ELSPA: 90% of American DS Owners Use Pirate Device
ELSPA: 90% of American DS Owners Use Pirate Device
February 1, 2008
An official with ELSPA, the European game publishers' trade association, has told a U.K. newspaper that 90% of American Nintendo DS owners are believed to be using a Chinese-made copyright-cracking device known as the R4 (left).In an interview with the Sunday Post, John Hillier, who manages ELSPA’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said:
Legitimate business is at serious risk from the R4... It gets around the protection built into the Nintendo DS to prevent playing of unauthorised games. The R4 in effect blinds the console and makes it think it’s seeing a genuine game. Trading standards and police are finding these devices in raids on people who sell pirated games...
The implications are massive. In America it’s thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s. Takings from Nintendo DS games in the US are lower than any other console and no doubt it will have a similar impact here...
The R4 has shifted balance of power in the piracy industry to the consumer — and that is hugely worrying. That’s why we intend to stop trade in these chips wherever we can.
According to the Sunday Post, the R4 sells for about £40 in the U.K.
GP: While I don't doubt that the video game industry has legitimate concerns about the R4 (see video below), the 90% figure cited by John Hillier is absurd on its face.
Seriously, does anyone really believe that nine out of ten DS users are jumping through these hoops with their handheld? This comment, posted on Next Generation by a reader, pretty well sums it up:
NINETY percent? As in a nine followed by a zero? I find that number completely impossible to swallow. That means MOST of the little kids out there who got a DS for Christmas immediately went online and bought a chip.
Stake out the Wal Mart or Target near your home, and take note of how many people buy a DS in one day, now try to imagine nine in ten of them even knowing what an R4 chip is. Doesn't work for me.
ELSPA is really overreaching in their bid to sensationalize this R4 boogeyman. I support their efforts to ensure that developers get paid for their games, but I suggest they make up a more believable statistic next time.
GP: I'm also wondering why ELSPA, which represents the European game industry, is issuing statistics on alleged American piracy. Why wouldn't this "information" come from the ESA? Why wouldn't ELSPA issue a percentage that relates to European use of the R4?
Early this morning I sent an e-mail to the ESA requesting clarification on this issue and will update the story when they respond.
Via: Next Generation
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Comments
I tend to download anything I'm remotely interested in to try out. If I really like the game I'll buy a copy of it to help support the developers. If I don't then I won't bother.
Theres also the ease of use side of things too. I don't really want to carry around the 10 or so legitimate games I own everywhere I go. The R4 fitted with a 1gb Micro SD card allows me to take those games everywhere I go without any excess bagage other than the one small cart in the hand held device. This is the sort of functionality I want on my next-gen hand helds too. I'd be much more receptive if the next gen hand-helds could download all their games from the net for a fee from the publisher/nintendo. You could also release demos of these games easily too.
I refuse to pay for a game I haven't played. I wouldn't buy a car I'd not test drived or a shirt I'd not tried on. The same applies for games. The R4 allows me to try before I buy with any DS game. I only wish the Xbox Live style demo system was more prevalent in other consoles to offer me the same option.
seriously, that figure fails outright without at least 2 independant sources backing it up, imho.
On the DS, I don't have a flash cart yet, but I have been considering something like the R4, for the use of playing Japanese-only games and possibly getting some homebrew apps for doing things like writing or scheduling on my DS, it would be handy to write my work schedules down with, and try out games before I buy them. Thankfully I have bought only the titles that I knew would be good or that I'm able to try thanks to being a GS employee, but I've also traded back some games that just didn't live up to par.
And quite frankly, unless I start seeing lower prices for these OP'd DS cartridges, and functional homebrews like ComicBookDS or Moonshell, ELPSA can take its fear-mongeting elswhere.
Oh wait that's right; because no one is stopping them and they know if you say something loudly enough for long enough people will start to believe it.
The main advantages of these flash cards are the ability to put a whole bunch of games on a single card and have built in cheat support (at least on the Supercard). Never mind the fact that you can run homebrew apps like playing movies and music. I use the DS port of ScummVM to play some of my old LucasArts adventure games like Monkey Island and Sam & Max.
Having everything you want to play on a single card is the way to go. No changing cartridges while you're crammed between two fat people on the bus. This is the exact opposite of the convenience a portable gaming system is supposed to offer.
There's no reason why they can't offer some kind of download service for portable games, and until they do, they can pry my flash card from my cold dead hands.
I guess the pirates finally wisened up and incorporated. I guess pirate labor unions are next. Who'd have thunk it?!
I might get an R4, though. It'd be nice to have some emulators and have my whole DS collection on one card.
Anyone can pull numbers randomly out their backside, but it takes a true asshole to get others to repeat them.
90%?! That number is insane. Maybe it's an inverse or a typo. I would have serious trouble with a number over 10%.
I had a neomax was a buggy $100 POS and you wan to know what I got it for,to play GBA games on my DS, since my DS broke I have been uninterested in it..I want to get one and a better device so I can test some DS games have better GBA compatibility(love save states) , if I find a DS game I like I'll be happy to pay 15-20 for ti like ll the used games I buy ^^.
If that is the case I dont blame people for circumventing the lockout. Just because one buys new hardware does not mean they should be forced to buy new titles or worse yet cant get favorite old titles on the new media. Let alone be forced to carry around lots of stuff when it all can go on one item. Moreover stopping people from developing stuff for their own use on hardware they purchased is also bullshit. What do these guys think they are Apple or something?
Anyway in general I the whole licensing and IPR paradigm shift in recent years has been a load of crap as far as I'm concerned.
What?
I'm sorry, but that's a terrible analogy. What about buying a book you haven't read or a movie you haven't seen? That would be much more relevant.
And why not rent games and try before you buy legitimately?
47% of all statistics are false. Including this one.
First, take a perfectly true statistic. Then double it. Keep doubling it until politicians do what you want.
If necessary, contract out your services to local law enforcement in order to have them be the ones that quote your numbers. That way you can then quote them as your source of information, and no-one will be the wiser that the numbers were made up by you in the first place.
Not that 90% isn't still absurd.
also, are they sure they are't mixing up China's statics with ours?
I am not going to downplay the dangers of game pircay, but it seems to me that he is exagerating to RIAA/MPAA levels with this statement:
I seriously find that hard to believe. According the the NPD, the life to date sales of the DS in the US are 17.65 million units as of the end of 2007. That would mean that 15.885 million DS owners have chipped their DS. That is way too much.
Consider that the DS is the most popular console with kids, I would have to say that anywhere from 70-90% of DS owners in the US are children under the age of 15.
But he also has trouble convincing me when it comes to game sales. I am having trouble finding life to date sales of all DS games, but they did acount for 21% of software sales over the year. That is over $2 billion dollars of sales in 2007. That is hardly a struggling industry.
I am also slightly offended that he assumes that almost every gamer in the US is a pirate in street clothing. The US is the seemy underbelly of piracy according to this guy.
I'm a tech-geek and I've never heard of an R4, neither have any of my DS-wielding friends.
90% is complete and utter bullshit and they only came up with it so that the number can be used to justify some new draconian piece of IP legislation (DMCA v2).
This is exactly the sort of stuff the ECA should fight against. Hear that Mr. Halpin?
Among my friends (adult gamers) nobody uses a modchip on their DS.
Considering this guy's ridiculous claims, I wonder if he took time to factor in price differences? I got my DS in November, and since I've had it I bought two games. Contra 4 for retail price and Puzzle Quest for $15 at Wal-Mart. Considering that buying Assassin's Creed *USED* for my 360 cost me about the same as those two games, that could be the error he's seeing.
The DS moves a lot of game units, but when your game units cost half of what they cost for the other consoles you need to be sure you're calculating correctly. If you just look at pure profit margins your numbers will be skewed...as I'm sure this guy's are.
Well, from past experience when the industry has the power, they just bend consumers over, so as far as I'm concerned the industry should work hard to try to KEEP our business, not lock us in an force us to buy from them.
As for this R4 thing... it kind of makes me want to buy a DS and an R4... I would love to have tons of old games at my fingertips, frankly, if Nintendo wants to beat them it's easy, offer a better solution. Provide people with the means to purchase and download old games onto a a cartridge through a Nintendo USB device. Screw laws that make it easy for corporations to lock down the consumer, they should have to fight to provide us with something, they serve US not the other way around.
Either way, this is the ELPSA, I guess they are paid to exaggerate figures.
Wasn't the PSone full of piracy and that made it sell like hot-cakes?
If anything, this is just making it look like piracy isn't hurting...
Oh yeah, and that poster that mentioned piracy incorporated..... lol
indeed he misspoke. It seems that actually, a whopping %135 of all Americans who own the DS are pirating games! I know this to be true. At first it seems that number can't be right, but it has come to my attention that 65% of all American DS's have been modified to run TWO pirated games at the same time, so we had to adjust the number somewhat.
Indeed, Piracy is rampant in the unwashed American soil. It has also been found to be a fact that every PS3 ever sold in the America also has a copy of every Wii title ever released. The Xboxen 3600s are pirating PC games, and every PC is ran off a pirated copy of Linus!
It's twue, it's twue!
Count me as one of the ones that has a DS and no R4 or anything.
Also you can use it to store many games in your DS at once, and backup/manage your save files via your PC, which is nice as often DS games only have 1 or 2 save slots. Also, if I choose, I can get hold of US and Japanese games that aren't released here in the UK.
If these functions were just included in the DS, then I'm sure the R4 would be even more unheard of than it already is.
By the way, I don't condone piracy. If a game is good, BUY IT and support the makers.
