Nintendo Blames Poor Sales on Piracy

So sales are down because of hardware piracy... 

 
Sure.

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

When the DS and Wii can be hacked using SD cards, pirating becomes very attractive. Nintendo shot themselves (and their third-party support) in the foot by having poor security.

Not surprised. It's really easy to pirate games on the DS since there's no modding involved, all you need is one of the flashcarts and a microSD card.
 
Too bad, especially since there are lots of great games on the DS.

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

That is rich most people who are in the market for a new DS are going to hold out for the most up to date hardware. The just announced the DSi 3D so why the hell would you buy a regular DSi or DSi fatty. 
I cant believe this excuse from the suits @ Nintendo they are so full of shit. Couple that with the fact that they have sold MILLIONS of DS(s) of course your sales figures have dropped everybody already has a flippin DS.
Their strategy so far has been to flood the market with new DS hardware revisions and Color options 24/7. That well is guaranteed to dry up after a period of time regardless of how easy it is to pirate on their systems.

" That is rich most people who are in the market for a new DS are going to hold out for the most up to date hardware. The just announced the DSi 3D so why the hell would you buy a regular DSi or DSi fatty. I cant believe this excuse from the suits @ Nintendo they are so full of shit. "

"Please read the actual article before posting sir. "

" @Elazul said:

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

Hey, so you couldn't bother to fucking read. Let me help you out.  Two sentences in. I know, tl:dr. Here you are. 

"   The company has convinced eBay and Amazon to  stop carrying the R4 chips that allow the use of homebrew and pirated software on the Nintendo DS and recently  settled a million-dollar lawsuit against an Australian man who put a copy ofSuper Mario Bros. Wii online for download."  "

" @Elazul said:

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

Please read the actual article before posting sir. "

Sounds right to me

" @ryanwho:  I did boss "

Being a European, I fucking love that the sales drop. The crap you serve isn't worth the increased price we get with the Euro, nor the price you ask in America!
To top it off I recently bought an Acekard so I take it Nintendo isn't doing it's job well either... eBay and Amazon aren't the problem, they are means for the REAL supplier to offer their product on another medium.

" @Elazul:  Just so you know, it's not about hardware or emulators, it's about software piracy. "

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that piracy has hurt their hardware sales. Piracy reduces the amount of decent games released for it per year, and that decreases the odds of having enough interest to upgrade ones DS. Mario Clock didn't exactly light the world on fire after all.

" When the DS and Wii can be hacked using SD cards, pirating becomes very attractive. Nintendo shot themselves (and their third-party support) in the foot by having poor security. "

I thought DS piracy had been going on for ages.  Why should it count for such a sudden drop now?

It's all shovelware, anyway.

" @Elazul: The R4 is a flashcart that enables you to download and play pirated copies of DS games. Nintendo sells DS games, therefore when people pirate them instead of buy them, sales decrease. It's not a hardware/emulation issue at all. "

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

" I thought DS piracy had been going on for ages.  Why should it count for such a sudden drop now? "

" @Jimbo said:

" I thought DS piracy had been going on for ages.  Why should it count for such a sudden drop now? "

This is the bit I don't get. It isn't like piracy has become easier recently, as far as I'm aware. Even if Nintendo is just spewing excuses, the fact that sales dropped that dramatically in only one region is an intriguing statistic. "

I'd believe it, but I don't know why they suddenly started complaining about it. Especially after HeartGold and SoulSilver so successfully blocked out a good deal of chips from running the game well, including the R4. In fact, a lot of recent DS games seem to block out the R4 pretty well. 
 
Also it's funny, the chip pictured in the article is actually a faked clone chip of the R4. There's a ton of those too. Piracy of piracy... I bet it stings for them.  Also the DS homebrew scene is such crap, that noone can even use the homebrew "excuse" when buying one. 

The DS and Wii still print money.  They might be losing sales on piracy.  But they are probably both still outselling 360 and PS3.  It's a problem, but definitely not going to matter much.

The Wii & DS definitely suffer one way or the other from rampant piracy levels.

That, and bad games. You can't blame it on piracy alone. They just aren't putting it out there.

" That, and bad games. You can't blame it on piracy alone. They just aren't putting it out there. "

maybe because the games are bad on the DS. their sales are great when the games first come out. the people that wanted the game already have the game so no need to buy another one.

