Well dang, I did not think this story would explode the way it has. You may not be aware, but last week we broke a story on Lenovo's new "G02" handheld containing pre-loaded games from the likes of Nintendo and SEGA. We took days to dig deep into why this was the case, even going as far as contacting Lenovo's Chinese team, who assured us that this shouldn't have been pre-loaded and if it was, its not their fault.
After I edited the YouTube video reviewing the Lenovo GO2, Pedro, the one that we are in contact with, stated the following, after I questioned him as to why it's using intellectual property without permission:
"After further investigation, we can confirm that there is no game content preloaded on this device as sold in PRC, nor are there any memory cards that ship with the device from Lenovo or its authorized licensees. Sales of this device outside of PRC are not authorized and are not compliant with Lenovo’s channel policy. Lenovo does not have control over the actions of third-party vendors who may modify or bundle additional software or content with the device for sale on platforms such as AliExpress. We are currently investigating reports that some third-party vendors may be offering devices with preloaded software or bundled memory cards. However, as this device is not for sale by Lenovo or any licensees outside of PRC, none of the vendors selling the device as you purchased it are official Lenovo vendors. In fact, the accompanying instruction manual explicitly states that any content installed by the user—and any issues that may arise—are the sole responsibility of the user of the device".
This would entail that Lenovo didn't want this pre-loaded with intellectual property in the first place, and likely did a incredibly poor job at not only managing this white-labelling process but also turning a blind eye to the fact this was happening, and very obviously, all they had to do was test the units themselves. Perhaps they didn't even do that?
Since that email and our YouTube video, it seems like Lenovo has pulled all G02 listings from AliExpress and other Chinese retailers, likely threatening the suppliers with legal action or a cease and desist while they "investigate further". Either Lenovo is genuinly upset that this is happened, or they're just upset they got caught and need to look like they are pursuing it further in case the big red plumber comes knocking.
Eitherway I believe it's in Lenovo's best interest to stop this type of product development entirely. It seems Lenovo has also been in conversation with Tom's Hardware about this, too, stating again that they are digging into the allegations that this is packed full of copyright-violating materials, even stating that "Lenovo does not authorise the sale of this device outside of China, including third-party platforms such as AliExpress or other reseller sites. Any such sales are not conducted or sanctioned by Lenovo or its authorised licensees".
This explains why it can no longer be purchased on sites like AliExpress for anyone outside of China. It seems Lenovo has made the decision that this is okay to do in China, and legal workarounds can happen if Nintendo or SEGA came knocking, but that's not the case if this finds its way into Western hands, and easily.
That said, it's great to see this type of response from Lenovo and so swiftly too, because as I mentioned in my video review, this has lost them a whole lot of respect in the gaming space, not only because of the trick they pulled, but also because it's a very low-quality product in itself, it's riddled with negatives.
