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I recently purchased a copy of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride from a large retail corporation. It turns out that the game is a fake, as I cannot advance beyond the first scene of the game. This is part of the game's copy protection. I've contacted the store from which I bought the game and they are doing their best to right the wrong from their end by finding another copy for me.

I was wondering: should one contact the game publisher or anyone about this? Since it is a DS game, I have looked at contacting Nintendo. They reference the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which is a US-based trade association.

I don't really know if contacting any group would help, but I'm eager to help prevent this from happening to anyone else. Does anyone have any experience with this?

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    Just want to point out that this question has different answers on different continents. I would presume you should bring it up with your retailer. If you purchased the game using a credit card or something like that, you could try contacting your credit card company. Contacting the game company itself may not be particularly helpful.
    – Ritwik Bose
    Aug 19, 2010 at 0:52
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    WOW. I had this happen once -- but it was at one of those traveling computer "flea market"-type "shows" that were popular in the late 1990s. I had no recourse then, but if this happened at a major retail outlet ... Just WOW. Contact the ESA, contact the company being violated, if you're in the US, contact the Better Business Bureau, and if you're elsewhere, contact your local equivalent of the BBB. Don't stop until you've contacted everyone who might even be vaguely associated with the copyright. You paid your hard-earned money, someone (preferably the retailer) should make it right!
    – John Rudy
    Aug 19, 2010 at 1:07
  • In my case, the retailer is being very kind with me. I was college roommates with the assistant manager, haha. I thought I would put this up to see if anyone knew whether reporting to Nintendo or anyone would be helpful (helping them shut down counterfeiters) and so anyone else with this problem could use the answers for reference. Thanks for the comments guys!
    – Michael Herold
    Aug 19, 2010 at 1:22

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If the retailer isn't at fault (which it could be; for example an employee who switches the merchandise with a copy in the back room), it could be a dodgy distributor. Either way, the best party to chase this up would probably be the manager at the retailer. They can work "up the supply chain" from there. Anyone else is unlikely to want to or be able to help.

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