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.<\/p>\n
A sales ban was issued three years ago, but it\u2019s seldom been enforced \u2013 Japanese police made their first arrest this year.<\/p>\n
Nintendo has been pressuring the government for quite some time to close the import loophole, but it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Perhaps if the ban had been implemented years ago it could have boosted Nintendo\u2019s sales, but at this late time it\u2019s unlikely to show much of a result, as there probably not too many new DS adopters.<\/p>\n
The UK banned sales of the cartridges two years ago, although their use is still widespread.<\/p>\n
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