ELSPA: 90 per cent of US gamers use DS piracy chip

ELSPA has claimed that 90 per cent of all DS users in North America are playing pirated games via the notorious R4 cartridge.

John Hillier, manager of ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said that the R4 — a cartridge that plays hacked games downloaded onto a memory card — is harming sales for Nintendo and making it the least-profitable console on the market.

"The implications are massive. In America it's thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s," said Hillier, talking to The Sunday Post.

"Takings from Nintendo DS games in the US are lower than any other console and no doubt it will have a similar impact here," he said, discussing the uptake of the R4 in the UK.

The R4 is available to buy over the internet and unlike previous chips and modifications for other consoles, requires no clumsy hardware modifications.

The biggest threat that the R4 makes to the piracy problem, according to Hillier, is that it allows users the freedom to download hacked games from their PC and import them straight to the handheld.

"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."

"Crucially, the R4 has shifted balance of power in the piracy industry to the consumer — and that is hugely worrying," he said.

GamesIndustry.biz has contacted ELSPA for clarification of the quoted statistics.