" @Gspoon said:

" @ryanwho:  I did boss "

No, because you're talking about hardware and the article only mentions software. So you didn't read. Or you read, then imagined an additional paragraph up and responded to that. "

" @damnboyadvance said:

" That, and bad games. You can't blame it on piracy alone. They just aren't putting it out there. "

We are talking about the DS in this conversation. The DS has arguably the best lineup of games this generation. It isn't a matter of bad games. "

" @AgentJ said:

" @damnboyadvance said:

" That, and bad games. You can't blame it on piracy alone. They just aren't putting it out there. "

We are talking about the DS in this conversation. The DS has arguably the best lineup of games this generation. It isn't a matter of bad games. "

There's nothing really new out that people genuinely care about.  The only game I can think of that was recent was WarioWare DIY.  "

Piracy is the worst and most overused excuse for poor sales on anything.  Good games that have a broader commercial interest sell well (as Agent J points out).  Niche games sell okay and crap games don't sell (with exceptions - like Just Dance).  Make a good game, market it well and it will generally sell well.  As long as companies delude themselves and feel sorry for themselves instead of constructively working towards sales, they will never get it. 
 
The DS is coming to the end of its life, so some sales drops are inevitable.  The ratio of crap to good on the Wii is not balanced.

I wonder what will be the cause to blame when piracy becomes almost inexistent... 

" I wonder what will be the cause to blame when piracy becomes almost inexistent...  "

I blame their poor sales on mediocrity. Heyo!

" @Gspoon:  ...because you can easily play hacked games on them. Duh.   And yeah, it's great that the 3ds is coming out soon, but honestly that will probably be hacked within the first month as well. It's a valid problem.   The real issue is, do you care or not? "

It isn't piracy if you own the game and want to play it on your computer

" @Elazul said:

" So hardware sales are down because of piracy...   Sure. "

I know you're trying to save it saying what you meant with this and that in later posts but that sentence has no room for varying interpretations. It's a very simple one. Hardware sales down. Because of piracy. That is not in any way implied in the article. Nice try, but ryanwho was right here. Read before posting. "

" @Mesoian said:

" @Gspoon:  ...because you can easily play hacked games on them. Duh.   And yeah, it's great that the 3ds is coming out soon, but honestly that will probably be hacked within the first month as well. It's a valid problem.   The real issue is, do you care or not? "

That is one reason but apparently Nintendo suck at Anti-Piracy measures and they know loyalist will buy anything with a big ed N on it. I am sure It will be hacked in no time. Even if they shut down the R4 completely dose not matter it has been eclipsed by other card for a long time anyways.   I dont care one way or the other I gave my ds to my brother after he broke his. The only thing that still gets me is the "lost sales bit" "

This is such bullshit and Nintendo knows it. You want to know why the Wii is suffering from poor software sales? It has the lowest attach rate out of all consoles that's why. Nintendo shot itself in the foot by marketing the Wii to an audience that is not interested in picking up the latest and greatest games each month, rather they want the Wii for things like Wii Fit or Wii Sports, both of which end up being the only games some people buy for the system.
 
I'm so tired of companies using piracy as a scapegoat for their own shortcomings and mistakes.

How can they blame piracy when they don't have any games to pirate?

"This is such bullshit and Nintendo knows it. You want to know why the Wii is suffering from poor software sales? It has the lowest attach rate out of all consoles that's why. Nintendo shot itself in the foot by marketing the Wii to an audience that is not interested in picking up the latest and greatest games each month, rather they want the Wii for things like Wii Fit or Wii Sports, both of which end up being the only games some people buy for the system.  I'm so tired of companies using piracy as a scapegoat for their own shortcomings and mistakes. "

" @damnboyadvance said:

" That, and bad games. You can't blame it on piracy alone. They just aren't putting it out there. "

We are talking about the DS in this conversation. The DS has arguably the best lineup of games this generation. It isn't a matter of bad games. "

" @Gspoon said:

" @Mesoian said:

" @Gspoon:  ...because you can easily play hacked games on them. Duh.   And yeah, it's great that the 3ds is coming out soon, but honestly that will probably be hacked within the first month as well. It's a valid problem.   The real issue is, do you care or not? "

That is one reason but apparently Nintendo suck at Anti-Piracy measures and they know loyalist will buy anything with a big ed N on it. I am sure It will be hacked in no time. Even if they shut down the R4 completely dose not matter it has been eclipsed by other card for a long time anyways.   I dont care one way or the other I gave my ds to my brother after he broke his. The only thing that still gets me is the "lost sales bit" "

Were you, the last two generations (if you were born at the time) saying shit like "apparently Sony suck at Anti-Piracy measures and they know loyalist will buy anything with a big SCE on it"? Stop using circumstancial random bullshit to fuel your console wars people. The DS has a great library of first & 3rd party games, many not so successful and many very successful. Piracy is a factor, but not the defining one I'm sure. "

 @ArbitraryWater:  It already is, but thanks for the sentiment.