the piracy suffered by movies and music? Didn't Batman just make 160Million the first weekend?

Here is an idea, stop shoveling shit into our faces, and we will buy the good stuff.

free touch, because yeah pirates download shitty software and movies and music that they just can't stand to play/watch/listen to. Don't be stupid, much of what they take is stuff they would otherwise pay for but now thanks to the internet and feeling absolved by their 'victim-less' crime they don't pay. In the end, the stuff with the highest profit margins tends to be the crap churned out without polish, because if you make something too good people will steal it.

10 to 1 this stores carry nothing but DS shovelware and do not stock things like RPGs at all. Yea, I doubt sales for "me and my horse" will pick up.

Ridiculous, the worst part is that they "claim" to be independent stores, independent my ass if they were in the past they were probably threaten with lawsuits already to remove em and are just not saying that.

All I gotta say is that the shops that do sell R4s make a lot of money on them

Well, its not like R4 is the only one of these..

I have an EZ FLASH V+, and it is awesome.

Truth of the matter is that DS games are hugely overpriced. While I have no problem paying £20-25 for an import DS title like Ouendan, I always find it hard to justify buying a lot of official DS games. £30, Nintendo..?? I'm sorry, but you guys have been mugging us blind since back in the GB days, helping keep GB, GBA and DS game prices high.

These cards are never going to go offsale, for the simple fact that they allow a capable and talented user to write their own DS aps and games. Its always the way of these fools to cry piracy for sales they think they are missing, which in itself is created by problem Nintendo etc create themselves.

What am I talking about? The fact that the U.K are english speaking/reading gamers, but still to this day have to wait months for games, while they get translated for languages we don't use.

Despite the powers that be always painting a negative picture of these cards, I really don't see anyone being taken to court over such piracy either. They'd surely have to prove you aren't buying any games at all (many of us still do so, despite having an R4 etc) and just pirating and not using your DS card for other means. If you are writing your own DS games/aps, and the fuckers at Nintendo won't sell you a license, because of their draconian prices and the fact you aren't a pro, then these cards have a right to and will exist.

I'm against piracy in general, especially for profit, but there's this grey area of personal bedroom homebrew development that's always glossed over by the games industry, and to some degree criminalised. Now if the powers in the industry were to look at the situation in a fair and even way, including the homebrew and import games side, I'd happily listen to them. Somehow so far, I have less confidence in this becoming so, which is a real big shame for an games industry that should be nuturing such talented homebrewers and their fans.

Give up my anonymous card?? Are you kidding? Come back and tell me that after you've painted in Colors DS, messed with the joys of Nitro Tracker or had serious fun with Still Alive DS. All great stuff being created under the radar, for free and out of love for games etc. Take that, Nintendo. On top of that, I can sample the bull shit from the gold games immediately, then buy them. Once i can do this with all DS games coming out (this currently requires a Wii or DS Station which I don't have, just to do a small test selection of titles). If you really want to kill piracy, do this, and card piracy dies a death quickly.

This also raises another question, is piracy okay when a consoles life cycle is up (IMO more so yes)? And why is this never talked about or highlighted enough?

By the way, I still buy official and import games often, just not at extortionate prices Nintendo loves. What were my latest purchases? The awesomeness of Trauma Center 2 and The World Ends With You.

Okay, I'm off to play some long forgotten GB/GBA games no longer on sale. Thanks for listening.

Cowboy TTop, excellent post.

I travel a lot and I like to travel light (carry on only) so when I saw the r4, it was a must for me... its easier than buying expensive carrying cases for all of my games and I never have to switch out the cart. I do enjoy the fact that I can try out a game now instead of waiting for it to be used at gamestop so I can go buy it, try it and it most cases, return it... I'm not in it to be cheap, just reasonable... if nintendo gave me an option that let me download all of my games to one cart. just like the r4, id buy the nintendo version but they don't so...

It's just easier for people to say that pirating the cause of the downfall... There are a lot of people that cry wolf but there are always the few that are really getting mauled...

Buy it if you like it... end of story...