90 per cent of North American's playing illegally

[VampDude]

Via: HEXUS.gaming

A newspaper report suggests that in North America approximately 90 percent of DS gamers are now using the notorious R4 piracy chip to get their illegal fix of hand-held gaming.

“The implications are massive. In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo users are playing pirated games because of R4,” explained John Hillier, Manager of ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit in an interview with the Sunday Post.

The Sunday Post also contains a report about the situation in Scotland where it’s believed the chip is sold for approximately £40 from various websites and traders. The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) say that the chip “gets around the protection built into the Nintendo DS to prevent playing of unauthorized games. The R4 in effect blinds the console and makes it think it's seeing a genuine game. Trading standards and police are finding these devices in raids on people who sell pirated games.”

Hillier told the newspaper that the offence for selling these chips could lead to up to two years in jail or an unlimited fine.

ELSPA say that the R4 chip has devastating consequences on the gaming industry, that’s despite Nintendo reporting record software sales recently with 5 million units sold of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? 2.8 million units sold of More Brain Training From Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? And Nintendogs recently hitting the 8 million mark.

“That's the real danger – you may think you're getting a good deal but using the R4 is risking the future of the games industry," concluded Hillier.

Source :: Strategy Informer

edit: Correction issued http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=88787

[Sonicboy 101]

I think 90% is exaggeration.

[VampDude]

I think 90% is exaggeration.

I would say about 40%, as there are over 10 million DS units in North America, which is roughly just over 4 million people playing illegal DS games.

[JKKDARK]

Shame on these 90% of north american DS players, they are ruining the gaming industry

[VampDude]

they are ruining the gaming industry

It's also China, Hong Kong and Taiwan that are ruining the industry.

[goity]

No way it's higher than 10%, surely. I know I've never seen anyone using one. This is way, way overexaggerated, especially since computer nerds aren't exactly Nintendo's core market. I'm guessing over 10% of their market are quite young and quite old people, who don't have the computer literacy to use such a thing.
This is complete worrymongering.

[ExcruciationX]

It's also China, Hong Kong and Taiwan that are ruining the industry.

I was about to say that.

This is way over the top...

[krakenx]

Of the 6 people that I know who have DS's, 0% have an R4. Two of them (~33%) have a flashcart of some kind, but keep in mind that these are people who know me and have seen me using mine so that percent is higher than the general population.

To further debunk the statement, if we assume that the R4 has 60% market share of the flash cart market (an overstatement but roll with it), but 90% of all DS users are using it, that means that well over 100% of DS owners are using a flash cart of some kind, which is impossible. Furthermore if 20.2 million DS's have been sold in north America to date (wikipedia), that means that 18.18 million R4s would have had to be sold. There is no way anywhere near that number have even been produced.

Isn't it sad that the media (newspaper in this case) prints propaganda with no fact checking? Surely someone at the newspaper office would have thought "Gee, I don't have an R4 and my friend doesn't either how could this be true?"

[JKKDARK]

I was about to say that.

This is way over the top...

You're north american. Do you play illegally?

[Cloudhunter]

99% of statistics are made up.

Statistics mean nothing anyway, they can be twisted to mean anything.

Cloudy