Capcom, Nintendo sue more DS hack importers

Publishers file second lawsuit over R4 Revolution and similar devices, say retailers ignored judge's ruling in original case.

The gaming industry's fight to squash shady accessory sales continues. Capcom has announced that it and 54 other game makers (including Nintendo) have filed suit against four importers and/or sellers of the R4 Revolution DS device in Tokyo District Court. The R4 DS cartridge holds a Micro SD card within it, allowing users to run illegally copied DS games and homebrew software on the system.

Still widely available, according to Capcom.

The suit echoes a similar effort Capcom and Nintendo spearheaded in July of 2008. In that case, five companies were targeted for the importation and sale of devices, like the R4 Revolution, and the plaintiff publishers won an injunction halting the distribution of such products in February. Capcom said that despite the ruling, the R4 and similar products have still been widely available, necessitating the new lawsuit.

"We are expecting the entire society, including users, to recognize that our company and other software manufactures have extremely sustained damages from proliferation of illegal instruments, such as the game copying devices, and the computer industries have sustained serious damages because of those vendors, and we expect to influence the society to eliminate such illegal instruments from the market," Capcom said in a statement.

238 Comments

  • thesand212

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 6:00 pm PT

    @Cody13_2012

    Homebrew actually is allowed. You're allowed to write and execute code that is not legally endorsed by Nintendo. Never in recent years have I seen a lawsuit over the issue of homebrew, it's a relatively understood matter. The issue is over pirating copyrighted code, which all of these devices are capable of.

    @thesand212
    Why do people buy them? Because they want them. Because they do things to make your system most cost efficient for the user's end. Not that hard to figure out.

    @whatisazerg
    You are NOT entitled to the new version of Street Fighter IV because you bought the old one. You should've known that Capcom was going to do that, as they've released mods of all of their previous games. It helps recoup development costs, holds essentially an older game at a higher price point, and it is NOT required to enjoy the original game. And the RE5 thing... People who complain about expanding content (even if it was on the original disc) are those that SHOULD NOT BUY THIS. If you hate these companies so much for trying to make money, BOYCOTT! Don't play their games. Any of them. Go find another company that'll provide you games for free. That's where you belong.

    We have the Power cause we buy the games. there going to MOD games and the more there try to stop them the more they hack and mod. To the point that either games are going to reduce in price or there just going to give up

  • ghettalife

    Posted Oct 28, 2009 4:23 pm PT

    LOL! Betcha at least half the people on here puffing up their chests with self-righteous indignation over piracy every time this issue comes up have themselves been pirating. They probably buy used games exclusively as well. No $$$ going to developers either way....

  • riariases

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 6:15 pm PT

    @-Celeste-
    It still doesn't justify the means and that its illigal. I - and countless others - see it for what it is, which is stealing, which I would rather not do. Being labelled a thief isn't good for social standing.

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 11:50 am PT

    It's a bit like illegally downloading music. I understand Nintedo's need to protect its products.
    Much like new bands wanting to make a break to fame, to be made known by the public. Without people actually buying CDs for them, newly formed bands, won't be able to get paid and see the light of day.

  • xche78x

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 9:39 am PT

    ask sony what they did to the ps3, almost 3 years of pure original games only. nah ill tell you
    real time checks. if a game/console can be infused with real time security and updates automatically it will lessen the chances of piracy, except of course custom firmwares.

  • GNWPCD

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 5:18 am PT

    I do see where Nintendo and Capcom are coming from and they have every right to protect their products from being hacked illegally. They should just realize that it will be like Napster and Piratebay though. You can stop one thing but then even more alternative routes will show up to counter that. You can never truly stop it , just close off some paths but other paths will just open up and a lot of times a lot more than previously existed. But of course I see where they are coming from. Just don't think it will stop anything. Hackers seem to always be one step ahead of all these companies. From what I hear Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is already working on R4 when Nintendo had a way to prevent it from doing so. You can only do so much to stop this stuff.

  • No_Intelligence

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 4:54 am PT

    R4 hurts the industry more than most people think. It sets off a chain. If people buy the DS + R4 they might not buy another hand held or a game device altogether because the games can be played for free. The consumer will think buying games isn't worth it anymore when there's free games to play with. Of course this isn't always true, but it does happen.

  • jeffv541

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 1:12 am PT

    HA! I bought one of these years ago. It's fun to have all your games in one place but I feel like it takes the magic out of the game, and you don't value it as much...

