UK trade calls for total ban on R4 cards

Retailers have called on their rivals to quit selling R4 cards, after the revelation that DS software sales are suffering at the hands of growing piracy (MCV11/07).

SimplyGames.com – one of the retailers highlighted in last week’s MCV story – has already pulled the R4 from its website, and boss Neil Muspratt feels others should follow suit:

After a very open conversation with Nintendo we’ve decided to remove these devices,” he told MCV. Other retailers should follow suit, as it will only advocate the use of these products to the consumer.”

Play.com’s head of games Gian Luzio added: Piracy is not in the best interests of the games industry and, as an industry, we should make it as difficult as possible for these items to get into public hands.”

Amongst the worst hit by the growing R4 popularity has been the independent trade, which has joined calls for a complete nationwide ban.

Since the appearance of these cards we have noticed a downturn in the sale of our DS games,” explained Steve Pooler, owner of Birmingham-based indie Joypads. It is frustrating as we could make decent margins on the DS. Sadly this has now been eroded with the growth of these cards.”

Both Nintendo and ELSPA have promised to pay close attention to R4. However, Kim Bayley of the Entertainment Retailers Association feels that the industry needs to take action right now to halt software piracy.

We expected that the piracy suffered by movies and music would make its way to games, and it’s something we all need to get a grip on. The industry needs to be on its toes and take advantage of the digital models already in place.”