Thieves steal 7,000 WiiU consoles

[The Catboy]

A. The fact that everyone is confusing the Wii U for the Wii is the main reason Nintendo shouldn't have called the system the Wii U. It's as dumb as the 3DS.

B. Why steal Wii's? I am pretty sure at this point everyone who wanted a wii already owns one so not that many people to sell them to and Nintendo should to be discontinuing the Wii soon. Not to mention selling 7000+ Wii's is going to be extremely noticeable.

Turns out it was the Wii U, so that just became moot.

 

[tj_cool]

They're probably trying to collect enough bricks to build a new house.

 

[Chary]

"The thieves managed to get away with 7,000 portable Wii gaming consoles"

..sigh...

 

[Foxi4]

A. The fact that everyone is confusing the Wii U for the Wii is the main reason Nintendo shouldn't have called the system the Wii U. It's as dumb as the 3DS.

B. Why steal Wii's? I am pretty sure at this point everyone who wanted a wii already owns one so not that many people to sell them to and Nintendo should to be discontinuing the Wii soon. Not to mention selling 7000+ Wii's is going to be extremely noticeable.

A. I don't think the naming scheme is silly - you might as well say that people confused PlayStation with Playstation 2 and PlayStation 3, because hey, those might be revisions or something (although you'd have to be really stupid to misinterpret that). For a normal person, those are clear successors and different consoles, but in that case, what do you make of PSP-1000, PSP-2000, PSP-3000, PSP Go and PSP-E1000? Confused, much? What's the 360 in Xbox 360 and how does it differ from a normal XBox? I could go on, but my point is, you can't really blame Nintendo for the level of idiocy of others - the rest is a matter of promotion.

B. We could say the same thing about the DSi and yet Nintendo's still selling them, and they are likely to continue selling them until their warehouses are empty. If anything, they might stop manufacturing them, but with the recent Wii Mini release (which is a clear indication that they really, really, really want to get rid of their chips stock) is unlikely.

 

[Ethevion]

No cameras in a warehouse with millions of dollars worth of products?

 

[Snailface]

Because it earns you lots of money if you do it properly.
Edit:

It will be hard to do it properly. Nintendo knows the system ID on all the 7000 missing units. Each time a stolen system goes online the police will have a new lead to make an arrest. 7000 leads later, the crooks' freedom will, statistically at least, be living on borrowed time.

They got greedy and they will be caught.

 

[Chary]

The Wii U and the 3DS's names are why I had to actually make a powerpoint to explain to my parents that these are new systems, and not revisions.

A. I don't think the naming scheme is silly - you might as well say that people confused PlayStation with Playstation 2 and PlayStation 3, because hey, those might be revisions or something. You can't really blame Nintendo for the level of idiocy of others - the rest is a matter of promotion.

B. We could say the same thing about the DSi and yet Nintendo's still selling them, and they are likely to continue selling them until their warehouses are empty. If anything, they might stop manufacturing them, but with the recent Wii Mini release (which is a clear indication that they really, really, really want to get rid of their chips stock) is unlikely.

Sequels of things usually have a number denoting it is a sequel. Like, movies and games for example. A simple addition of a letter though, makes something sound like a revision.

 

[The Catboy]

A. I don't think the naming scheme is silly - you might as well say that people confused PlayStation with Playstation 2 and PlayStation 3, because hey, those might be revisions or something. You can't really blame Nintendo for the level of idiocy of others - the rest is a matter of promotion.

B. We could say the same thing about the DSi and yet Nintendo's still selling them, and they are likely to continue selling them until their warehouses are empty. If anything, they might stop manufacturing them, but with the recent Wii Mini release (which is a clear indication that they really, really, really want to get rid of their chips stock) is unlikely.

I even considered the numbering to be silly, but that's more of a personal gripe and not really anything I care too much about. I just find it odd on Nintendo's part to name it the Wii U, they could have spent a little more time working on the name. But I digress. It is true that it's not really Nintendo's fault that people people can't take the time to learn the different between the systems.

It appears that argument is now moot, turns out they did steal the Wii U.

 

[Arras]

My point was that it seems like such a waste of time stealing the Wii, at this point everyone who wants one already owns one. It's not going to be easy finding anyone to sell them too and just seems like a serious waste of time and effort. I mean sure theft isn't something I endorse or encourage, but if you are going to go out and steal something, steal something like the Wii U, make it worth the effort of the theft.

According to the updated OP they DID in fact steal Wii U's.

 

[Foxi4]

Sequels of things usually have a number denoting it is a sequel. Like, movies and games for example. A simple addition of a letter though, makes something sound like a revision.

