Nintendo Files Lawsuit against HackYourConsole.com

The fight against video game piracy has been going on for years.  Now Nintendo has filed suit against the owners of  HackYourConsole.com.  The website advertises and sells Nintendo games along with devices to enable a user to circumvent the security systems in a DS or Wii console in order to play pirated games.  One example has the owner of the website offer an R4 device used to work around the technical protection measures used for the Nintendo DS systems as well as offering services to hack and modify the Wii in order to play illegal games.

The website also claims to be an authorized retailer of the as-yet unreleased 3DS gateway cards.  The cards operate similar to the R4 game copier for the Nintendo DS.  These types of devices allow the user to play illegally downloaded games and severely undermine the sales of video games from thousands of developers.

“Piracy on the Nintendo DS system has a huge impact on the games sales,” said Jools Watsham, co-founder and director of Renegade Kid.  “It can affect everyone involved, including the many honest players out there.  If independent studios, like ours, are unable to recoup the money they invest into game development, through the sales of their games, we will unfortunately see fewer independent games developed in the future.”

Illegal game copying is an international issue that continues to prevent the growth of the video game development community.  Companies like Nintendo, various law enforcement agencies and trade organizations continue to take aggressive steps against the continuing distribution of these devices.

If you would like to report game copiers or other piracy related issues be sure to contact Nintendo at 800-255-3700 or piracyscene@noa.nintendo.com.  For more information on Nintendo’s fight against piracy be sure to visit https://ap.nintendo.com/