  • another_drew

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 11:23 pm PT

    LMFAO A guy with the username gamestop27 made a comment about unreasonable prices! LMFAO Talk about irony.

  • itsTolkien_time

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 7:08 pm PT

    @Carnas: No, just no. To your most recent post.
    The candy machine is open, it's expensive, and there are people already taking things. That has nothing to do with me doing the same.

    I haven't pirated any games yet. I think it will stay that way, but notice the "yet". I don't see a big problem if the game you are taking is foreign or out of production.

    I agree entirely with what the game companies are doing.

    And how is pirating a revolution? More like a retardation of the industry.

    DS games = $35
    360/PS3 games = $60+
    Which one of those is a crime, again? -_-

    I like the "homebrew destroying update" route. It's actually pretty funny.

  • Carnas

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 4:33 pm PT

    @Borson, who said "People's arguments that piracy is ok because "Nintendo makes a ton of money" and "games are overpriced" are so bad its not even funny.
    If thats the case then I should be able to break into a snack machine at work and steal a candy bar because Hershey company makes a ton of money and 80cents for a candy bar is way overpriced anyway."

    You probably WOULD do that if the candy machine was left open for you to take candy from, noone would catch you, and you saw the 10 people in line ahead of you do it.

  • Carnas

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 4:30 pm PT

    i would not have purchased a NDS if I didn't have my R4, simply because there are so many crappy games. after purchasing the DS though, i have no qualms about purchasing my favourite titles from the store. so, they've made a few hundred dollars off me that they wouldn't have otherwise.

  • eldin4444

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 3:50 pm PT

    and lest be straight as unknownform said what game companies should do is to sue the R4 makers not the sellers but then again I think is better for them this way.

  • eldin4444

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 3:48 pm PT

    Well I dont think Piracy is good but lest be serious if someone can hack a console and download its game he/she would probably buy it cuz the games are too expensive and you could save a lot of money just downloading games, I mean I dont aprove piracy but having it clear game companies sell a lot of consoles this way they like it or not.

  • KillerWabbit23

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 3:47 pm PT

    *sigh*...
    This is just a never-ending struggle. It's like cops and robbers, the robbers are always once step ahead of the cops. And this really won't affect sales. I'm not saying that piracy is okay, but the majority of people who buy a DS are about 10 years old, and buy it for New Super Mario Bros. or Ben 10. Nintendo isn't doing the wrong thing, I fully advocate what they are doing, but this is only cutting off one head of the Hydra.

  • neinnunb

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 2:24 pm PT

    Thanks to the R4 and other such devices is why Nintendo sold so many DS's.

  • UnknownForm

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 1:38 pm PT

    You know what Capcom and the other 54 game compaines should do? They should sue the makers of the R4, not the importers or sellers. If they take down the makers of the R4, they will take down the whole system of importing and selling R4s. But then again there are alternatives other than the R4 being selled everywhere, and it won't be easy finding the makers of the R4...

  • capitalthoughts

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 1:14 pm PT

    People always break the rules, from speeding, as mentioned in the comment below me, all the way to murder. Murder has also been around since the beginning of time people, so how many of you are ready just to say that it is pointless to enforce punishment on people who murder? Sure there is a difference in scope of the crime being commited but the argument is a slipperly slope. If you can justify things just because they have been going on since the beginning of time, then you might as well justify everything. Those of us though, who have a brain, we know right from wrong, and we were blessed with the ability to know which is which. People have a right to protect their property, no one has a right to steal, anymore then anyone has a right to murder you.

  • -Celeste-

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 1:00 pm PT

    @riariases

    I'm not going to argue that piracy is lost sales. But i'll argue till i'm blue in the face that all those pirates would NEVER have bought the games to begin with. Lets face it, the vast majority of pirates get the games for free because they can't justify droping money for it. And the comment you made about the rappers jet is the reason why. They see people making record profits while trying to sell games for 60$.

    You can say Zelda had 2.3m downloads, but i'll be curious how many of those people didn't actually buy the game. For that matter, i'm also curious how many of those are multiple downloads and how many would have actually bought the game if it wasn't available via download.

    Lost sales my butt; piracy is just like speeding. There are people that will always speed ... but when you slap a 45mph speed limit on a 10 lane highway, you'll be hardpressed to find people that don't speed. Companies need to realize that people are starting to call BS on their "business models" and turning to piracy. I can honestly say that i don't buy song specifically with how the music industry is acting.

