Nintendo faces new piracy threat

[wraggster]

Its laughable how unhip the mainstream is, heres a newspost from gibiz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=30930)


R4 chip for DS goes on sale in Akihabara and internet for around GBP 25

Nintendo faces a new threat from piracy this Christmas, as the R4 chip for the DS handheld becomes one the most sought after items in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district.

Described by The Times Online as Nintendo's "Christmas stocking filler from Hell," the R4 costs around GBP 25 and bypasses the DS security system allowing users to play illegally cracked games and other material.

Reacting to the sale of the R4, a Nintendo spokesperson said: "We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them. But we cannot smash them all."

According to The Times, many retailers are cryptically advertising the chip with signs reading, "New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product."

Sale of the chip – believed to be manufactured in China – is not strictly illegal, but what the users does with it is.

A quick internet search by GamesIndustry.biz reveals multiple websites openly selling the chip for around GBP 25.

Im sure the R4 has been around for at least 6months already :P

[abeisgreat]

Haha. I dont think the main stream media has ever really been up to date on the "underground" gamers

[wiggy fuzz]

and all this could be avoided if nintendo'd just cash in and make their own homebrew kits (which would undoubtedly be hacked...)

[JKKDARK]

I hate this R4 chip, luckily the DS software sales are still excellent :)

[goity]

R4 Chip? Isn't it a cartridge? Besides, I doubt anyone would know what an R4 does just by seeing the name on some scabby market stall, let alone how to us one.
Nintendo's stocking filler from hell? More like The Times' lacklustre Christmas scaremongering.

[stevo11185]

I hate this R4 chip, luckily the DS software sales are still excellent :)

i hate you. no seriously...most commercial flash carts are used for piracy. even the websites explain that they have 100% rom compatibility. Dcemu even post that so stfu.

[acn010]

R4 Chip? Isn't it a cartridge? Besides, I doubt anyone would know what an R4 does just by seeing the name on some scabby market stall, let alone how to us one.
Nintendo's stocking filler from hell? More like The Times' lacklustre Christmas scaremongering.

heres one that has no clue :rofl:

[paul3100]

i love MY R4 and supercard lite and wouldn't own a nintendo DS with out the R4 becausle lets be honest 95% of the games are total CR*P!

So with out such devices as these we wouldn't know what games to watch out for + there is a lot of good homebrew games and apps floating around which are 100% legal

long live R4 and friends . . .. paul

[RowaN]

Another "pirate practice" here seems to be that the poor author of that article has been charged a whopping £25 for an R4! I got my last R4 for £16.13 at.. well i dont want to advertise, but one of the main sites that sell them.

[stevo11185]

Another "pirate practice" here seems to be that the poor author of that article has been charged a whopping £25 for an R4! I got my last R4 for £16.13 at.. well i dont want to advertise, but one of the main sites that sell them.

dealextreme dot com
volume rate dot com

do not use divineo they rip people off

[acn010]

divineo is good man, what the hell are you talking about

[wiggy fuzz]

google dot co dot uk

a great site, i searched m3 and got a car

[Hypershell]

It's a shame. There are legitimate reasons for nabbing R4 and the like. It's an unfortunate fact that commercial-rom-compatible hardware tends to have better specs than anything used for homebrew exclusively (not to mention they're near always cracked at some point anyway). Furthermore, this little thing called fair use, is a good reason for a legitimate gamer to want commercial rom compatibility in the first place. Playing by Nintendo's rules, you'd never get to let people enjoy Bowser's Castle online in MKDS, or play a translated MegaMan ZX without having 90% of the voicework stripped out.

Too bad people who are too cheap to pay for their games have to ruin it for the rest of us. I have 14 DS games. Bought them all, and will buy many more in the future. I still love the R4.

If only Nintendo would focus on the ROM distributors instead of the hardware.

[kcajblue]

this is so stupid.
how late are those people on this kind of stuff.
and they call it the stocking filler from hell.
thats right they cant "smash them all".
cause they cant.
they dont have good enough reason.

[Eyedunno]

iPod goes on sale in Akihabara and internet for around GBP 150

The music industry faces a new threat from piracy this Christmas, as the iPod becomes one the most sought after items in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district.

