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Nintendo And Japanese Game Companies Win $944K Worth Of Damages In R4 Piracy Lawsuit

r4_cardNintendo has announced that it has won a considerable amount of damages in its continuing legal battle against R4 sellers. In a statement released today, a Tokyo court ruled that two major R4 distributors must pay Nintendo and 49 other Japanese gaming companies – Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, amongst others – a total of 95,625,000 yen, the equivalent to $944,966.25 US dollars.

The lawsuit has been an ongoing battle against the pirating of games which infringes Nintendo and other companies’ intellectual property rights. Last year, government officials in Japan banned the use of R4 devices – more commonly known as flashcarts or flashcards – which are used to store pirated software and emulators for the Nintendo DS and 3DS. In the past, Nintendo has cracked down on piracy overseas as well, and has incorporated piracy bans on such devices within Australia and Europe. The company has also said they will continue to fight against the piracy battle in their official statement.

185 thoughts on “Nintendo And Japanese Game Companies Win $944K Worth Of Damages In R4 Piracy Lawsuit”

      1. I enjoyed reading A Minty Yoshi’s troll comments, and I must say that is hilariously dumb. As I should already know, don’t feed the troll.

        On a sidenote, excellent work of that Tokyo court and Nintendo for ensuring piracy is where it should belong: nowhere.

      1. I love how you try to be important on the internet by trying to be first but in reality you are just a homosexual trying to live a lie.

            1. YOU AGAIN! WILL YOU EVER GROW UP? TODDLERS SHOULD NOT BE ON ANY OTHER WEBSITE BESIDES NICK JR.

              1. YOU AGAIN! WILL YOU EVER GROW UP? TODDLERS SHOULD NOT BE ON ANY OTHER WEBSITE BESIDES CLUB PENGUIN!

    1. fuck you ill hack every nintendo product on the planet they don’t deserve my money. My wii is hacked its very easy and cheap to find someone to do it for you if you dont wanna do it yourself. Download snes9x and roms from any website if you are afraid of getting caught dont use torrents simple ok? And it is not illegal so dont be scared of nintendont slavemaster evil corp getting at you i know they would if they could sure a poor person.

                1. At first, I saw that as ‘Bit’, and laughed my head off… Now I find out I missed out the ‘ch’, and thus am hugely disappointed in you.

                1. lol! We all expect him to hit the Sun , but in reality it just fires him up about 180 metres into the air.

            1. And you deserve to go to the nearest graveyard and dig your grave. Nobody likes you and you will die alone.

                1. Something you seem to lack in life. Go back to fucking you mom because it is closest thing to a “significant other” you have. Oh wait, your mom left you! :D

                      1. a) I’m not some sick person like you
                        b) Of course you would know about that
                        c) I’m not stupid like you
                        d) how kind of you :D

          1. I think what he trying to say that as long you have the game and you can back up that copy depending on the state or country you are in. (In my country it is illegal to make back up copy of my games.) So you can play those backup games on your Nintendo 3DS since you “own” those games.

            But unfortantly according to Nintendo agreement, it is against their policy to tweak, hack, or modify the Nintendo 3DS console including the game cards. Therefore Nintendo have the right to sue them since they didn’t follow the Nintendo agreement.

            Technically torrents are not illegal but the use of torrents to download stolen copies are illegal or even sharing copyright products through torrents are also illegal.

      1. First but not first enough. And this is good news all pirates are bad people no if ands or butts

        1. Pirates are the saviors of the internet. Have fun paying for everything while I am actually saving money and getting stuff for free!

            1. Exactly the childish mentality that I’d expect from a troll. How would u like it if ur trying to family but u can’t make any money because people are stealing ur work. It’s not about nintendo eff Em it’s about the people working 9-5

      2. instead of making good games to earn money nintendo only knows how to sue. too bad they got sued for 30 million cuz they stole someone IP. yet you nintenbabies will still worship your slavemaster nintendon’t until the end of time

        1. While that’s true it was actually the manufacturer Nintnendo hires that was in the wrong. Nintendo had to pay though.

        1. Nope! I’m still going to donate my money to the flash card companies! It will pay off soon enough.

      3. Great news! While it does not look like they are getting anywhere with piracy in the Movie-industries, I’m glad Nintendo is taking on this! And I can happily say that I have never Pirated games before, except for Pokémon Emerald, which I already owned on the GameBoy. (I have pirated some movies, though ^^)

        1. Aww… look at the little idiot throwing away its money. I am here saving money and getting the same games for free!

              1. Yeah, because the government can’t trace anything even though you have NSA file on your Windows. Meanwhile, in your country, someone just invented the wheel.

