Nintendo's biggest threat: R4

[Sonicslasher]

I imagine nintendo dressed as the police.. "POLICE OPEN UP! " *goes to child* "Do you own a Nintendo DS?! " Child : "Yeah" Police : "Can we see it just for a momment?" Child : "ah... ah... (Mom tells him to give them) okay..." Police *Gets the R4 Out puts it on the ground and starts shooting on it * , *Child Cries*


BEWARE OF THE FUTURE!!

 

[JusDaMan]

dumb ass ignorant R4 users!

thats all i have to say.

now if you get mad at that statement you are ignorant.
there are non ignorant r4 users also. just that ignorant out weight non ignorant 10:1.

 

[camx]

Blaming piracy is often used as a last resort of a company unwilling to admit it's own mistakes with it's product. When you can't admit your faults and unwillingness to change, find something else to wag the finger at, it sure beats spending money on fresh ideas. Why not give people a reason to actually buy a game? I admit i don't know what it would be. But certainly something could attract people to spend actual money to have something people with flashcards can't have. Then again I've owned a flash cart since.. 99? I spend all my real cash on retro games

 

[Joey Ravn]

I see what you're saying but with emulation, you're not getting nearly the same gaming experience as an actual DS, unless you have a tablet PC. Although DS emulators may affect sales, I don't think it'll deal a big blow.

That's the point: it doesn't give such blow. Flashcarts sure hurt the industry up to some extent, but so does emulation. And, if you allow me, I dare say that the used-game market may be included in that 'harmful uses'. Think about it for a second: you sell a game for, lets say, €10. The store re-sells it for €25. How much of that difference of €15 goes to Nintendo? Zero. Nothing. And the result is the same: someone gets a game and, although they are paying, Nintendo gets no profit of that transaction.
There's always been piracy, but saying that the R4 will destroy the industry is sheer, utter nonesense.

Remember, kids, don't copy that floppy!

 

[amptor]

nintendo are gluttons. look at their profits, I could give a damn if people use an R4 or not. They still get paid.

 

[Deleted User]

In my opinion the R4 isn't a big threat to Nintendo. Sure, flashcarts have become more popular nowadays but gaming in general has become more popular too. Just take a look at all those so-called 'casual gamers', the new market Nintendo developed with "Touch Generations!".
I hardly believe any of them are buying flashcarts just so they won't have to pay for Brain Training 1 & 2 -- and a lot of them sure think it's really inconvenient to buy the flashkit, microSD cards, maybe a card reader and then download a game and put it on the card with practically no technological knowledge.
My girlfriend for example could never be arsed to use the R4 I gave her if it wasn't for me putting the games on it and updating the fw etc.

The only real threat are bad games and at the moment the DS rules the handheld market for a reason.

I for myself will continue to buy games I like--though I don't buy all of them at full price. Just as an example: I own about 28 GBA games and the second thing I bought for my GBA was a Visoly FA, so Jumpman17, I really know how you feel.

 

[jalaneme]

nintendo make tons of money from all the DS lites sold, and that included all the people who use a R4 too, so we are giving nintendo are money in some way.

 

[Costello]

Well, maybe not for the DS, as, right now, the touch screen emulation is rather... hard to control. But for GBA, come on... I know MANY people that have played MANY (+100) GBA and beat them completely, using VBA.
Just give it time, and the R4 won't look as a threat no more...

Good point.. the difference between the GBA and the DS is that on the GBA you used to be able to emulate the GBA 1:1 and play games perfectly, so all you needed was your computer.
Now with the DS, people do kind of the same thing, except that they have to buy a DS console to actually play the games... see what I mean?
Still doesn't justify piracy, but at least Nintendo makes more profit off console sales.

 

[Sonicslasher]

Well, maybe not for the DS, as, right now, the touch screen emulation is rather... hard to control. But for GBA, come on... I know MANY people that have played MANY (+100) GBA and beat them completely, using VBA.
Just give it time, and the R4 won't look as a threat no more...


Good point.. the difference between the GBA and the DS is that on the GBA you used to be able to emulate the GBA 1:1 and play games perfectly, so all you needed was your computer.
Now with the DS, people do kind of the same thing, except that they have to buy a DS console to actually play the games... see what I mean?
Still doesn't justify piracy, but at least Nintendo makes more profit off console sales.

(off topic)
how did you get a music thingy?

 

[mikagami]

Their own fault for allowing it to be hacked so easily. If you had to solder a chip in the DS people would have second thoughts before modding one.

