I think you're confused about how the sale of hardware works and the manufacturers views on these kinds of things.

When a console first goes on sale, it usually costs the manufacturer more than they sell the unit for because of the initial advancement in technology and the actual manufacturing process. Each unit sold comes at a cost to the manufacturer, a cost that they hope to recoup through licensing fees for the software sold.

The original Xbox never made money because it was sold at a huge loss and piracy was so rife. I know plenty of people who bought an Xbox solely to mod it and turn it into a media centre. These people never bought a game, which ended up costing Microsoft money.

The Nintendo Wii and the 3DS are rare breeds that weren't launched at a price below production cost, so maybe Nintendo don't care about China's piracy epidemic. You can bet your bottom dollar that Sony and Microsoft care though - they haemorrhage money because of it.

If all Sony cared about where the sales of the hardware units themselves, do you think they would be investing millions in constantly updating the firmware for PSP and PS3? Do you think that they would have taken away PS3 users option to run Linux if their hand wasn't being forced?

Do you think that Microsoft would have invested time and money in organising ban hammer waves that bar modded Xbox 360s from accessing live, if they didn't really need to?

Whilst I agree 100per cent with what you're trying to say about the Chinese being forced to pirate games because of the huge costs to them, it doesn't make it right. Why should manufactures take into consideration that the Chinese get paid less - they'll essentially lose even more on each and every unit sold?

Publishers are reluctant to release single-player games in China these days because they can be easily cracked. They however don't mind selling MMOs because of the subscription fees and online checks. China are essentially ruining the experience for themselves because of piracy and the fact that manufacturers and developers are getting fed-up with it.

Let's us not forget that the production cost of games has rocketed to crazy levels and a whole country of sponging pirates is going to push costs up globally. Their government's so concerned about putting curfews in place because of gaming addiction and the adverse conditions it has on it's citizens – but it's not addressing the real problem.

You're right about China being rife with piracy - you're wrong about nobody caring.