Delimiter » ds

Nintendo has sold 31,000 3DS units since March

Marina Freri — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:42:06 +0000

Nintendo today claimed to have registered record Australian sales for its 3DS portable device, within weeks from the console’s launch locally.

The Nintendo 3DS was offered to the Australian market on March 31 at the price of $349.95. The device was announced by Nintendo to be the first of its kind, as it pioneered three-dimensional video games, without requiring the use of special glasses. Nintendo says the device’s hardware is meant to give video games “true depth”: it features a bottom touch screen, equipped with a telescoping stylus, and a top screen which displays 3D visuals.

According to a media release issued today by the gaming company, the Australian market has welcomed the new device, with total sales of 31,000 units in the first four days of its availability. “[Nintendo 3DS] launched in Australia on 31 March and has already sold through more than 31,000 units,” a statement issued by the company said. “This … gives Nintendo 3DS the record for best handheld launch in Australia.”

However, the success of the Nintendo 3DS is still in the shadow of home console Wii, which, according to Nintendo, holds the record for “biggest week one” sell through for any console in Australia, achieving the sale of 32,000 units in its first week, and reaching 2.1 million in the years following its launch in 2006.

Image credit: Nintendo

GadgetGear lawyers claim no Nintendo piracy precedent

Renai LeMay — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:21:04 +0000

The law firm which recently unsuccessfully defended a local distributor of the R4 cartridge which allows piracy on Nintendo’s handheld DS console has warned the case does not set a legal precedent in Australia.

Several weeks ago Nintendo successfully took action against RSJ IT solutions, which operates the GadgetGear.com.au website, with total damages to be $620,000. At the time Nintendo said it was considering pursuing similar action against other sellers of devices that allow games to be illegally copied for use on its consoles.

But in a statement issued yesterday, law firm Berrigan Doube, which represented RSJ, said the legal issues were not decided in the case because it was settled out of court.

“It is incorrect to state that the court had ruled that the respondents had infringed any form of intellectual property of Nintendo through the sale and distribution of the RS4 chip,” the statement in the name of firm director John Cheng and lawyer Damin Murdock.

Cheng said that if the case had proceeded and the court had handed down a judgement, that decision would have offered Australia some clarification in regards to what he said were “uncertainties in Australian law surrounding the sale of flash cards in gaming consoles”.

“Interestingly, the question also of whether Nintendo is contravening the Trade Practices Act by employing the security measures that can be found in the Nintendo DS also remains open,” he said.

Cheng said Berrigan Doube had been prepared to battle the case, but Nintendo and RSJ had made a “commercial decision” to settle the case. “The reasons for settling this case are of course, confidential, but the commercial reality of litigating against one of the world’s largest gaming houses may certainly have a role to play,” he said.

The R4 cartridge — which is popular internationally — runs its own operating system for Nintendo’s DS handheld device. Individual games and other applications, some of them purporting to be legal, can be downloaded from the internet as small files and simply added to the chip’s storage.

The cartridge is then slotted into the top of a Nintendo DS as any other cartridge would be. It does not permanently modify the handheld console. It is sold by a number of Australian and international distributors

The news comes as Nintendo Australia appears to be ramping up its fight against game piracy. It recently revealed that it had successfully sued a Queensland resident for uploading to the internet a copy of its Wii game New Super Mario Bros a week before its Australian release in November last year.

The Queenslander — named by multiple media outlets as James Burt — has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay Nintendo $1.5 million. At the time, Nintendo said it would pursue anyone who breached its intellectual property rights “using all means available to it under the law”.

Nintendo has been contacted for comment.

Image credit: R4

Nintendo may target other mod chip sellers

Renai LeMay — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:00:52 +0000

Nintendo Australia today said it could take similar action against other sellers of devices that allow games to be illegally copied for use on its consoles, after it won a $620,000 victory against one such firm this week.

In a statement today the company confirmed news broken yesterday that it had successfully taken action against local group RSJ IT Solutions, which trades as GadgetGear and the individual directors of the company, Patrick Li and James Li. The company had been selling the R4 cartridge locally. Yesterday, RSJ declined to comment on the case.

The device — which is popular internationally — runs its own operating system for Nintendo’s DS handheld device. Individual games and other applications, some of them purporting to be legal, can be downloaded from the internet as small files and simply added to the chip’s storage.

The cartridge is then slotted into the top of a Nintendo DS as any other cartridge would be. It does not permanently modify the handheld console and is sold by a number of Australian and international distributors.

“Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise the gaming industry by using all means available to it under the law. In particular, Nintendo is currently contemplating bringing further actions against other sellers of game copying devices in Australia,” the manufacturer of popular game series like Mario and Zelda said in its statement.

The result of the court action was understood to be a settlement that came in the form of Federal Court orders.

According to Nintendo’s statement, GadgetGear had acknowledged that the devices it was selling infringed Nintendo’s copyright and trademarks and were “illegal circumvention devices” that the company will now refrain from importing or selling.

“GadgetGear and the directors will also pay Nintendo a total of A$620,000 by way of damages. GadgetGear will also be delivering to Nintendo all its stock of game copiers for destruction,” Nintendo said.

The game company said since 2008, it had pursued over 800 actions in 16 countries to stop game piracy, confiscating “well over” half a million game copiers for the Nintendo DS. The company said piracy affected sales, the price of video games, and employment in the video game industry.

“The existence of piracy jeopardises the strength of the video game industry overall,” Nintendo said.

The news comes as Nintendo Australia has taken other recent actions to ramp up its fight against game piracy. Last week it was revealed that it had successfully sued a Queensland resident for uploading to the internet a copy of its Wii game New Super Mario Bros a week before its Australian release in November last year. The Queenslander — named by multiple media outlets as James Burt — will pay Nintendo $1.5 million.

Image credit: Nintendo

Is Nintendo being too harsh?

Renai LeMay — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:10:50 +0000

opinion One can’t help noticing that the creator of such cute and cuddly creatures such as Mario, pink and fluffy Kirby and the Lemmings-like Pikmin has been acting a little like Bowser recently.

In Australia grouchy Nintendo has been serving out lawsuits, kicking down doors and dragging the evil forces of video game piracy into the Federal Court for a right dressing down.

All the court action reminds me of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but without the cute offsider who smiles at you adoringly while pulling the odd rabbit out of her hat. Wait, was that in Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice? Maybe both.

Anyway, if Nintendo was running for office in an upcoming election, it’d be on a law and order ticket.

The problem is, doesn’t it seem like it’s a little harsh for the Japanese giant to be throwing its weight around so much? Sure, video game piracy takes money from Nintendo and its game developers, but most people in Australia pay for their games.

And although Nintendo is completely within the law to attack piracy through suing those who upload rogue copies of New Super Mario Bros or sell DS mod chips, it’s not as if doing so is going to make the problem go away.

Instead of someone in Australia conducting such nefarious activities, it’ll just be a shady guy in a dirty brown suit in a less regulated country overseas, and many people will pick up a less than legit copy of Mario in Thailand on their way home.

In my view Nintendo would serve its cause much better by following the lead of games publisher Valve, which has this excellent Steam service with a stack of games accessible by download only and locked into its platform.

When you consider Valve’s regular sales and the fact that Steam automatically delivers updates and avoid the need to keep those game discs collecting dust on your shelf, many gamers I speak to agree it’s just easier to buy their PC games legally and economically on Steam than go through the hassle of browsing BitTorrent sites.

Nintendo has a similar service … but there are hardly any games on it, it’s annoying to use and you can’t store many games on your Wii or DS because of the miniscule storage space and no option for an expandable hard disk.

At the end of the day, all I’m saying, Nintendo, is that the law and order thing is fine … but maybe your princess is in another castle?

Image credit: Nintendo

Nintendo wins DS modchip lawsuit

Renai LeMay — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:13:00 +0000

On the heels of its $1.5 million victory against a Queenslander for uploading a copy of New Super Mario Bros to the internet, Nintendo Australia has reportedly won a landmark lawsuit against a local distributor of the R4 cartridge which allows users to pirate Nintendo DS games.

Nintendo has not yet responded to a request for comment, and the other party, RSJ IT Solutions, who operates the gadgetgear.com.au website declined to comment on the matter. The reported judgement has not yet been made available online.

But iTnews.com.au today reported that the Federal Court of Australia had today ordered that RSJ cease to sell the chip and pay Nintendo $520,000 in damages. Two affiliated respondents, Patrick Li and James Li, were also named in the case, and ordered to pay Nintendo a further $100,000.

The news comes as Nintendo Australia appears to be ramping up its fight against game piracy. Last week it was revealed that it had successfully sued a Queensland resident for uploading to the internet a copy of its Wii game New Super Mario Bros a week before its Australian release in November last year.

Image credit: R4