 

[FAST6191]

"I dare say that the used-game market may be included in that 'harmful uses'. Think about it for a second: you sell a game for, lets say, €10. The store re-sells it for €25. How much of that difference of €15 goes to Nintendo? Zero. Nothing"

I do not know about around you but given most trades seem to be done against trades around here.....
Not to mention if the companies expect me to pay for what amounts to a glorified rental (i.e. no second sale) then they lose all reason to complain in my world.

Back on topic it seems r4 is the catch all term: biro, hoover, mp3 (and by extension ipod), IBM PC (an old one perhaps), playstation (and even sega playstation)......

Anyhow should we all not be worried about lack of available firearms making the threat UFO squads led by illegal immigrants and xombie (yes with a x) Jesus terrorist terrorist pedophile/peadophile pedophile George Bush [insert generic fear inducing phrase].

 

[madmk]

Games should cost £4.99, or £9.99 for big releases, where you get books and things in it :-) Like Zelda. I'd pay for that shit. But, £29.99 is a bit of a joke considering I don't play them for that long before getting tired of the gimmick-stick.

MK Has been the best release for a while, simple arcade play. No stick shit.

 

[laminaatplaat]

I never got a game for my DSlite....

got the DSlite black for €99 (new), €10 for hori screenprotectors €50/60 for a r4ds with 2gb and €20 for the 3in1 Ezflash V...

I know i'm a horrible consumer, but i got them (nintendo) through the bad times, i got a lot of original games for the Gamecube and for the gameboy advance, it's a world of give and take

okay that was the worse argument ever

 

[Joey Ravn]

Good point.. the difference between the GBA and the DS is that on the GBA you used to be able to emulate the GBA 1:1 and play games perfectly, so all you needed was your computer.
Now with the DS, people do kind of the same thing, except that they have to buy a DS console to actually play the games... see what I mean?
Still doesn't justify piracy, but at least Nintendo makes more profit off console sales.

Well... The DS is currently being emulated at, let's say, %35. In a year time, probably and if it keeps the current pace, it will be around, let's say again, %65-%75, if not higher. It's a matter of time before it reaches said 1:1 emulation. The same happened with the GBA: there was a time were most games run at %50 speed. I remember playing Wario Land 4 on VBA about 6 years ago, with frameskipping and stuttering. But still, anyone now can now download a GBA ROM, VBA/No$GBA and play the game at full speed with no troubles at all... and sometimes even better than they would in the actual console.

'Nintendo is clever because they make huge profits with the DS hardware sales' is a half-true. First of all, as I already said, it's a matter of time before we achieve perfect emulation, thus rendering that 'argument' completely untrue. Moreover, you can always buy a second-hand console, from which Nintendo gets no profit. And, on top of that, if you need raw monetary value, €150 for a DS < all the money the company 'loses' with ROM downloads. It's as simple as that, although, to be truthful, Nintendo's market won't die because of piracy.

So, to sum up, mark my words: give emulation a year time. We'll see if what happened with the GBA doesn't occur again. It has happened to almost every single console ever: from the Amiga to the Atomiswave, including the Dreamcast, the NES, the SNES and, obviously, the GBA. I still don't see how a flashcart can be such a devastating threat to a company, but we don't take into consideration other 'threats', like emulation and the second-hand market. Because, and let's face it, GBA flashcarts have been around for AGES, but emulation has always been more popular. Maybe nowadays we see everyone talking about their R4s and CycloDS', but that's only because those are the best options. As soon as something free 'hits the market', most of those who don't have a flashcart will instantly try to get it.

Bah, my two cents on the matter. If you saw the video I posted earlier you'll realise that piracy has been a 'threat' for the industry old as the industry itself... but still, they keep coming with garbage like Horsez and Masterpieces like DQM:J

 

[Slipurson]

nintendo make tons of money from all the DS lites sold, and that included all the people who use a R4 too, so we are giving nintendo are money in some way.

Yeah but imho this aint just a "threat" to nintendo.. it is to all the third party developers out there.. who loose potential income on games they could have sold.

I used to "pirate" with no regrets when i was always buying the games i found good.. but lately, be it not so good games or just my lazyness/beeing cheap, it is just so much easier to just download and play through a game and forget about it, and the more ppl that do that.. the more money the companies will loose.. for nintendos/third party devs, there should be more games like upcoming Maple Story where you play online with a created acount like any other MMO for the PC etc,

As for pirateing, sure we can always say like the PC-Game/Music/movie Pirates always said.. i do it cuz the original is so expensive, tho as long as we keep pirateing the prices wont go down at all, nomatter how much we want it, publishers will just say "we loose so much on pirateing we need to raise the prices".
Instead i think portals like Steam and such will to some extent lower pirateing since the games will be quite easy to get and the price will be lower since they dont have to print DVDs and package etc etc..

My hope for the Wii/DS is that they will enable us to in some way download whole games and play them, not sure how it would work tho seeing as there aint no huge amount of internal memory in the DS for example, still for the Wii they could always produce a harddrive even tho they said they wont.


Damn i strayed quite abit of topic there, and no this aint no propaganda to get ppl to start buying games..

Edit: oh and what Joey Ravn said

and speaking of "used-market" how did Sonys "you are not alowed to sell your copy of the game, you only own the disc not the actual code" end up? =)

 

[cracker]

I can't foresee emulation ever putting even a tiny dent in the sales of the DS. Not just that being strapped to your computer while you play through a game is a putoff but you also don't have the ability to do one of the coolest things with many of the games -- play against someone on wifi (local or wfc). I don't think that will ever get emulated properly, if at all.

 

[OSW]

We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them. But we cannot smash all of them.

ROFL.

how hard is it for Nintendo to find the R4 factories and shut them down? or if they can't touch them in china, intercept shipments or block shops from selling them (if they can do that, who knows if it's illegal)

and that 34 mill thing was worded very poorly, even i misunderstood.

the main time i buy something is if it's got bonus physical content, like a limited edition coloured cart (they've never done this with NDS) or a poster, collectors item etc.

 

[theman69]

"So, to sum up, mark my words: give emulation a year time. We'll see if what happened with the GBA doesn't occur again. It has happened to almost every single console ever: from the Amiga to the Atomiswave, including the Dreamcast, the NES, the SNES and, obviously, the GBA. I still don't see how a flashcart can be such a devastating threat to a company, but we don't take into consideration other 'threats', like emulation and the second-hand market. Because, and let's face it, GBA flashcarts have been around for AGES, but emulation has always been more popular. Maybe nowadays we see everyone talking about their R4s and CycloDS', but that's only because those are the best options. As soon as something free 'hits the market', most of those who don't have a flashcart will instantly try to get it."
Playing games for DS on computer ruin the purpose, honestly who is about to pick up emulator for full touch games it's just not as fun.
When I found VBA i didnt think there was anything else...Now years later i fully understand the scene, i doubt little kids aren't going to buy carts since everykid nowadays spends a lot more time on their respective PC's "Surfing the Web"

 

[BakuFunn]

Wow nintendo is an idiot company. Why would they even advertise in a way, the FLASHCART? I personally am a cheap ass when it come to ninendo games. with 30 bucks a piece, i wouldnt buy it unless it was really good, or i really want it, like zelda, which i bought. One of my friends, i told him to get a r4 but he said it was too much of a hassle. The last game he bought so far was cod 4 for ds. I but lots of games for other consoles, like Mac, and PS2 (side note-Dirge of Ceberus is not that good) but only ones onder 30 dollars. I would ONLY buy a 30 dollar or more game if I really want it. I paid 12 bucks for elite force voyager (my fav star trek series) and it was quite worth it. Elite force 2 was quickly bought after. Janeways not in that one :'( Anyways, nintendo i think MIGHT be releasing that new DS with free demos downloadable online, and full games downloadable also. Maybe a MEM PAK for a other wierd slot can be plugged in acting as a memory cart, for more games. The downloadable games cannot be kept on your compy, and it would work pretty well. DLable Nes games and offical homebrew support might just make pirating end, and the DS more popular. Think of the advertisements- Get FREE demos ONLINE! Buy game in the comfort of your home! Tons of free homebrew games! People could buy more MEM PAK carts and put games on there. I would totally get that new DS. I would then buy a few MEM PAKS and put all my homebrew, and startt gettin games at the prices they sell to retailers. 10 bucks a game, pirating will not increase so much. Since the reason to pirate IS the price. 30 bucks a game? pfft, 5 games is as much as a console. The prices never drop also. Really, nintendo, use my new plan ! I know you are LISTENING.

 

[Jaejae]

When you think about it, Nintendo is making money from flash carts, I wouldn't have bought my DS Lite if it wasn't for flash carts.
Not that I pirate games or anything, I use my R4 just for Homebrew, betas, and music

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