> A tiny piece of plastic is making software theft simple – and it's
> costing the games industry a fortune. Toby Green reports

> Wednesday, 8 October 2008
> The R4 enables the user to play pirated games from the internet which
> can be downloaded for free

> The R4 enables the user to play pirated games from the internet which
> can be downloaded for free

> Think of a pirate and it's likely that an image of a bandanna-clad,
> eye-patch sporting villain springs to mind. But these days, piracy has
> moved out of the high seas and into our homes. For millions of people,
> downloading an album for free or buying knock-off DVDs in the pub is a
> normal part of life, with no yo ho ho-ing required.

> Until recently, the world of video games had been one industry that
> had found itself relatively untouched. The methods required to play
> most pirated games on consoles are too risky and technical to have
> seeped into the mainstream. Now, however, consoles are in the pirates'
> sight – and it's all down to a small piece of plastic, no bigger than
> a couple of centimetres squared.

> The R4 is a tiny Chinese-made device – costing around £14 – that for
> more than seven million owners of Nintendo's hand-held console, the
> DS, has blown wide open its capabilities. Combined with a small memory
> card and plugged into the back of the DS, it enables the console to
> play MP3s and videos, as well as store copies of games you already
> own.

> Crucially, however, it also enables the user to play pirated games
> from the internet; games which don't have to be brought from a dodgy
> man in a pub, but can be downloaded for free. Add to this that it's
> simple to use, and available through retailers such as Amazon, and you
> can see why the R4 and devices similar to it are bringing video game
> console piracy to the mainstream.

> "There has always been an undercurrent of piracy in the console
> market, but it's more of a hardcore pursuit," says Tim Ingham, the
> online editor of gaming magazine, MCV. "You usually need to 'mod' a
> console to really take advantage – which invalidates the warranty and
> can easily go wrong. It usually involves some kind of hardware
> modification, soldering and more."

> Tim calls the R4 the "most official-feeling" piracy product he has
> seen for the DS and this, along with its ease of use and availability,
> has attracted people, such as parents, who would never have considered
> pirating a computer game before. The fact that it can be brought from
> such mainstream websites as Amazon means that many do not even realise
> its illicit nature.

> Nick Welsh has two young children who love their computer games and
> own a Nintendo DS. He heard about the device from another parent while
> on holiday. For Welsh, buying a R4 solved both a logistical and a
> financial problem. "The trouble with kids is you pay £20 or £30 for a
> game, and they could only play it once," he says. "Let's say I sit
> down and download 10 new games, the way it ends up is they'll only
> really play one or two or those, and the others get replaced. I
> wouldn't be able to afford that number of games."

> Since all the games can be stored on one memory card, which stays in
> the device, it also offers convenience. "You can have 70 or 80 games
> on a 2GB card," says Welsh, "and they're all on the back of the
> machine. There's no fiddling around with cartridges – it's all there
> to hand."

> Unsurprisingly, the games industry is not taking this lying down. The
> Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA)
> estimates that piracy costs the industry £3bn per year, while Nintendo
> said it lost £560m last year.

> Jodi Daugherty, Senior Director for Anti-Piracy at Nintendo, has been
> tackling pirates for 14 years and believes the fight against the R4 is
> one of the most challenging she has faced. "What is different with
> these devices is how they're distributed and the impact they have with
> regards to the internet," she says.

> As well as issuing warning letters to the websites on which the games
> are hosted, Nintendo is also targeting both the Chinese manufacturers
> and the distributors who sell the devices, and have conducted several
> raids on factories. Last July, Nintendo – along with some 50 game
> producers – launched a lawsuit in Japan against distributors of the R4
> and similar devices.

> The distributors argue that devices such as the R4 are legal in their
> own right. One online vendor selling the device even has a disclaimer,
> stating: "By visiting and making any purchase from our site, we assume
> that you will not use such products in any way that violates
> international copyright laws. It is the sole responsibility of the
> buyer to comply with the laws of their country."

> However, Daugherty points out that, in order to enable the games to be
> played on the DS, the R4 has to circumvent the built-in security
> software designed to stop this. Daugherty also says that Nintendo are
> working with online retail giants Amazon to "curtail the global sales/
> distribution of game copying devices which violate our intellectual
> property rights".

> Of course, a close eye is being kept on the music and film industry,
> neither of which can claim to have solved the issue. "The games
> industry is certainly more aware of how things can go wrong – many
> publishers and developers often mention how they've seen it go wrong
> in the music world, and that they won't make the same mistakes," says
> Ingham.

> Electronic Arts is one company who have found out the effects of a
> backlash. When their eagerly awaited God game, Spore, was released
> last month they included a piece of digital rights management – or DRM
> - software designed to prevent the game being pirated. They are now
> facing legal action from gamers in California, who claim the software
> can't be uninstalled – and, despite all this, the game has been
> pirated anyway. However, Ingham does feel lessons have been learned.
> "I think the biggest difference is that within these age-old industry
> giants, an understanding that things will have to change sits
> alongside that fear. That's something music in particular never quite
> appreciated. They tried to control the uncontrollable."

> It's not only the game publishers who have reacted to the R4. In July,
> independent gaming retailers called for a ban on selling the device,
> after reporting drops in DS software sales. Still, just as consoles
> and software become more and more advanced, so will the methods used
> by the pirates. "Many believe that the threat of piracy will
> eventually not only move games online," says Ingham, "but change the
> transaction between player and seller altogether. In the casual games
> sphere, it is already popular, for example, for the owners of games to
> give them away free, entirely supported by in-game ads."

> Welsh agrees that a different approach would make him reconsider his
> position. "If there was some sort of iTunes equivalent where it was
> relatively easy and you could try a game for a week for a quid, and
> pay another four quid to keep it, then I think it's likely I would use
> it," he says.

> It may be too late – the R4 has brought console piracy into the
> mainstream, and the industry will have a tough time trying to get it
> back into the shadows.

> Levelling the score: The fight against fakes

> Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure (PC) 1989

> An early tactic used by videogame makers was to use a game's user
> manual as a rudimentary anti-piracy device, with players forced to
> enter information in the game that could only be garnered from the
> booklet. For their Graphic Adventure, based on the third Indiana Jones
> film, Lucasfilm Games came up with an ingenious way to combine this
> with the in-game puzzles. They originally included a copy of the Grail
> Diary of Henry Jones Sr, which plays a large role in the film, in the
> box. As well as being a good read, the diary contained various clues
> which were required by certain puzzles.

> The Secret of Monkey Island (PC) 1990

> Another graphic adventure from Lucasfilm Games and another ingenious
> method to defeat those who wished to play the game for free. Each game
> included a code wheel entitled "Dial-a-Pirate", which had the upper
> and lower halves of pirates' heads on the outer and inner circles
> respectively. The game would show a face and ask you to make it on the
> wheel, requiring you to then type in the year that would be revealed.

> Half-Life 2 (PC) 2004

> Clearly, illegal downloaders couldn't wait to get their hands on one
> of the most eagerly-awaited sequels of all time, so its developer,
> Valve, decided to coincide the launch of the follow-up to Half-Life
> with the official launch of Steam, a digital distribution system.
> Users who installed Half-Life 2 – whether they had downloaded it or
> brought a physical copy – were required to be online to