i love the r4! i can get loads of free games and it only takes a few minutes
dont say companies are losing out because i wouldnt hav bought most of these games
nintendo should sell game downloads i wouldnt mind paying if it was cheaper than buying games in a shop

eamonn, kilcock, ireland

We bought an R4 to copy my kids games onto - brilliant when they do sleepovers etc. We only copied games they owned - avoiding the risk of them getting lost. Not every one uses the R4 card to cheat the system.

Mary, London,

If Nintendo charged a reasonable amount for the software, and also allowed multiplayer with 1 chip, then they would not need to worry about this chip.

Because they chose not to do the above we now have a pair of R4's and lots of free games, their loss, our gain.

Giffen Flardey, Sittingbourne, England

Yeah, I have to say it is pretty ridiculous to market a product and expect to turn a profit on it. Especially if your product is the best of its kind on the market. Why, they should go bankrupt and never make another console/handheld again. Oh, but then what would we play...?

Jerimiah, Lincoln, USA

They are losing out on money, but this is the only thing i disagree on as it could potentially (while talking on a larger scale of course) leave Nintendo out of business =\ but if people see a bargain, why ignore it? money is pretty scarce so if there is a way of paying less, then people will. fact!

Christian, Cardiff, UK

fair play to people that have got the R4! if it works out cheaper why not. people need to get real, if you dont have it, some other will!

KENNYKEN, London,

the r4 is fantastic bigger the gb on the memory the more games its fantastic 70 games for around £60 .keep the good work up pirates , all mine are crystal clear and work perfect , just shows how nintendo and the likes are making billions ,pure greed

geoff, harryville, antrim

The quality of the games at 30quid a pop is just not there, so i guess people will try out the games first on R4 and then maybe purchase.The DS is aimed at under 15's and in this world theft happens etc, why on earth is there not a deterent for kids to steel them of each other?

Brady, Bristol, England

Piracy is theft. Ya, I know, the idiots out there that suggest that "if things were affordable..." are getting in my face about this but the reality is if you can't afford it, don't buy it. The result will be that you either won't have it or the price will drop. Get Real, the R4 can be a tool, but..

Cameron, Toronto, Canada

Thats why PS3 has a new blu ray tech making it difficult to pirate games(not forever). DS should have done the same, use newer tech to force piraters to purchase newer gear (deterance).

However I am intrigued now. R4 sounds like a character from Star wars. Nintendo see it as apart of a Sith conspiracy.

Ali, Ape Island,

All I have to say is, if all things were affordable and cheap then there would be no piracy.

Pedro, Legaspi City,

there are legitimate uses for a r4.
while i admit that they are not often used, it is really the only way to get homebrew applications on a ds.
i own one, and i am able to use my ds as a phone, pda, and mp3 player.

Jeremy, usa,

i have seen examples of ds games being sold for obscene amounts less than we pay for them in the uk!! why, when the product is essentially the same, just the in game language changed (which you can do on any game cartridge!!) should we be forced to pay more often than not 2-3 times that of other countries??

wayne, cwmbran,

Shockingly, backup ROMS of games you own are illegal in the United States, which means that's NOT a "perfectly legal" use.

If there was a way to allow independent games to be played on it while simultaneously disallowing copyrighted material this would be a good thing, but as it is piracy is rampant and, as someone who supports the game industry, it sickens me.

Kevin T., Rochester, USA / NY

So its ok for Nintendo to sell DS games in india for $10 but charge us £25 + in the UK.

The greed of these coporations is staggering. If they charged reasonable prices for their products it wouldn't be worth while for pirates.

Corporation greed is the problem.

BichonFreeze, Newcastle, no

The R4 is sucks, those who know buy the CycloDS Evolution.

spencer, warrington, UK

I too, am an owner of an R4 device. It is a totally legit product, the way Nintendo can combat possible piracy is to take action against the hosts who offer the DS games for download.

The R4 can also turn the DS into a multimedia device, with the ability to play music files, view pictures, view documents and watch video.

As I said previously, Nintendo should take action on the sites hosting the roms, as any one can obtain them, whether they own the original copy or not (This is based on UK law, which allows back-ups of original copies)

Michael Fosset, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom

The "backup" argument is useless as the majority of people who use an R4 or mod their consoles isn't just so they can play backups and import games. Get your head out of the sand.

Andrew, Toronto, CAN

I'm very sorry to say this, but the R4 has a plethora of perfectly legal uses. I use mine (shockingly) to play backups of ROMs I have, so I don't have to carry round lots of little cartages. I also use Moonshell with it for mp3 and video playback. A lot of DS homebrew is also very useful and fun.

The features the R4 gives the user should have been built into the DS from the start.

Jhn Kershaw, Manchester,

the R4 isn't the first divice to do this for the DS, or even the best/cheapest.... It's nothing new and has many legitimate uses... I've owned an M3 (another device that does the same thing, but also GBA games) for about 2 years and its great... but I still buy games that I really like.

