90 Percent Of American DS Owners Play Pirated Games, ELSPA Says

[end_boss]

I would have to imagine that 90% of DS owners would either mean that either everybody who doesn't work for Nintendo owns an R4 chip, or that even people who WORK for Nintendo have an R4 chip.

 

[Echolocating]

In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s.

He is NOT saying 90% of people play pirated games. He is saying 90% of people who play pirated games, use the R4 system.

You cracked the case, mistwolf... or should we call you Encyclopedia Brown? ;-)

 

[Arbre]

No, no, no. You are all reading it wrong.

In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s.

He is NOT saying 90% of people play pirated games. He is saying 90% of people who play pirated games, use the R4 system. Which is a much more believable statistic.

One of the key things you should know if you're going to be a public speaker is how to speak so that what you say is what you mean. What he said means exactly what most people here are interpreting it as.

What he should have said, if what you're saying is correct, would be "In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users who are playing pirated games do so because of R4s."

Although there's a case wherein Maly interpretated the source, the wording clearly delivers the point the wrong way. Maybe wolfmist is right, but then the spokesman really sucks at PR. Checking what the source said:

But John Hillier points out such actions are seriously short-changing the games industry.
?The implications are massive. In America it?s thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s.?

Yes, tell me you think it means 90% of people who play pirated games with a straight face.

 

[Andy Chalk]

No, no, no. You are all reading it wrong.

In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s.

He is NOT saying 90% of people play pirated games. He is saying 90% of people who play pirated games, use the R4 system. Which is a much more believable statistic.

That's not what he's saying at all. It might be what he meant to say - I have no idea - but what he said is, "90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games."

Now, as HalfShadow and others are pointing out, the ELSPA is denying the quote was ever made, and are claiming the Sunday Post falsely attributed the Singapore statistic as a quote from Hillier about piracy statistics in the States. Nintendo has also disavowed the figure.

The cynical, conspiracy-minded jerk in me thinks it has a whiff of ass-covering, but honestly that number was so outrageous (particularly coming from an ostensible industry expert) that I have to believe somebody at the Post really screwed up.

 

[LyonLee]

So then this is a nearly pointless statistic, as it doesn't say what percentage of DS users play pirated games, nor how many people who have the R4 chip and don't play pirated games.
The title of the article threw me off too. It's badly worded.
All it's saying is that pirating is occuring and not much else. Seriously, from the wording there could be ten people total (out of several million DS users, and hundreds of thousands who have the R4 chip) who play pirated games, and nine of them have an R4 chip installed.

That, or a whole bunch of you are dirty, dirty thieves.

 

[Ninja Dodo]

Conveniently forgetting that such chips - I have an M3 Simply myself - can be used to run homebrew software that has nothing to do with pirating commercial DS games. While perhaps not as well-suited to other media as the PSP, I find it very handy that I can show pictures or video clips on my DS or use ScummVM to play The Fate of Atlantis (which I own on PC).

It hadn't even occurred to me that you could pirate DS games on it when I bought the thing. Ethical objections aside, I don't have time to play more games than I can afford, so pirating them seems a largely pointless exercise...

That, and I like supporting developers, so I'll be over here using my M3 Simply for entirely non-nefarious purposes.

 

[Aiden Rebirth]

how many grannies out there know how to torrent an sd cart?

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Hmm, also, making a news statement like this, when it's quite obvious it's a far less widespread problem, is it not just telling everyone 'Hey, you , with the DS, you know if you get an R4 thingy, you can download all your games for free, and that would be bad and wrong, you know! '

I personally wouldn't be actively giving advertising to the very thing 'destroying my industry' or maybe he truly believes it and figures at 90% it can't get much worse anyway.

 

[sheic99]

I bet the creator of the M3 is feeling fairly insulted right about now.

I have an R4 myself, and most of the time I upload videos onto it and watch it on the go. I would have to say about 80% of people who have a DS, have never heard of a R4.

 

[theultimateend]

90%? That sounds ridiculously high. Something tells me dude's got his rhetoric and his reality crossed.

Much like every anti piracy ranter on these forums.

Considering every game I've (possibly) pirated for the DS I now own a hard copy of (for the exception of the ones that I loaded up for 2 minutes screamed in horror and deleted) .

Likewise of the 4 gigs of space on that card now almost ALL Of it is legally owned music and videos now . I love having a portable player (I'm surprised Nintendo hadn't already done something like that personally) from what I know the NDi thing will have internal memory .

Whenever 90% of people are doing something it stands to reason that either its natural or somebody is lying out their ass.

 

[Blue Sonnet]

What - where - how?

I had commented on this story, but after posting it I've just noticed that this story and thread are over a year old...

 

[theultimateend]

What - where - how?

I had commented on this story, but after posting it I've just noticed that this story and thread are over a year old...

Haha I take for granted if people post on a thread its current >_> <_<. I fail too.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Strange, considering about 90% of DS titles are cheap shovelware. I tried to get my niece a DS game one time.... which was a nightmare. Game after game of Pets, Vets, Cooking, and Puzzles. Crap.

Happy with my PSP.

 

[shatnershaman]

Does this mean the PSP is pirated 99.999% of the time in the US since its considered a failure (which it is not) while the DS is a massive success.

Obviously the "stats" are wrong but I guess scaring developers is their job.

 

[theultimateend]

Strange, considering about 90% of DS titles are cheap shovelware. I tried to get my niece a DS game one time.... which was a nightmare. Game after game of Pets, Vets, Cooking, and Puzzles. Crap.

Happy with my PSP.

But that other 10% is well worth the purchase .

In my personal opinion of course.

The good games on the DS are REALLY REALLY good . Likewise the bad ones are absolutely terrible haha.

Although anyone knocking some of the puzzle games needs to actually play them haha. Some of them are very well done (and flash game addictive).

ANYWHO. I'd love a PSP if likewise I could get enough games for it to justify the initial purchase . Not to say it doesn't have enough, I just don't think I could reach that comfort zone without regretting the initial investment. Same reason I don't own a PS3, I know I could probably find enough but I'd have to do it quickly so as to not punch my own balls for buying it in the first place.

 

[vede]

Whoa! Thread necromancy! You had me going for a second, too! I saw that Joe had posted, looked at the date, and saw "Jan 31" (yesterday), and was excited. Joe had come back! Coolness!

Oh, wait, January 31... 2008.

Either way, that statistic is direly screwed up. Honestly, it seems like they're coming up with totally random crap for their statistics, but making it sound right to head guys.

I can see this being the result of finding the number of R4 chips created, and then saying, "x chips are in circulation, so take that's percentage of the number of DS sets in circulation, and you've got a piracy rate!"

I mean, by logic like that one could say that almost 100% of the people who play Team Fortress are pirates, because they all have an internet connection, and an internet connection can be used to pirate games...