Described as the music industry's "Christmas stocking filler from Hell," the iPod costs around GBP 150 and allows users to play illegally copied music and other material.

Sale of the device – believed to be manufactured in China – is not strictly illegal, but what the users do with it is.

[Pilot_51]

It's a shame. There are legitimate reasons for nabbing R4 and the like. It's an unfortunate fact that commercial-rom-compatible hardware tends to have better specs than anything used for homebrew exclusively (not to mention they're near always cracked at some point anyway). Furthermore, this little thing called fair use, is a good reason for a legitimate gamer to want commercial rom compatibility in the first place. Playing by Nintendo's rules, you'd never get to let people enjoy Bowser's Castle online in MKDS, or play a translated MegaMan ZX without having 90% of the voicework stripped out.

Too bad people who are too cheap to pay for their games have to ruin it for the rest of us. I have 14 DS games. Bought them all, and will buy many more in the future. I still love the R4.

If only Nintendo would focus on the ROM distributors instead of the hardware.I agree with just about everything here. Although I'm against piracy so much that even though I own some of the most popular online games including MKDS, I wouldn't download a ROM for that extra functionality. By downloading illegally distributed ROMs, I'd be promoting piracy in one way or another. I love my R4 and all the homebrew, and piracy is just making things worse for the homebrew community. I even bought Quake so I could play the full version on my DS, so I think homebrew is helping the gaming industry more than hurting it. On the other hand, homebrew has given me less reason to buy licensed games, but I still plan to buy any games that really catch my eye.

As said, Nintendo just needs to focus on tracking down the ROM distributors instead of the homebrew-compatible hardware distributors. It would be great if they would give homebrew some backing (as they seemed to promise with Wii) instead of putting homebrew gamers in the same class as pirates.

[Sigma83]

Well said Pilot. I would really like to see Nintendo give some props to those coders working so diligently on developing great applications for the DS like Colors, DSOrganize, BEUP MSN, NDSMAIL, TetattDS(what an awesome game), bunjalloo browser, puzzlemaniak, chess, emulators, quake!, noplacetohide, spidersolitaire(wow), comicbookds,dsdictionary, ti-83 emu, and phidias.

supporting this community will only encourage more ds sales. The developers of these homebrew apps deserve the recognition.

Cheers ds'rs!

[wiggy fuzz]

pftt... buying myself an m3 simply so i could use it as an mp3 player (courtesy of dsorganise) saved me a fair bit of cash, considering before my ds i bought a green ipod nano...

...worst thing i've spent oney on, a total waste of time. so i did a trade in store for a new ds (plus i kept the ipod earphones by accident, which helps)

in the end, though, nintendo are still selling decent hardware that's well on it's way to outselling the old game boy.

[Echo1]

The amount of people who buy legit games will always out way the number of people using flashcarts by a massive margin.

But not the people I know. I encourage them to buy an R4 (and they do).

[paul3100]

I encourage them to buy an R4 (and they do).

lol i do too , ok piracy is not a good thing i suppose but i for one can't afford to buy a ds game every week or month and most of the games i don't like so i would be wasting my money.

As i said before if it were not for the R4 or other cards we wouldn't get to see 99% of the ds games that come out!

paul

[cal360]

You know the funny thing is that even my local computer shop is selling it. They've dropped so much in price that stores are grabbing them and selling them within the uk shops.

[cas2007]

I feel bad for nintendo Why do those flash carts have to be so cheap they are cheaper than one game

[kcajblue]

not really.
games cost less.
ive never seen a flashcart that has been cheaper than a game.

[Echo1]

In the UK games cost £24.99 online and I bought my R4 for £23 (including 1gb SDCard)...

[Flygon]

In Australia, R4 cost $55 AUD on online retailer (Based in Australia ironically =P)

Video Game cost $70 AUD on average on DS. However TV based consoles have games that cost $100 AUD.

And a good 1gb MicroSD card if you shop around is only $20 AUD, I think that flashcards are getting cheaper, in overall value.

Plus if I understand this correctly, a normal video game in America cost $30 USD correct? Here they cost $70 AUD, when it should cost $50 =P, that probably explains the flashcards lack of price though =P