This is no different from writable CDs and DVDs...it just depends on the user... and atleast in most areas, you can't just walk into a store and pick it up off the shelf.

Jeff, vancouver, Canada

"Rewritable CD and DVD media has many legitimate uses. This product has none"

Apart from enabling the user to run legitimate, original homebrew (such as art apps, MP3 players, etc.), emulators and games, of course. But, hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a good rant, eh?

Craig, London, UK

Manna from The East. Thank You. Simple Common Sense Servering Friends what they Need/Crave/Deserve.

AI New Business Model for Business Deadheads to Stream into Flows.

amanfromMars, Seventh Heaven , Global Communications HQ

Rewritable CD and DVD media has many legitimate uses. This product has none, and is solely a tool for thieves and vagabonds. Please do not compare the two.

Dick Pound, Scunthorpe, United Kingdom

Seems similar to the flash drives for the gameboy advance, and the multicarts. They suffered with problems saving game data. Perhaps this will be the limiter on the R4.
Let's not forget that neo-geo cards, boot discs, cartridge converters have always been with us, and end users are as eager to challenge regional distribution, pricing and release dates as they are cheat publishers out of sales revenue.

More great coverage from tokyo. We love it

dan, london, uk

Julian De Cruz, Leigh On Sea, UK said "Tax paying, legitimate companies"
What planet are you on? no companies that big pay the tax rates that the rest of us pay. Those corporations have the same rights as people but dont have the same obligations.
The heroes that pirate are the only way some of these corporations are kept in line, you think goverments rule us dont be naive
viva le pirates

A J, Brixton, Uk

Like Mark Baker, I too am a software developer. However I disagree with his opinion on corporate copyrighting: Without protection of intellectual property rights, it simply would be no longer commercially viable to develop unprotected software. This would put the vast majority of software developers out of work, resulting in software development being carried out entirely by unpaid enthusiasts.

If all software development were carried out entirely under the OpenSource model, then there would be no large, integrated software systems at all: Take for example OpenOffice - this project only exists as open source because it is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, a company whose revenue is derived from closed source products.

Now look at the open source offerings without a commercial sponsor: Gnumeric, Abiword. Totally unintegrated programs that cannot seriously be considered an office suite.

Intellectual property rights drive not only the software business, but pharmaceuticals and media too.

BigE, London, UK

Radio Four chip? Allowing listeners to iPod continously? Free from digital rights and BBC Radio Player. Brilliant

Jay, Whittlesey, UK

Napster didnt even damage the recording industry as the forecasted growth continued as expected!

there has been several things the recording industry has attempted to have banned over the years through fear of piracy, such as the cassette tape, the video tape, CD copying, etc. but as now more than ever, theyre going strong.

piracy exists everywhere, but people wouldnt have bought most of the games they downloaded anyway, when games and music companies stop charging an unreasonable amount for their products, then perhaps piracy will fall. but piracy isnt a crippling issue, just as it wasnt when the casette tape (recording from radio shows) and the CD wasnt.

Tom, manchester,

I totally disagree with the previous 2 posts - the Chinese piracy industry needs to be destroyed. Thankfully, I don't work in either the music or software industries, however, what they are doing is destroying tax paying, legitimate companies. Why on earth would anyone want to develop the next big game, spending years of hard work and hundreds of thousands in costs only to have THEIR creation copied within days? Asian copyright theft will help destroy creative flair and innovation if not checked.

The Chinese Government a few years ago stated that it couldn't control the black market clothes industry, when attacked by Nike, Adidas and Reebok for cheap fakes flooding the market. However, when copies of official Olympic Beijing 2008 hats and t shirts became available - the markets and bazaars were all bull dozered within a week!

Julian De Cruz, Leigh On Sea, UK

Mark: so if software patents are eliminated, how will the dvelopment of new games be funded? Most modern games have huge development teams and take years to develop....how are these pople going to be paid for their time? You might yearn for a return to the bedroom coder days of the 80s, as a consumer of viddy games I certainly don't.

James, Leeds,

It may be a new device, but it isnt a new problem. People have been running pirated DS's for ages. And Gameboys, PS2s, Xboxs and every other console (handheld or otherwise) there has ever been. You've got to laugh at the way 3 adverts for it are displayed in the Google Ads thing next to the article though - hahahahah - thanks!

Marcus, Notts,

I am not a video game player. I am a software professional. I consider that widespread circulation of the R4 is a very good thing indeed.

Too much attention is paid to the commercial interests of corporations when legislating with regard to intellectual property issues. First and foremost rights rights & privileges belong to INDIVIDUAL S NOT COMMECIAL INTERESTS.

Elliminate all software patents & greatly limit corporate rights to control copyrights.

Mark A. Baker, long beach , usa/california

In my opinion, the R4 is to the Nintendo DS what the CD/DVD-RW drive is to the computer games industry, no more, no less.

Matthew Jones, Newcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom