Pirates' broadside rattles Nintendo

[wraggster]

Online piracy has ravaged the music business and now it’s about to do the same to the games industry, thanks to a device the size of a thumbnail. Once known only to hackers, the R4 Revolution is currently the fifth biggest-selling electronics item on Amazon’s UK web store - priced at £12.57 including a 2GB memory card.

It is marketed as a legitimate device that enables gamers to store copies of Nintendo games they have already bought for their portable DS console, negating the need to carry cumbersome cartridges around. However, as some gamers have discovered, the device also stores games downloaded direct from the internet. This means that rather than paying £20 for a game, they can download it free from filesharing sites.

In the past these illegally downloaded games wouldn’t play back on a DS console because of inbuilt copy protection software. The R4 circumvents this, leading to a freeloader frenzy as gamers rush to buy the device then load it up with free games.

The scale of the problem has forced Nintendo to act. Last month it launched a lawsuit in Japan against importers and marketers of “game-copying devices such as the R4 Revolution”. Nintendo also said it is working closely with authorities in 11 countries - including the UK.

The problem is that the device itself is not illegal. “It’s the purposes that people use it for that’s often illegal,” says Rob Saunders, a spokesman for Nintendo UK. “When you fill a memory card with hundreds of downloaded games - that’s theft.”

Exactly how Nintendo intends to wage its war on piracy in the UK is unclear. Will it follow the music industry’s lead and press internet service providers to freeze the accounts of file sharers – or even mount private prosecutions, as the British record industry has done? Nintendo says it has asked Amazon to stop selling the device, but last week there was no sign of this, with R4s still selling well. If the music industry experience is anything to go by, the signs for Nintendo - and other gaming companies - are ominous.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article4484224.ece

[gutbub]

I am absolutely against piracy. But, in my opinion, one good thing might come from this. The new DS. Maybe Nintendo, rather than losing more money due to piracy, will just release the new DS sooner, and incorporate a better copyright protection system.

[pakkman781]

Online piracy has ravaged the music business...

At little off topic, I admit, but I would love to see the weak @$$ proof the author has of this.

[goity]

This is actually quite surpising. When did they become so popular?

[Shadowblind]

Not all systems are getting ravaged by piracy. The 360 has it at the minimal because of tell-tale Xbox live signs, and the PS3 has Blu-Ray format discs. But Nintendo's ina bad position. You can't blame them, they are just trying to protect they're game sales.

[policrat]

You can't blame them - in the sense that it's Nintendo doing what Nintendo does. If they want the moral high ground, they and publishers ought to play fair and try to compete with what are perfectly legal products. Again, offer extraneous/necessary dongles, trinkets, substantial printed material, that make that 50 or 60 dollars (AU) worth it. 90% of them aren't. Enter the same flash device market if it's so successful at undermining them.

An R4 is no more shady than your (Sony?) MP3 player. Or floppies and cd-rom burners. Neither the software nor music industry have ever fallen from their perches on account of piracy. They can only make hypothetical losses. A game can be judged a piece of piss either way, not worth paying for. And perhaps paying for by the same token (a more credible gain if purchase is motivated by positive hands-on experience). In the end I'm only happy to see shovelware go down the sink if it's all so harsh for them.

[nightblade36]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Yes. It's thievery. Still, not everyone can afford all the games they download--the money isn't there to begin with. So, tell me this: If the money isn't there to begin with, how can it be lost?

[stevo11185]

Ive had a ds for about 2 years.

Im happy to say r4 has save me about 4000 pounds or more.

THANKS R4 DS!

[RustyMG]

Nintendo posted profits of, what was it, a billion dollars last month ? Yeah, they are really suffering.........

I come from Glasgow - the pirate capital of the UK for just about everything. In the famous Barras market you can buy pirate dvd films, music albums, Xbox360 games, PC games, Wii Games, in facxt, just about anything, including fake training shoes, jeans, t shirts etc.

So, whats my point?
There are Versace and Armani jeans for sale for £12 to £15 each. I see the people buying these jeans, and never in a billion years would these people buy the originals if these fakes didnt exist, so for Armani et all to say they have seized 1000 pairs that have lost them £100,000 in the shops is utter garbage - these people would simply not buy the original item.

And funnily enough, its pretty much the same with piracy and the R4 - do nintendo seriously think that every copied game has cost them a sale?!
An utterly ridiculous statement, yet one they keep saying - where else do they get the figures in the "piracy is costing us xxx" press releases they keep putting out?
Lets be clear - its greed, pure and simple on Nintendo's part - their accounts CLEARLY show they are suffering no financial hardship due to piracy - they simply seem not to understand that 90% of the games that come out on the DS are, well, to be blunt, utter crap, and because they arent selling, they dont get their licensing fee for allowing the game to be released on their system.
Nintendo's quality control was barbaric on the Gamecube and N64 - game producers were foaming at the mouth as nintendo would knock back game after game, refusing to allow them to be released in case it made their console look bad, only allowing decent games to be released, or games that had had changes made on nintendo's request - where was that quality control once nintendo seen how many DS's they were selling? Their Quality Control section must have been too busy counting the $$$......
Anyway, rant over :-)