A Pirate's Life for Nintendo DS Owners
A staggering 90 percent of American Nintendo DS users play pirated games by means of special "R4" chips, according to the ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit manager John Hiller.
Hiller told The Sunday Post, "In America it’s thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s."
90 percent of Nintendo DS users? Really? If that's true -- and I'm not saying it is -- it would mean that at least 18.5 million of 20.6 million Nintendo DS owners in the U.S. are engaged in some form of DS piracy. Now since that number sounds preposterously high and to be frank, almost certainly false, let's consider the alternative interpretation: that Hiller means 90 percent of Nintendo DS pirates are using the R4 chip (as opposed to general users). I'm going to favor the second interpretation.
So what's so hot about R4 or "R4DS," i.e. "Revolution For DS"? It's a Chinese-made tool that lets you load and execute pretty much any Nintendo DS application you can find online using a computer. The flash card itself looks like a tiny unassuming piece of plastic -- a few centimeters wide, a few millimeters thick -- costs about $40, drops comfortably into your DS's card slot, and it's currently for sale all over the world.
According to this Times Online article back in November, retail stores that carry it even run signs like:
"New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product..."
...and
"Guaranteed for one week only! Of course we can’t explain what the R4 will do..."
It's perfectly legal to buy the chip, of course, for the same reasons it's perfectly legal to download file sharing software. It's not what you have, in other words, it's how you use it.
Believe it or not, I've never so much as attempted to play a pirated DS game, and in fact would have to admit to a certain naivete when it comes to violating hardware-enforced region- or code-specific regulations involving soldering and chip-pulling and chip-replacing, etc. The R4DS works around that sort of invasive surgery by simply tricking the DS into thinking the little piece of plastic is the Real Deal.
A quick text search on "Nintendo DS" at The Pirate Bay turns up 195 hits and what appears to be a pretty comprehensive list of DS games being downloaded, as I type this, by hundreds of users.
Poll time!
UPDATE (2/1/08): It seems Mr. Hiller was either quoted out of context or not quoted at all. Gamesindustry.biz has the scoop, wherein the ELSPA claims Hiller "didn't quote [meaning "provide a quote to"] The Sunday Post on any figures whatsoever." The ELSPA claims the Sunday Post's report is in fact a melange of incorrectly sourced material from a Singapore article with information about the R4. For some reason the author(s) of the Post piece elected to attribute the quotes to Hiller. Game On already concluded that the quotes were prima facie fallacious, though it seems even the less sweeping interpretation that "90 percent of Nintendo DS pirates are using the R4 chip" is spurious.
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WOW, people are REALLY cheap if they do this. its really sad considering the incredible lack of 3d capabilities on the ds. like seriously, go and get a psp and then try this because the games for the ds are only like 20-30 bucks.