                    1. I think you’ll find i win, because this guy and yourself are stupid, and i buy both Nintendo and Playstation.

          1. no you aren’t. you wasting your money by DONATING money to pirates which u said like a million times, u retard. i am the real pirate, i hack, i get money, i get you ass. i get hangbang games and i get fightstrongs.

      4. Good stuff. Fuck pirates. Ungrateful assholes, people work hard to create content, be it games, movies, tv, music, but people just wana be cheap assholes. Well fuck ’em.

        1. However when it comes to emulation or really old stuff, or online streams, like Dragonball Z, which is a bitch to buy in the UK, it’s made it’s profit (or not) by then, and nothing is ever produced again, and if a company is bothered by that point, then they should blame themselves for not making it accessible, like old Pokemon games ect. Nothing is stopping them to put it on the VC, their allowing that to happen.

        2. LOL you are desdcribing Nintendon’t right? Slave owners got a 0 score for slaveowning practises they steal youtube ad revnue and stole 3ds technology and got sued 30 mil i think u got that backwards but backwards is niormal in nintendope fantasy land

          1. 1. Don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about slaves for?
            2. “Steal youtube money”. What, money that’s made by youtubers using content they don’t have the rights to make money on? I don’t think you know the definition of stealing. Regardless of how dumb it was for their PR and image, and really the blame should be on youtube, not Nintendo, seeing as youtube should be laying down policies to protect peoples channel, but they won’t, because they’re bitches, but Nintendo still has every right, it’s irrelevant if someone says “oh but i play it, its my content, it’s my experience, to sit and react to a game, rather than actually be FUNNY and ENTERTAINING”.

            3. So out of nearly 7 billion people, only ONE person thought of no glasses 3D display, and there was no other way to do it, or any possibility that someone said “well 3D could work like this”, even though that’s what R&D and scienctist do with all their time, because that’s their job? Get real.

              1. And this is relevant or factual because?

                Nintendo buys it’s materials from third party sources. Essentially, what you’re saying, is if you went to a local store, and bought a product, someone can start getting in your face saying “DID YOU CHECK IF THATS SLAVE TRADE GOODS?!”.

                It’s insane, and fucking stupid. If the company that actually GETS the materials, doesn’t get them using slaves, then guess what? Neither do Nintendo, it’s common fucking sense. Unless the delivery guys are all slaves, there is no connection, it’s a retarded assumption. It’s just whiney activists, as fucking usual.

                  1. Well first of all, you wouldn’t even know. Second, your shoes probably are, as are the rest of your clothes, so get off your high horse.

                    And you proved by point with that comment, and again with the lack of a real responce.

                        1. not everything is made in china just the garbage products you buy. and if i were to buy something from china which i try to avoid, i will do it from a reputable company not a known slaveowner company like nintendo.

                          MIYAMOTO MAKES 1 MIL A YEAR AND DON MATTRICK WILL MAKE 50 MIL OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
                          STUPIDS JAPANESE SLAVEOWNERS

        3. If these cards are OK , then so is just running into a shop and taking their stuff….

          It’s outrageous.

              1. So in this “country”, do you pirate games before or after you throw rocks and other races and fuck your relatives?

                      1. agree, fucking rotted teeth and all, but ugly fat chicks. wow, so much to be proud of.
                        lol
                        sony wins.

                      2. Who said i wanted to live here?

                        I was born here, not really in control of my life as a foetus.

                        But at least here im not a ignorant asshole with less brain cells than fingers (depending on what deformities you may or may not have. You know, because of the interbreeding)

      5. Don't be an Internet retard

        Good for nintendo, of course I’d also be pissed if someone was making money off of my ideas, anyone else think that Nintendo will receive a ton of flaming because of this incident, ha, those pitiful trolls

          1. LMAO Just kidding!! I’m the gayest faggot on this planet! I shoved atleast over 9000 pirated games up my ass! Fuck myself! I’m going to cut my cock off and jack off to Justin Bieber!!! LMAO!!!

