.

That's a funny story Grub! (About the CD.) I can picture William Hung singing badly when you wrote that story.

@Article: China has a large population of low income earners. The wealth isn't spread around so well and the average citizen can't afford the real deal. The cheap knock-off's aren't close to the real thing in any situation. Comparing Chinese Cars vs. Korean and Korea wins hands down. Same for Chinese motorcycles vs Italian. And Chinese toys for American made... China produces a lot of products cheap, but they're also cheaply made. This is significant, and doesn't bode well for China's reputation in manufacturing.

Quite a few American's were upset at the discovery of lead in paint on children's toys. I hope that China answers this wake-up call and can restructure, but I fear that they will miss the calling.

You act like you're surprised, that a knock off of something great would/could come out.

It shouldn't surprise you...
Look at all the knock off rolexes, fake gucci bags, fake whatever...

All because someone wanted to copy, a great design, and make a quick buck.

It happens, and happens a lot.
China factories are always making copies of different things from sports equipment (eg golf clubs), to cheaper electronics, clothing etc etc etc.

Though I find it amusing that making this a news article, wouldn't actually help some sales of these Wii-wannabe's to the people who are not the wiser.

Regardless things like this have been around for years.
It shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone.

Just check out walmart & the $10 dvd player :P

lol dude
u said there are other ppl in north america other than the americans.
yes, thats true; other than the americans there are canadians and mexicans

but did u know that canada only has a population of 30 million? i dunno the population of mexico but i would assume its not that large (compared to china at least).

so yes, u're right that there are more than just americans living in north america, it still doesn't really change the fact that the chinese outnumbers the "americans" 4:1.

On a side note: My room-mate bought Europe's Finest Brand frozen vegetables and on the back it reads product of CHINA. China still uses DDT. Enough of it in fact to show up in the fish in pristine glacier fed lakes in the Rocky Mountains. Oh well. As long as the world exploits cheap chinese labour we're in no position to make demands.

There are too few of us that really know what had happened and what's really going on in this world. The US government and the media has been deliberately portraying China as a poor third world country that doesn't know many better, hiding the fact that China has actually advanced so much in economics and technology these past few decades that it's in direct competition with US in world status. The government and media NERVER show the advance side of China. TV images often shows the poor country-side or the worst part of a small town. If you go to China, you will be very surprised. A lot of the major cities are advanced like Japan. Many expert had warned that hiding these facts now will only hurt the Americans as they are caught uninformed and unprepared against the bigger world competitor that's coming like a frig train. BTW, those toy are American brand that were made in China. "Chinese made" has been used as an excuse by these companies. If Apple has problem with their product, would you complain about Apple or would you complain about China? All Apple stuff are made in China! So are most of the PC parts that you're using to ready TGDaily.

André,

What much of the world doesn’t appreciate about Americans is that it is our very ignorance and lack of interest in the rest of the world that makes us the best current choice for “world super power.” Stability has historically been the aim of our State Dept, which has meant that in hindsight many of our actions have supported repressive regimes, but please remember to consider that with the tint of the Cold War in the background…

If the masses of Americans know the capital city of your nation, it’s probably either because you’re in Western Europe, North America or we are currently at war with you. To the rest of the world we barely pay attention.

When I run into non-Americans who gripe about the USA as an abusive superpower, I like to ask them who they’d prefer to see fill the role. (It is quite likely to drift away from the USA within 15 years, at least economically. Military leadership will lag by 10-20 years past that and remain with the USA for that time.) So, of the reasonable remaining nation states, what would be your pick? Germany? Japan? China? The EU (such as it is / will be)? Russia? Seriously, for the sake of non-Americans, I hope for the continued leadership of the USA, despite our many, and varied flaws. I also hope we can do better… perhaps by doing far, far less.

For the USA, I don’t think it really matters if we stay at the top of the heap or not. Let another country become the lightning rod of the loosely defined “world opinion.”

http://store.taobao.com/shop/v...106a271ef7

vii….selling at the largest online shopping in china

have anyone read the business case of qq vs icq??

chinese population!!

The one advantage that China has over the United States is very low cost labor. If the United States were to make a commitment to automated manufacturing on the same level that we committed to the second world war, we would be able to make our products for a price that China could not.

The United States has a distaste for automated manufacturing. We don't like the idea of giving American jobs to robots. I know very few Americans who would be upset at a man from China loosing a job to an American robot.

China is a state that is committed to the slow destruction of the United States, Canada and Western Europe. We have the ability to win this war, however, we must act now.

PS. To our friends to the North. I can understand that you guys get upset when we refer to citizens of the United States as Americans. I will refer to ourselves as USAers if you will refer to your selves as Canadites. :) Honestly When I refer to Americans I generally think of both USA and Canadian citizens. Our countries while independent share very similar strengths and challenges. We are in some ways one people with two governments.

The people of the United States (USAers) also have a strong tie to the people of Mexico. We may have a different culture, however an economically strong Mexico with a good standard of living for its people will make for an economically stable United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrjdUHDRzwA&NR=1

Nuff said really.

answer: it has no integrity