On November 5, 2012, simultaneous raids led by PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were held in various branches of game and software distributor Datablitz, Inc., as they were publicly selling NBA 2K13 products without any prior authority and consent from NBA2K13 exclusive distributor in the Philippines, X-Play Online Games, Inc.
To protect their business, X-Play reported Datablitz to authorities for selling copies of NBA 2K13 sourced from other means (not from X-Play) that led to the raid.
Below is the official statement of X-Play Online Games, Inc:
It is unfortunate that businesses had to be disrupted by the incident that transpired yesterday. While we sympathize with other individuals dragged on by this issue, we stand by our ground to be vigilant in dealing with illegal activities to protect our rights, our partners and our local gaming community.
This is not a knee-jerk reaction from X-Play. In fact, meetings were held with Datablitz President, Winston Lim and his team to become X-Play’s primary partner for NBA 2K13. Datablitz key executives Sandra Lu and Orpha Oambas even participated in X-Play’s distributor conferences and got all the marketing and distribution plans of the company.
Datablitz’s decision to acquire and distribute NBA 2K13 through unauthorized means despite these efforts left X-Play no other option but to report this to the proper authorities, in which CIDG and the Regional Trail Court took immediate action on.
The action of Datablitz was not only detrimental to X-Play but also affected other smaller retailers, game stores and entrepreneurs. We hope nothing more but to resolve this predicament but will hold firm in protecting the industry from smugglers and illegal operators.
Datablitz also released an official statement in response to this.
