Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation
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| - | '''Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation''' is a subsidiary of Panasonic that manufactures DVDs. They have produced every single licensed GameCube, Wii, and Wii U disc that was ever released, unlike some other game consoles where discs were manufactured in different factories. The reason for this is because Nintendo worked closely with Panasonic to develop a | + | '''Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation''' is a subsidiary of Panasonic that manufactures DVDs. They have produced every single licensed GameCube, Wii, and Wii U disc that was ever released, unlike some other game consoles where discs were manufactured in different factories. The reason for this is because Nintendo worked closely with Panasonic to develop a DVD-based (Blu-ray based for the Wii U) format for their consoles to combat piracy. To this day, no one distributes their own unlicensed games via disc (except Datel for the GameCube, and earlier Wiis could play DVDs creating counterfeits). For an explanation of the GameCube disc copy protection, see [https://debugmo.de/2008/11/anatomy-of-an-optical-medium-authentication/ here]. |
PDMC had 2 factories. The first is in Tsuyama, Japan. They have produced almost all Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan region discs. They are still open as of September 2021. The second was in Torrance, California, but it closed at the end of April 2015 as a move to cut costs for a declining medium. (See [https://www.dailybreeze.com/2015/04/29/panasonic-closing-torrance-manufacturing-plant-lays-off-90-workers/ here]). They produced almost all (>95%) discs for market in North America. All discs produced after the closure were produced in Japan. | PDMC had 2 factories. The first is in Tsuyama, Japan. They have produced almost all Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan region discs. They are still open as of September 2021. The second was in Torrance, California, but it closed at the end of April 2015 as a move to cut costs for a declining medium. (See [https://www.dailybreeze.com/2015/04/29/panasonic-closing-torrance-manufacturing-plant-lays-off-90-workers/ here]). They produced almost all (>95%) discs for market in North America. All discs produced after the closure were produced in Japan. | ||
Latest revision as of 23:37, 26 September 2021
Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation is a subsidiary of Panasonic that manufactures DVDs. They have produced every single licensed GameCube, Wii, and Wii U disc that was ever released, unlike some other game consoles where discs were manufactured in different factories. The reason for this is because Nintendo worked closely with Panasonic to develop a DVD-based (Blu-ray based for the Wii U) format for their consoles to combat piracy. To this day, no one distributes their own unlicensed games via disc (except Datel for the GameCube, and earlier Wiis could play DVDs creating counterfeits). For an explanation of the GameCube disc copy protection, see here.
PDMC had 2 factories. The first is in Tsuyama, Japan. They have produced almost all Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan region discs. They are still open as of September 2021. The second was in Torrance, California, but it closed at the end of April 2015 as a move to cut costs for a declining medium. (See here). They produced almost all (>95%) discs for market in North America. All discs produced after the closure were produced in Japan.
Furthermore, for the US market, there have been cases where discs have been produced in both US and Japan. A few games got reprinted in Japan (many as Nintendo Selects). Likely to boost production or to bundle hardware with software, a few games like Wii Sports and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were produced in both factories during the heyday of the Wii's lifespan.
Conversely, for the Europe and Japan market, a very small amount of games for those regions were produced in the US despite those regions being overseas. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, and the Japanese version of Wii Play are some examples of this. Again, this was probably done to boost production quickly, for the demand of these games.
Each disc (at least Nintendo-produced discs) has a ring code, starting with 8 digits consisting of letters and numbers. All of the ring code is documented, and the 8-digit code can easily be converted to a date. See Nintendo Mastering Code for an explanation of the ring code or use this website to convert to a date.
Wii and GameCube discs also have a BCA (burst cutting area) which can be read by the system. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was the first game to use the BCA as an anti-piracy check, but was patched by the homebrew community.
The first known game manufactured was the Japanese version of Super Monkey Ball for the GameCube, on August 21, 2001. The last known game manufactured was Shmup Collection and Finding Teddy II: Definitive Edition for the Wii U, on February 4, 2020.
