The greatest danger for the videogame industry through this holiday season is piracy; but this time we are talking actual thugs driving real life boats, intercepting real life ships and stealing real physical merchandise.
High seas piracy has been thriving in the vicinity of Somalia for quite a while. The Somali pirates are now expanding their base of operation beyond the Horn of Africa into the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, imperiling access to the Suez Canal.
"If there isn't a let up and active intervention by navies in the region, the impact on trade will come within weeks or months because we've gone from one attack every couple of weeks to four in a single day," Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) told Reuters.
To avoid the pirates, shipping companies have to voyage round the Cape of Good Hope and add upwards of three weeks to a typical journey, delaying goods to buyers and increasing transport costs.
"Despite all the publicity over piracy it will really hit home when consumers in the West find they haven't got their Nintendo gifts this Christmas," Sam Dawson stated.