  • SDBusDriver1979

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 10:37 am PT

    Well I like this method more than the stupid million updates for a hand held that Sony does to combat piracy.

  • Bortson

    Posted Oct 19, 2009 7:42 am PT

    People's arguments that piracy is ok because "Nintendo makes a ton of money" and "games are overpriced" are so bad its not even funny.

    If thats the case then I should be able to break into a snack machine at work and steal a candy bar because Hershey company makes a ton of money and 80cents for a candy bar is way overpriced anyway.

  • melante

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 8:43 pm PT

    That's not the way to fight piracy.... 1. people are usually willing to pay the right right price for something they really want. DS (and also most of PSP) titles are way too expensive compared to their actual production values.
    2. 99.9% of downloaded games are by people who wouldn't have bought the games at all (this of course doesn't condone it as enjoying something you didn't pay for is still a theft, but it's not an "actual" monetary loss for the developer)
    3. homebrew stuff makes consoles MUCH more interesting and push more people to buy the hardware and have better experiences
    4. Nintendo and Sony should learn from the GP2XWiz handheld, which is completely open and can run all the homebrew stuff we want, besides also having commercial games (ok, these are a new endeavor and we still have to see how well they will sell, but if they are good and, say, priced around $10 or less, I think people will buy them as for the other points)!

  • burizadokyanon

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 3:45 pm PT

    I have a DS and I've crammed my TTDS full of games. Although I I do feel somewhat guilty about it (-by not financially supporting game developers), I realize that +80% of my GCN/Wii/PS2/PS3 library is comprised of second hand games. These second hand games are all legit purchases, yet neither developers or publishers get a cent of that. The only people making anything from those transactions are the sellers on ebay, etc. who I purchase from. Are you gonna tell me I can't buy second hand games now because I'm not supporting the companies that made and distributed the game?

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 3:31 pm PT

    With the DSi already out, Nintendo should have adopted the PSN approach to gaming and have games downloadable for a reasonable price.

  • Poodger

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 2:25 pm PT

    Wow this is funny, I actually had ordered another R4 online from Hong Kong maybe 7 hours before I read this article. This is my fourth R4 card since I keep giving mine away as gifts. The real kicker is that I only found out they exist because of the attention they got the first time Nintendo fought back.

    They really are wonderful devices when not used for piracy. If Nintendo made a similar product that let us play movies and music, instant message, and use fun applications, then I think some of the problem might be solved. Also, as for games, I don't see a problem in putting games you already own onto the card so that you have a neat DS that uses just one cartridge (thus eliminating the need to drag around a dozen games cards that could be lost). But it is wrong to use games you haven't paid for.

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 11:07 am PT

    @Blujacker523
    You're welcome.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 7:04 am PT

    a billion is not enough i see. trying to got for trillions

  • muzza93

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 3:51 am PT

    Heineken? F*** THAT S**T!!!

  • Caer_Death

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 2:48 am PT

    @Cody13_2012

    New firmware chopping out old pieces of homebrew really doesn't surprise me. It's not them taking a legal stance against it so much as it is an exercise of their authority to release firmware that may be toxic to homebrew (Wii Menu 4.3, or whatever it is, that's been causing problems for certain modded Wiis). Better/More effective than taking people to court.

    @tekken220

    I'm not sure about exact numbers, but I think the DS is hit just as hard, if not harder, by piracy than the PSP. Handheld games take up so much less space and it's so easy to do compared to a home console that piracy is probably rampant on both systems. That being said, did anyone else notice that the DSi has new copy protection on it? It took... umm... less than a month to crack, so Nintendo is fighting a big uphill battle in that respect.

  • left4right

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 1:24 am PT

    sue me

  • beardrewz

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 12:31 am PT

    The ds games are far far to high in price. Considering how long the games there not worth the price for a couple of megs.

  • MagicOneUp posted Oct 18, 2009 12:26 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    MagicOneUp

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 12:26 am PT (hide)

    how can piracy be lost money to nintendo? they just don't make those money. if the pirates were to paid for the game they pirated, i'm sure they wouldn't have buy it anyway. i used my R4 to mainly listens to mp3's... is nintendo trying to stop me from doing that too?