I clarified what I meant in my subsequent edit, do read.

If what you say is true then PSP-1000, PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 are pretty dang confusing consoles, so are Mega Drive and Mega Drive II (Genesis in the U.S) or Master System and Master System II - those weren't direct successors either. I agree that numbers usually denote sequels, but that's not always the case, as illogical as it may be.

To me, clear numbering has always been the easiest way to denote successors, but seeing that everyone's treating that approach in a pretty laid-back fashion, one shouldn't depend on it.

 

[emigre]

I had a Master System II.

 

[The Catboy]

According to the updated OP they DID in fact steal Wii U's.

I just noticed the change now and edited my post.

 

[Foxi4]

It will be hard to do it properly. Nintendo knows the system ID on all the 7000 missing units. Each time a stolen system goes online the police will have a new lead to make an arrest. 7000 leads later, the crooks' freedom will, statistically at least, be living on borrowed time.

They got greedy and they will be caught.

That's not necessarily the case. You could say the exact same thing about IMEI numbers, and yet it's a rare occurrance to get your phone back after it was stolen. Nintendo has no legal obligation of giving away the console ID's, moreover, they don't care - the units count as shipped if they were in a store warehouse. That, and the ID is actually encrypted in the system - it's not plain text. It's actually hard even on Nintendo's side to find the ID among other connected consoles in a manual, selective fashion - the system is automated.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

"The thieves managed to get away with 7,000 portable Wii gaming consoles"

..sigh...

It does get a lot of ports.

 

[Snailface]

That's not necessarily the case. You could say the exact same thing about IMEI numbers, and yet it's a rare occurrance to get your phone back after it was stolen. Nintendo has no legal obligation of giving away the console ID's, moreover, they don't care - the units count as shipped if they were in a store warehouse. That, and the ID is actually encrypted in the system - it's not plain text. It's actually hard even on Nintendo's side to find the ID among other connected consoles in a manual, selective fashion - the system is automated.

I'm sure the stolen systems will call home to Nintendo's servers, and when that occurs, Nintendo has the IP of the person who received stolen property. Nintendo hands these IPs to the police and they get a subpoena for names. Police then question the people who received stolen goods and they get leads on the suspects. With several thousand leads, the police will be able to narrow down to a suspect almost certainly.

They're busted if they try to sell them, trust me.

 

[DeMoN]

Nintendo is really having a bad week.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm sure the stolen systems will call home to Nintendo's servers, and when that occurs, Nintendo has the IP of the person who received stolen property. Nintendo hands these IPs to the police and they get a subpoena for names. Police then question the people who received stolen goods and they get leads on the suspects. With several thousand leads, the police will be able to narrow down to a suspect almost certainly.

They're busted if they try to sell them, trust me.

Oh, they're gonna get the IP's... which are useless in the days of DHCP connections where 99% of IP's on the internet are completely random and even if you have the IP, the best you can do is get the WHOIS of the ISP, and without the ISP's co-operation (and it doesn't have to co-operate or doesn't necessarily have the capacity to retrieve such information) you'll never know who had that particular IP assigned at any given time.

Of course, if this was a Nintendo warehouse, not a store warehouse, they'll go out of their way to retrieve them... but still.

They're not in a pinch, Snail. Trust me.

 

[Snailface]

Oh, they're gonna get the IP's... which are useless in the days of DHCP connections where 99% of IP's on the internet are completely random and even if you have the IP, the best you can do is get the WHOIS of the ISP, and without the ISP's co-operation (and it doesn't have to co-operate or doesn't necessarily have the capacity to retrieve such information) you'll never know who had that particular IP assigned at any given time.

Of course, if this was a Nintendo warehouse, not a store warehouse, they'll go out of their way to retrieve them... but still.

They're not in a pinch, Snail. Trust me.

Alright, we're just going to have to wait and see if they get caught to see who's right. And you can bet I'll let you know about it when they do

and btw-- do you really think Nints won't cooperate with their retail business partners in nabbing the bandits? Do you really think ISPs will ignore a subpoena? Come on , man.

 

[eyecat14]

I dunno about you guys but I'm gonna get myself some Wii U's

 

[Foxi4]

Alright, we're just going to have to wait and see if they get caught to see who's right. And you can bet I'll let you know about it when they do

I suppose so, yeah. Although I doubt that'll be reported by the media - honestly, 2 million bucks is a speck of dust for Nintendo.

That said, I have no doubts that the thieves may be caught, it's just unlikely that it'll happen by the means you outlined - I think the police is more likely to follow other on-site evidence as well as CCTV footage.