Yesterday saw the launch of three successful video game piracy raids in the UK. Police officers, Trading Standards authorities, and members of the ELSPA joined forces to hit two separate addresses in the Billingham area and one in Lingdale yesterday morning.

A husband and wife in their late 30s were questioned at one of the Billingham addresses over the discovery of a purpose-built construction at the house that was found to be was “full to the brim” with large quantities of illegal Wii, DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and Xbox chips, together with various circumvention devices. At the Lingdale address, where a man in his late 20s living with his elderly grandmother is also under investigation, a fully functioned ‘chipping line’ was discovered. Thousands of chips for the aforementioned consoles together with assorted blank media, PC and duplicating system, and piles of consoles waiting to be chipped were also found strewn around the house.

At least two of the three suspects in question were not only chipping consoles (illegal in the UK), but also selling pirated copies of games.

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