Nintendo’s excuse for still supporting the Congolese warlords is a pretty weak one. The company told CNN that it “outsources the manufacture and assembly of all Nintendo products to our production partners and therefore is not directly involved in the sourcing of raw materials that are ultimately used in our products.” Oh, but it’s not like they don’t care about human beings. “We nonetheless take our social responsibilities as a global company very seriously and expect our production partners to do the same,” Nintendo added. They’re evidently not taking these responsibilities as seriously as Intel, Apple and Microsoft, who topped the rankings of companies that have taken the steps recommended by the Enough Project to put a stop to the trafficking of conflict minerals. The Enough Project also assigned a score to each company based on their progress. Intel got a 60. Nintendo got a 0.

任天堂支援剛果軍閥的藉口相當薄弱，他們告訴CNN"任天堂的產品製造生產全部都是外包作業，他們不過問原物料的來源"

這理由聽起來就像他們不是不管人類存亡

"我們盡了國際公司該有的社會道德責任，我希望我們合作夥伴也是"任天堂補充道。"

富足計畫裡評價較高的公司如英特爾，蘋果和微軟已經聽取建議尋步的採取相應措施終止非法礦產交易

任天堂明顯遠遠不如，因此富足計畫給英特爾打60分，而任天堂則是0分

It might not be long before Nintendo’s forced to pay more attention to the matter, though. The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law contains a provision requiring publicly traded companies to disclose whether or not their products contain minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 5.4 million people have been killed — the most in an armed conflict since World War II — since fighting started in 1998. As Alex Pasternack pointed out earlier this year, critics of the policy say that it has brought more harm than good, functioning more like an embargo that has also halted legitimate mining ventures and reduced the Congo’s legal mineral exports by 90%. As the Securities and Exchange Commission prepares to vote to enforce the law, or not, on August 22, major companies are already pulling out of the Congo in anticipation of the new regulation. But not Nintendo.

It’s unclear exactly why Nintendo’s sitting this one out, but it’s probably safe to say that the video game veteran is simply watching out for its bottom line. With companies like Sony and Microsoft, both newcomers to the gaming industry, dominating sales of consoles, Nintendo’s been on a steady decline. The company’s revenue declined by 10 percent year-over-year and lost $220 million, its latest earnings report revealed. The minerals needed to build the transistors that go inside our electronics do exist elsewhere in the world, outside of the wartorn areas of the Congo. Because they’re less plentiful, though, they’re also more expensive. But at least they’re not powering a civil war.

任天堂對這事件坐視不理的原因不詳，但是或許可以肯定這樣說，這位遊戲界元老正在試探底線。隨著索尼與微軟兩家遊戲業新手到來，任天堂一直都在衰退。最新一期收益報表指出，跟去年同期相比任天堂收入減少10%損失達2億2千萬美金。用來製造電晶體的礦物存在於世界各地的電子設備裡，卻不存在剛果的戰亂地區。因為產量減少，因此變得更加昂貴。但是至少不會促使內戰。

So the next time you have your pals over for a fun night of Mario Kart, remember what’s inside your Wii. Maybe top it all off with a little screening of the Vice Guide to Congo, you know, just to sober everyone up.