Nintendo is out to get the pirates in every country, even France. The Paris Court of Appeals issued guilty verdicts on 26th September against several companies for the sale of devices like the R4 and the Magicom. Electronic Theater says that the Court has imposed over 460,000 Euro in criminal fines, damages payable to Nintendo in excess of 4.8 million Euros and, in some instances, ordered suspended prison terms. Woah.
Raids, kicked off back in 2007 and 2008, found several thousand game copiers all over Paris. With this verdict, some of the biggest importers/distributors have been shut down.
"Nintendo supported this criminal action not only for the company's sake, but for the interests of its game developer partners who spend time and money legitimately developing software for Nintendo's game platforms, and customers who expect the highest standards and integrity from products bearing the Nintendo name," said Stephan Bole, Managing Director of Nintendo France.
Nintendo will need to continue this effort with the 3DS, I suspect.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
6:15 PM on 10.03.2011 | 
YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN'
Homebrew devices usually don't support piracy upfront, but people can easily work piracy in those devices which why video game companies do not support homebrew.
They can't stop piracy forever but we see that they're getting closer to spreading the amount of time and money spent into pirating to where a majority wouldn't risk it.
I bet if they had a cheaper but not drastically cheaper prices on video games, most developers could easily get more of a profit than lost to piracy.
But that's just an odd perspective I have.
Pay no mind to me if you don't agree.
......right? (i'm just joking btw)
Yeah, like Super Mario Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword, Kirby's Epic Yarn, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy....WAIT THEY ALREADY MADE THOSE!
See Nintendo Co Jpn VS James Burt.
In fairness I didn't put up much of a battle, I bent over and took it like a trooper.... BECAUSE I DID WRONG!
Yeah, hacking your console to run your homebrews is one thing, but mass producing a piece of hardware which purpose is largely known to be pirating, that's another thing. It's facilitating criminal activity, so there is a limit to freedom. If you really try to defend yourself saying that the law allows it you know that you are maliciously abusing the law to your advantage over someone else's rights, which is bad anyway.
i have a copy of pokemon white on the shelf unplayed, because i wanted it on the M3.
there is a huge convenience factor to having everything on one cartridge, and the sooner nintendo takes advantage of this fact and allows us a way to buy games in this way the better.
and guess what it would stop used game sales to, because if i own a digital copy that can be transfered to a multi game cartridge i can't resell it now can I.
These things are even more of an issue when your competing with the Iphone, which can have huge amount's of games on the one device, no cartridge swapping, no extra carrying cases. it just makes everything that much simpler
ICE CREAM PIRACY! YOU BASTARD!
But yeah, these lawsuits around "piracy" are getting mind-boggling. Pretty soon, its gonna be illegal to mod controllers on the basis that it "creates an uneven playing field" while PC users continue to use gaming specific keyboards and mice with completely customizable key configurations.
Ah well, just means more juggling for me, then.
It's like the ban on alcohol in the 1920s. It just goes underground.
I get the anti-piracy sentiment, but a piece of hardware is ultimately used at the buyer's decision. I can burn my DS if I want to. Stupid and risky yes, but that's my choice. Banning the R4 will only take things to a deeper level.
@Arttemis: I also agree if the games were a bit cheaper to begin with people wouldn't wouldn't dread so much investing in new unknown games. Ironically I don't worry much with DS titles, but Wii and PS3 new games are $50-60+tax. For a student or lower than average budget person that's a significant blow.
The fact that they won at all opens some serious floodgates, the DS despite being amazing got massacred by those idiots.
@Arttemis
The flash cards break Nintendo patents, they have a right to shut them down EVEN IF they weren't used for piracy.
And everybody knows that they are MAINLY for piracy.
And yes, slightly cheaper DS/handheld games would be nice, as frankly many of the them (namely third party games) can come across as overpriced. Luckily prices can drop pretty fast these days if you're willing to wait and look around.
@fetusmilk
They have tried to stop custom firmware on the Wii, but since we're talking about physical companies making physical flash cards here it's much easier to fight.
*throws EDGE card in fire*
LOOK I REALLY WANTED TO PLAY 9 HOURS 9 PERSONS 9 DOORS OK
"Gorescream:
what the fuck?"
Just lifted up your belly rolls, eh? Seen that little nub hanging off those little balls? Don't get worried, it's suppose to be there. It's called a wiener.