          2. ooooooh, you just mad because your fun was taken away from destroying good hard work they do. That mean no more homebrew for you. Also means you don’t get no pussy for raping by cheating in the games. So, you can turn your hacking little cry baby ass around and leave.

      6. This is good news. I like emulators though since some previous gen games like spyro the dragon is going for over 91 bucks on amazon. Sony is out of their freaking mind to sell a game at that price. I have Xenoblade and I will never sell that game, but even I think the prices their going for is really high and I want nintendo to have a digital release so more people can experience what I’ve experienced. We really should have the best of both worlds digital and physical except we should have access to all the games on the digital platform like steam does it.

        1. ….you seriously think Sony is selling Spyro on PSONE for $91?

          I can get the trilogy on PSN for about 20x less.

          1. Well that’s great, but it is that way on amazon for a hard copy. I do see the reason for piracy when it comes to region locked games though. I know all the reasons, but they can be worked around just like saints row 4 changes for Australia. That shit needs to die.

            1. Probably because Sony aren’t the ones selling it. It’s just some typical Amazon asshole.

              Stop pointing fingers, fanboy.

            2. Nevermind, sorry, i just checked. Yeah, why the fuck is it so pricey xD
              It is a collectors item, and it’s Amazon, sooooo.

              But still, $5 on PSN for all 3 ps1 games.

      7. This is good news, I don’t like people who pirate games, it makes them more expensive for people who buy them.

        1. I will celebrate by donating some more money to the flash cart companies! It will be all worth it in the end!

      8. They have to spend less time in the Priacy’s fighting and think a better way to distribute the product, here in colombia, we have to pay 1.5 times the price of the product (with the price of 2 games, I can give you the third free),

        The problem is not the money because here buys the s3 at $1k USD
        Another example is the eshop, the hack is necesary because we can’t pay 1, 2 or 3 dollars because (with their words) “The (fucking) eshop is not able in your country but thanks for your interest”

        The piracy is not the cause of the problem, it’s the consequence of a bad system

        1. That’s not the companies fault, it’s your economy, and the value of your currency.

          People in the UK and Australia always complain that “games are priced too high”.

          Blame your country, everything is priced “too high”. Your economy is just balanced that way, life gives you lemons, deal with it.

          1. No, it’s not his country fault. It’s everybody’s fault.
            I love Nintendo, but they need to come to SouthAmerica and change some policy’s for distribution. They need to began to sell officially products, with official prices, and promote their consoles they way Sony is beginning to do.
            Most shops here, import consoles and games, and they put their own prices.

            Another reason, is that Nintendo is region-locked! That’s need to be changed.

      9. Yo ok come on
        lets go
        A guy named Anonymouse
        Should be kept inside the house
        30 year old mental problematic virgin
        Watchin hentai all day long
        Only game he ever bought was pong
        Cause he couldnt afford Kong
        Thinks he can steal and break the deal
        But still at the moment livin in fear to gettin caught
        Plays cool and makes himself look like a fool
        Doesnt understand all his live has been full of emptyness
        Whole in his heart but bigger in his pocket
        yeah yo
        im on fire
        ideas didnt run out after all yeah
        i can rap and crap all day long
        so come on
        yo
        bye bye

      10. I really don’t mind mod chips and flashcarts for systems (gameboy, Saturn, gamecube, etc.) were games aren’t sold for anymore, simply to extend the life of the console and make them more affordable. But not for systems that are still sold like the DS and 3DS.

      11. Good. Pirates don’t deserve what they get. It takes years to make a game and you SHOULD pay for it, so Nintendo makes a profit, which is their goal. Anyone who pirates anything is either really poor, which wouldn’t make sense since they have the console, or really stupid. And neither are good reasons.

        Nice job, Nintendo.

        Anyone who disagrees will not be read, since they’re all a bunch of greedy people in poverty, and if they did actually appreciate video game companies, they’d actually BUY THE GAMES.

        1. Actually as someone who works in the game industry I pirate A LOT of games but all are games who aren’t sold anymore (I’ve got a big collection of old consoles all from a decade or more back and for some flash carts/chips), only second hand. Which if I made that game wouldn’t see a dime from anyway.

