Nintendo has tried — and by some accounts, failed — to stop DS software piracy in Korea with threats of “strict legal action” against those distributing the pirated commercial titles. But in Japan, they’re taking a different tack. Rather than trace the digital ones and zeros left behind by ROM pirates, Nintendo has instead decided to target the flashcarts that allow DS owners to play those pirated games in the first place — and they’re not waiting around to see if voluntary bans bear fruit.
Today, with the backing of 54 software companies, Nintendo announced that they are filing lawsuits against five Japanese importers of the R4 Revolution for DS.
Kotaku reports:
Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices [...] 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.
Notable software companies supporting the lawsuit include Atlus, Bandai Namco Games, Capcom, D3 Publisher, Hudson, Koei, Level-5, Sega, SNK Playmore, Square Enix, Taito, Takara Tomy, Tecmo and Yuke’s.
While this case might seem cut and dried, it’s important to note that flashcarts in and of themselves are no more tools for piracy than your average MP3 player — and in fact, can be used for the very same purpose. Though there’s no denying that the R4 contributes to piracy, the devices can also be used to transform the DS into a machine capable of playing multimedia files and homebrew games, and modern increases in the capacity of flash memory means that users can theoretically carry their entire legal collection of DS games on one flashcart — much like how an iPod user can tote around their entire collection of ripped CDs.
For the uninitiated, there are actually a wide variety of DS storage devices that allow for the operation of pirated software — “R4″ just happens to be synonymous with “flashcart” at this juncture.
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