  • tekken220

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 10:54 pm PT

    @triple punse
    Look at the PSP. I'ts games sell very poorly because of piracy. Now developers are avoiding the PSP because they think it'll be a waste of money.

  • Cody13_2012

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 10:17 pm PT

    @Caer_Death

    I've looked into some of the PSP homebrew (I haven't used any) but it's almost impossible to find some (that hasn't already been stopped from working from a new firmware update) homebrew without being told of a website by someone.

    I'm sure sony's stance with linux is a mutual friendship, helping linux gain pupularity while giving another bonus of freatures to the PS3.

  • EternalYoshi

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 10:00 pm PT

    Stealing is wrong, bu high prices aren't going to help this matter, especially for you cartridge games. I want everyone to keep prices feasible on e-bay and amazon. $79 for a USED copy of Earthbound is outrageous. >_

  • MERGATROYDER

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 9:42 pm PT

    Cause they need those extra pennies! People get paid less now as companies make even more money. So is this suit pointing out how personal gain is higher then it has ever been?

  • otanikun

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 9:03 pm PT

    Say, Nintendo, say you actually offer the games people want as DLC to their DSi so that people wouldn't have to circumvent your software hmm?

  • OwnageGuy

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 9:01 pm PT

    jeez as if they aren't making enough money already, i doubt that even if they stopped pirating that people would actually go out and buy the game and everyone i know who has a ds also has an r4. People who say save up and buy it, most people simply don't have the money to do this, cause we have a life outside gaming where we spend it on. As long as theres stuff to pirate there will always be pirates out there. you can't stop the revolution!

  • flammable_zeus

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 6:39 pm PT

    Cloud32147: That was a very good argument and I'm surprised at how downrated your comment is. It just goes to show that no matter how many people say they like games, there are as many people that would rather steal them because they feel they're entitled to everything for nothing.

  • flammable_zeus

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 6:32 pm PT

    For people saying they use their R4 to download Japanese games: That's no excuse. Just import them since the DS is region-free.

  • Blujacker523

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 4:31 pm PT

    hey FF_fan2004, zero punctuation is really funny and thanks for the page! i cant stop watching them! and it does show that nintendo has alot of money, and yes hackers WILL ALWAYS find a way to get through no matter what you put on it.

  • SicklySunStorm

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 4:11 pm PT

    I use an R4 myself for some japanese games I just simply can't get here in the UK, but I always, and I mean ALWAYS buy my UK games for it, so if they do manage to ban these devices, it would seriously alienate me

  • RavenXavier

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 1:45 pm PT

    Just because a product "can" be used to pirate a game doesn't mean All users will use it to pirate games. I don't think there should even be a basis for this case and I hope the Judge throws it out of court.

  • runefa

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 1:32 pm PT

    well, looks like now some people see my point, if i didnt had an r4 i ne had the chance to play jups super star or ultimate stars, or doki doki maho shimpan, i think it isnt bad to mod a console for the only purpose to play japanese games, i mean they wont bring them aniway, i remember that i wanted to play namco vs capcom and many people wanted it in the us and they didint wanted to bring it, now they say they are haking their game and haking legal content, the same hapened with breath of fire 3 for psp.

  • slayersdeath200

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 11:23 am PT

    im sorry Nintendo but no one can stop modders, hackers and the rest of them. You may be able to stop them for so long with different ways to put data on the card or different ways the hardware works but in the end the hackers/modders will always find a way to break your code and make games free, I am a gamer who has to have the real copy.

  • PrinceGohan

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 10:30 am PT

    I think this should get everyone's attention...
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/The.Pirate.Bay.Cartoon-small.png
    I wonder if anyone remembers it..

  • Kyleve

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 8:48 am PT

    Nintendo makes enough money as is. Piracy will always be around. No matter if you change the console, the software or anything else piracy will live on. I myself own a r4 but just for the pleasure of playing games not in english.

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 7:19 am PT

    This may be a little off the topic but it has something to do with Nintendo and its profit earning. It's actually really funny.

    http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/844-Wii-Sports-Resort

    Aside from that, I agree with robertdobert. There's always a way.

  • robertdobert

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 5:46 am PT

    Piracy cannot be stopped. You close one door, another door opens.

  • LordelX

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 5:46 am PT

    If the DSi store and the Wii's Virtual Console had more compelling material at a reasonable price, people wouldn't feel for such devices. Nintendo has really got to update its online distribution model in order for anyone to feel sympathy for them.

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