          After a console is dead any form of piracy is OK. It keeps the console alive (for the best example look at the vectrex/dreamcast). It makes people who want to play those games/collectors happy because secondhand is cheaper and it makes them more accessible. (in some cases everything related to the console was made public domain for that)

          The other side of the coin is what we saw with the DS, while the console was still alive. While it didn’t kill game sales it made them far lower than needed be. But also made very few games, that only came to some regions, more popular (999 for example, it sequel was published in Europe partly due to pirating of the original). Not to mention homebrew community.
          Sales really depended on a per person standard, some used it for testing games (due to shovelware/higher standards) while others (especially parents of smaller kids) used it for plain full on pirating.

          In the end the best solution would be trying to fend off flashcarts and the likes as much as possible in the lifespan of the console, but releasing an official one 1~2 years after the console is discontinued that keeps getting them manufactured.

          1. Well that makes sense. I was referring to when people did it when the console was still alive. It makes sense if they’re not selling it anymore, but like you said, the DS had a lot of pirating problems. Of course, the console’s going to be completely dead by October, when the pokemon franchise is switched over to the 3DS. So yes, if the game and console are still selling, then my somewhat harsh comment was directed toward people who pirate those, not necessarily you. I apologize.

          2. I work in the game industry too, as an artist and game designer. I also pirate old out-of-print games. It’s like having a library of the history of gaming on my computer, something that I can reference any time I need to. And to physically own every single one of those ancient games would be a practical impossibility.

            I’d kinda like to get an R-4 at this point because there’s a lot of cool homebrew for the DS that I’ve read about, plus a lot of interesting games that are totally out of print and unavailable for sale.

      12. Thats all? Meanwhile Nintendo’s paying like 25 million for patent lawsuit for 3ds or Wiimotion plus…?

      13. as long as you keep fucking with the consumer we will continue to hack your devices. simple as that.

      14. Well I’m an avid fan of piracy as I cannot afford every single game my kids want so if piracy saves me a fortune and keeps my kids happy, I’m totally on board!
        And to anyone who can afford every single game and wants to tell me that I’m wrong….go suck a lemon….your opinion means f all to me and so does company profit margins. If they made the games more affordable we would not have as much a problem as currently exists with piracy.

        1. I hate your kind so fuckin much. Go and make your kids happy in a way you can afford. Im tired for these “i dont have money i live in a ghetto” excuses. That doesnt justify piratism, you are still stolin stuff and i hope you get caught so you have to live your whole life paying some debt and all just so your kids could play games HEE-HEE-HEE!

          1. LOL! Well I wont get caught and as stated before…..go suck a lemon with those sour grapes hee hee hee.

            1. DO You really think you wont get caught, you are here publicly stating that you are on board with piratism. Just you wait till they track your IP adress and start investigatin. In the end of the day you are pathetic pirate, have fun payin those debts. HEE-HEE-HEE.

        2. That would be like stealing a flat screen TV and telling the police “But I couldn’t afford to buy one and my kids wanted one!”

      15. I have never pirated a single DS or 3DS game anyway… I did think about it though, but in the end the game I wanted got localized… Over a year after Japan… But eh… Still many games out there I want but probably wont get unless the region lock is removed.

      16. Pingback: Industrias japonesas recibirán compensación económica por deman... - Niubie

      17. What a un science piece of crap.
        Taking money away from so called “lost” sales.That has been proven a thousand times that they never exist. And yet, the blind continues to deny it with there believes that has been ruining people’s lives. And YET, Nintendo was doing fine already.
        God this ruined my day and I just woke up. (I don’t have R4 cards but still mad)
        And I think Nintendo was not going to go after people anymore as I heard once, unless they just mean people who buy these, not companies.

        This is sick (I mean the bad way) news.

      18. Hopefully Nintendo will use this money towards games. Perhaps use it to help pay off another company for a game like GTAV or FFXV? I’d really like for Nintendo to buy out Atlus. That would be amazing!!!

        1. That’s not enough money to do the stuff you want them to do with it. I mean really it’s a very small amount of money for big companies like this.

        1. No one is “in” this page. This is not Tron.

          Here, let me help you:

          “EVERYONE ON THIS PAGE IS AN IDIOT!”

          If you are going to troll about the intelligence of a certain group of people, it would probably be better if you didn’t come across like a drunken hobo.

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