Japan has finally all but stamped out the sale of R4 cartridges (used for pirating games on the Nintendo DS), by putting an import ban into place.
A sales ban was issued three years ago, but it’s seldom been enforced – Japanese police made their first arrest this year.
Nintendo has been pressuring the government for quite some time to close the import loophole, but it’s probably too late to make much of a difference now. DS sales have predictably dropped since the release of the 3DS, and R4 cartridges have been available since 2007.
Perhaps if the ban had been implemented years ago it could have boosted Nintendo’s sales, but at this late time it’s unlikely to show much of a result, as there probably not too many new DS adopters.
The UK banned sales of the cartridges two years ago, although their use is still widespread.
Source: Eurogamer
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