Nintendo And 54 Companies Battle "Evil" R4 In Court

Nintendo has just announced that it and 54 game software companies are filing a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court again "R4 Revolution for DS"-type devices, using the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as the legal grounding. Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices. The R4 allows easy software piracy by fitting right into the DS's cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded from websites via a flash drive, and the R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. In a statement released today, Nintendo announced that these R4 devices "allow illegal uploading from the internet", adding that "it is causing severe damage to our company and software makers, and this is something that we cannot possibly overlook." In conclusion, Nintendo adds that such devices hurts the growth of the entire game industry and steps must be taken regarding the legality of R4 carts. It's important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.

Back in November 2007, Nintendo announced that it was "keeping a close eye on the products and studying them." Earlier this spring, Nintendo apparently pressured Akihabara retailers to stop carrying the popular R4 carts.

A list of some of the companies who along with Nintendo have filed in this suit.

Arc System Works
SNK
Capcom
Koei
Jaleco
Square Enix
Sega
Taito
Takara Tomy
Tecmo
Hudson
Bandai Namco Games
The Pokémon Company
Yukes
Level Five

via Kotaku

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Originally Posted by Darksaviour69

It's important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.

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Is it just me or is that a bit silly.

There's far more people using them outside Japan than in Japan.

Well I assume so anyway.

Well good luck to them anyway :). I know thats a bit rich coming from someone who owns an R4, but I mean it.

However they'd better not be stamping out on flash cards altogether. Just ones that play retail games.

The problem is that people who download everything are people who DON'T buy things, even when given the chance.
I always buy games that i like, even if i can get them for free, if i dont even like the look of the game i will NOT buy it.

IMHO piracy does NOT effect the industry in any meaningful way as none of the companies involved would semm more copies of the game if piracy didn't exist. Piract does however HELP hardware sales.

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Originally Posted by Spidery_Yoda

Is it just me or is that a bit silly.

There's far more people using them outside Japan than in Japan.

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I'm guessing they are targeting japan as they may have a better chance of winning the case than they do you the US and Europe. You could compare to R4 the VCR, Technically its not illegal a but it allows/helps do illegal things. You could argue fair use with the R4, (running back ups, homebrew etc), but I doubt it would have as string a case as the VCR

I think this is funny tbh :rofl:

I personally won't ever buy a ds game because (A) i haven't got any spare money ! and (B) because 99% of games on the DS are CR*P!!!

Go on ninterdo do your worst, who really cares though cause enough of us have cards already to play your games for free and tbh its great lol so hah NNN

Good poing posted above though, i personally can't afford games of any sort so by me taking the games of line for free isn't hurting nintendo at all as eitherway they wouldn't be getting £££/$$$ of me anyway and if it were not so easy to get games for the Ds i wouldn't bother at all !


paul, sega fan (at heart)

I don't comment much on here, but I actually tend to agree with paul3100.

Although different to him in that I am paid well and can afford games, and given that I own MANY original carts and have pumped enough money into the Nintendo coffers over the past 18 years... any non-physical games that I have 'acquired' and play on my R4 are titles that were only on my 'curious-about-but-not-worth-£26-to-find out' list.

That's where the DS loses out. Available demos. That said, I'm having a blast right now on homebrew StillAlive, and Lameboy where I can play my GB&GBC games (that I own) on my DS; which it can't do natively!

to be honest i havent played a decent ds game since theme park

Mainstream shops are selling the r4 in japan and thats why nintendo etc are getting pissy

In my case, I have to say the R4 helped nintendo get money from me. I can't afford a game system, and I haven't had one since the n64 which was my brothers, I never rly had one of my own. So my friend told me about the R4 which peaked my interest in the DS, which prior to I honestly hadn't even heard of the nintendo DS and this was like 2006-2007ish. I decided I wanted one, and since the DS could play music as well, I decided I was going to sell some of my stuff to get it. I sold my Sansa E200 Mp3 player which was basically brand new at the time, and I sold my final fantasy collection (FF8 and FF9) along with some old pc games to get it. Now I'm sure that's rarely the case with a lot of people but in mine, I can't afford game systems so nintendo made money off the R4 with me. Not to mention I talked quite a few of my friends into buying the DS when they had no interest in one at all because they had PSP's. But if I had a job, I'd buy some of the good games like pokemon (everlasting value due to GBA link), and I did manage to buy guitar hero. A lot of the games are pretty bad though and the R4 lets you play games in english that we otherwise never could (jump ultimate stars for instance). On top of that there're homebrew games out there that're better than a lot of the DS games (stillaliveDS for instance), so I don't think the R4 is completely bad but at the rate it's popularity is increasing and the way it's being used, it is kind of bad =/

I had an R4 for a long time before I sold it to a friend.

