Ebay the Majority of Cases

Another game publisher has gone public on the scale of the counterfeiting problem; Czech Games Editions has warned of a proliferation of counterfeit copies of Codenames, their top-selling card game. The majority of cases are being found on eBay, the company said, with “Alibaba and other similar huge selling portals” also involved.

In a post on its website, CGE urged consumers to buy copies from their local game stores, and shared clues, besides the online selling platform, that could indicate counterfeit copies:

“Too-good-to-be-true” prices

Sellers that attribute their copies to China (Codenames is manufactured in the Czech Republic)

CGE also provided pictures of counterfeit games next to the authentic versions, and noted that the counterfeit editions use lower quality components, include misprints, and can have missing components.

CGE is only the latest company to reveal Asmodee North America, one of the largest companies in the hobby games business, discussed counterfeiting across its lines in a wide-ranging interview with ICv2 (see “ICv2 Interview: Asmodee Execs on Counterfeiting”).

Click Gallery below for side-by-side comparisons of counterfeit and authentic editions.