I hadn't heard of the thing before this guy opened his mouth.
And in my opinion to reach 90% you would need a person standing outside each outlet selling those things for 1-2$ or something like that.
Halo3 didn't reach the penetration this guy is claiming for the R4.
this is completely weird and so obviously false.
I'd trust a lot more a 9 or 19% but 90 is a bit farfetched.
90% of announcements regarding copyright theft are false.
See? It's like magic!
Gift.
What about themselfs. =\
I had zero intentions of ever buying any more software after I bought Clubhouse Games (worth the price of a DS alone). So, how is any party loosing money that I was never going to spend in the first place? It's like saying that my American "Life on Mars" bootlegs cost the BBC money, even though I can't buy or watch the series via official release in America to begin with
All in all looks good get a 2-4GB SD card have alil music player and a few GBA titles and maybe a couple DS games...mmmm yyeesss..... Iahte carrying around so many games...
Oh, there is a local college out here with a DS programming class, and the R4 is what is used in order to be able to run the assignments on the system. (yes, to take the class, you need a DS and R4, they sell them at the school bookstore, with other mandatory class supplies)
Here's a more accurate use of that number. 90% of the gamers I personally know own DS consoles. NONE of them own such a chip; I knew of their existence, and I know I've actually heard the specific term R4 before, but if I'd been asked this morning to name a DS homebrew enabling chip, I couldn't have come up with this name.
But hey, 157% of statistics are made up on the spot. For the benefit of the "researcher".
90% of users who would have been asked to answered a survey? plausable.
That's the only argument you could possibly make.
100% of all PSP's can play pirated MP3's and videos.
"Didn’t we just go through the same sort of fabrication (or “honest mistake”, yea right) with MPAA?"
That was my first thought as well. My second was, why is the ELSPA making any statements about piracy rates in the US, rather than European piracy rates? (Much as GP pointed out.)
This move by the ELSPA along with the recent childhood obesity program leaves me highly worrying about the fate of the European gaming industry.
If they start throwing around lawsuits like the RIAA, we will know where things are headed.
I just hope that the ESA doesn't start to follow suit.
This is the first time I've ever heard of it :/.
Considering piracy is one of those hard to calculate figures, I calling bull**** here.
I wonder if the ESA will retaliate against their European counterpart, we could have a feud on are hands! Or is it more like eating its own?
Way to lose your credibility... instantly ELSPA!
"The R4 has shifted balance of power in the piracy industry to the consumer — and that is hugely worrying. That’s why we intend to stop trade in these chips wherever we can."
God forbid the consumer have the power for a fricking change. For the record I don't own a DS, much less an R4. That said I already don't like this schmucks attitude for assuming the sky is falling if consumers "have the power" for a change.
I'm there with you. When businesses feel that the consumer having any power is a bad thing, that is when yu know that the business is going to die soon.
I really hope that the game industry does not feel that way as a whole.
They way you said it reminds me of an episode of Metalacolypse where they had an "expert" say "power goes back to the consumer" in an ominous way.
Most of my friends have DSes but when I went up to them and said "hey, check it out, I can watch movies and read comic books" they were completely flabbergasted. Most people that have DSes don't even know about the existence of flash cards let alone own them.
And yes I do have an R4. But I use it almost solely for homebrew and multimedia. The games I do play on it I either have bought already, will buy, or don't plan on spending more than twenty minutes playing.
How come so many people insist on pirating or emulating games instead of buying them legitimately?
I'm not talking specifically talking towards everyone commenting on this article alone, but it irks me to have people tell me I am stupid for using things like the VC or paying for the software itself.
I know some people who use roms but I just can't buy any reasoning they give me towards using it.
Note that I am talking about illegal downloads and roms only, not about homebrews and imports.
The R4 sounds awesome and I think I might buy one specifically to put all of my games on 1 card. If i try a game here or there before I buy, or want to try something regarded as interesting but not worth a purchase does that make me evil?
past 5 years the old version of the game should be put in public domain for private use.
I totally agree. Are there public domain rules for software?
i use a ds regularly, but i know no one who owns a r4, or any other hacking device. if its a wide spread use of 90%, i can guarentee its not that much
Do people from outside video games experience the same thing? Is there a similar issue with reporting about other areas. Could a chemist or nudist or body dismorphic person or doctor complain of the same thing?
So the question i pose is....
If the politicians, lobbyists and journalists get it wrong on a simple subject like video games, do they also get all the other stuff wrong too!
This might explain why the world is so f***** up.
I can't say I never pirated, cause back in middle school, I first learned about it and went crazy with SNES roms. But since I have gotten a job and having worked some in the industry, I stopped pirating entirely. It is my personal way of showing respect to the industry.
Having a claim that nearly all gamers of a certain console use a piracy device that they have to import and pay for is outright blasphemy.
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