I think I'm going to get a flash card again pretty soon, some good DS games came out since I sold it.

i can see why ninty is getting so pissy about the sale of r4 cards in Japan becuz the mainstream stores are retailing them. i say good luck to them. i hope they do get them banned in Japan stores but not banned from online stores.

i have an M3 DS Real sitting in my DS, but i have bought games that i think are worth playing. i have about 10-12 friends who own DS lite's, but do not have a flash cart to go along with it. i personally know only one other person who owns a flash cart, but he doesn't even know how to use it.

I would say that they should be banned from Japan mainstream stores but not from online stores because all in all piracy has not harmed the video game market one bit.

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Originally Posted by paul3100

I think this is funny tbh :rofl:

I personally won't ever buy a ds game because (A) i haven't got any spare money ! and (B) because 99% of games on the DS are CR*P!!!

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Well, I've always thought that it wasn't hurting the industry when you don't have the money to buy all the games your downloading in the first place--the argument being: "What money are they losing when it isn't there to lose in the first place."

Though I wouldn't say 99% of the games are "CR*P"...

Good luck to them. Sadly it's out of control :(

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Originally Posted by From a Joystiq Article

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit in Japan against five retailers for "importing and selling equipment that enables illegal game programs to be played on [the Nintendo DS]" -- presumably flash carts such as R4.

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Notice how it doesn't say "pirated copies of DS games". It says "illegal game programs". I fear that Nintendo is consciously lumping homebrew software in with that vague definition, as I wouldn't be surprised if they considered any game not approved by them to be illegal.

I'm worried about where all of this is going to lead. :(

I really don't think Nintendo is loosing very much money over this. I have a whole lot of friends who own a Nintendo DS but I don't know a single person who has an R4, or any type of flash card for that matter. The fact is that there are many many more people who do not own a flash cart.

If Nintendo had implemented a way to insert a kind of memory card (like you can on the PSP) that plays homebrew in some manner then the demand for flash cartages would be much lower then it is at current, but we all know that Nintendo wouldn't have ever done this for various reasons.

With that said, I do not believe that game sales are significantly damaged by the R4, and I do not believe that all people who own an R4 are pirates. You have to expect that there are going to be some people who pirate games for various reasons, I don't think that there is a game system that has not been pirated in some manner. So this is no surprise.

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Originally Posted by TechRat

Notice how it doesn't say "pirated copies of DS games". It says "illegal game programs". I fear that Nintendo is consciously lumping homebrew software in with that vague definition, as I wouldn't be surprised if they considered any game not approved by them to be illegal.

I'm worried about where all of this is going to lead. :(

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It would be a shame if they would tackle homebrew. Personally I prefer writing hobby programs/games on very limited hardware (for my PhD related software I have access to a 144 cpu cluster, so in my spare time I like the exact opposite). So without a flashcard I wouldn't even have bought an NDS in the first place.

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Originally Posted by wraggster

Mainstream shops are selling the r4 in japan and thats why nintendo etc are getting pissy

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Actually, major ("mainstream") stores like Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera, Laox etc. have never sold the r4 or any related products in AKihabara.
It's always been independent retailers and you usually have to hunt for them.

Admittedly yes, a *couple* of the small stores ceased their sales of such products when pressured by Nintendo, but they are still abundantly sold in other small stores.

I wish small stores in America sold them! I loathe ordering things over the net.

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Originally Posted by GJHmf

I don't comment much on here, but I actually tend to agree with paul3100.

Although different to him in that I am paid well and can afford games, and given that I own MANY original carts and have pumped enough money into the Nintendo coffers over the past 18 years... any non-physical games that I have 'acquired' and play on my R4 are titles that were only on my 'curious-about-but-not-worth-£26-to-find out' list.

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I agree, I also do this. I've saved a few hundred dollars this way in waisted crap games I thought I was interested in but found out I wasn't after playing them. After seeing if I like the game, I then go and buy it when I have the money to do so.

I'm the same way with my CDs, DVDs, and whatever I can see/hear for free first to make sure I like it, then buy it.

I do not, however, agree with the rest of paul3100's statement.

lol nintendo is hating

I can't speak for everyone but i can speak for me and those I know. The people i know from campus all have flashcards for the ds.
I was the first then convinced my friend to get one he convinced his friend's now I don't know anyone who DOESN'T have a flashcard and they all download their ds games including me.

The fact you can play movies,mp3s,homebrew,emulators,various videos
and commercial ds roms makes it far superior to commercial games.
In addition to that you have all your ds games on ONE cartridge verses lugging all those various carts around.

It's just better nintendo needs to implement a DS download station with capabilities similar to flashcards if they are ever going to stop it or compete.

A legitimate way to download video content,music content, and roms sort of like the wii.

They should get working on it.