Japan court has banned sale of DS R4 flash carts under the pressure of Nintendo and 54 game develope companies. All R4 trade in Japan are regarded as illegal conduct and the deadline is 27th, Feb. Now though few days have gone by, we notice that there’re still some shops in Akiba clear old but the last R4 stock in a hurry. We will never see such kind of scene in Japan in future, so the victory of Nintendo symbolizes an end, as well as a beginning, signifying renewal, as well as change.

Four months ago, when people discussing about how to play tricks on SD slot of DSi,  all eyes directed their rays on the flashcards, speculating what would happen to trigger a new storm between this outstanding handhold console and its rivals. We believe that there should be an end for this endless battle, but who knows it comes so fast without any premonition. All things begin to turn round, today all R4 related shops in Akiba roll up their slogans and have to go under,even  Japan Yahoo starts to set barrier for all kinds of flashcards. The key word “Majikon(マジコン, flashcard in Japanese)” is deleted as the forbidden word in its online shop. We do not know what Nintendo will act in its next step, however, the fact of R4’s force-out is too amazing to accept.

Well, this may take some relationships with Dragon Quest IX’s delay. Now it is more than what we can expect. The latest counterattack of Nintendo begins with Mario and Luigi’s RPG 3, then turns into a thorough ban.

It’s no bad for gamers to keep away from flashcard in the piont of view of both game developers and gamers themselves. A man is willing to pay for his favourite game as well as the approval to its developer. Perhaps by using genuine software, game players will get themselves involved in one game intently, compare with the time when they can get baskets of new games in a day and just throw them into wastebin after 5-min playing. Do you want your game to get more attention and make better sale supposing if you are a game director? None of us will be happy to see his effort is simply nibbled by a copycat or something else. On the other hand, it is really an economical way choosing flashcard kit as a versatile tool which can play game, view comic, listen to music, run homebrew and so on. So the result is, we have both genuine game users and flashcard users. Facing the reality of R4’s status, what will the two groups do? Game industry progress is driven by the demand of market, more console and software companies may follow the rules if Nintendo gives the first powerful stirke against pirate, let’s wait for DSi, PSP2 or even Wii2, who knows the future turns to be?

Via: www.akibablog.net