Nintendo Files Lawsuit Against Console Hacking Website

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Nintendo is going after a website selling tools to pirating DS-Series and Wii games.

Nintendo of America announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against the owner of HackYourConsole.com. The gaming company claims the website "blatantly" promotes and sells unauthorized Nintendo games along with devices and services that circumvent the security in Nintendo's DS Series handheld systems and the older Wii console.

"The operator of HackYourConsole.com has developed a global business focused on selling unauthorized copies of Nintendo games and game-copying devices (such as the R4 device) used to circumvent the technological protection measures contained in the Nintendo DS family of hand-held systems," the company states. "The website operator, for a fee, also provides services to hack and modify the Wii console and allow the play of illegal software."

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The website, established in 2012 and based out of Miami, Florida makes no effort to hide its true cause: to unleash the power of your console. The site states that it specializes in Nintendo DS/DSi/3DS Flash Carts, providing a product portfolio spanning microSD cards, R4 cards ranging from the R4 Dual Core to the R4i 3DS, Acekard products, the Supercard and the upcoming Gateway 3DS cards. There's reportedly even a portable hard drive that's pre-loaded with 200 Wii games although that seems to have been removed.

"HackYourConsole.com also claims to be an authorized distributor for the yet-to–be-released 3DS Gateway cards," Nintendo states. "The Gateway device is promoted as operating similar to the R4 game copier for the Nintendo DS, which facilitates the play of illegally downloaded games. Game copying devices, such as the R4, severely undermine the sales of video games created by thousands of developers."

The site states that R4 cards, which it sells, are not illegal, but the software dumped onto them could be. "There's plenty of things that are legitimately free for them," reads the FAQ. "It's the actual DS games that you download that are illegal. Backups and NDS ROMs are a touchy subject. If you don't own the game usually a backup is illegal. According to the law, you are allowed to have the software/games (ROMs) as long as you have purchased and own the original copy of the game."

Nintendo said illegal copying of video game software is an international problem that continues to "stifle growth of the creative development community." Nintendo did not provide the specifics of the lawsuit regarding damages or halting the site from conducting further business.

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Kevin Parrish

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. 

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14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • FloKid
    Robinhood vs Mario.
    Reply
  • Fredrik Aldhagen
    Some of these do have legitimate uses, The DSTWO with its extra CPU can play videos and run emulators, of course you could do the same thing with even a fairly low grade Android tablet... That 3DS card is clearly just for piracy though.
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    It hurts - trust me, it does - to be unable to afford games. It is always tempting to get something for nothing. There are a lot of companies out there that sell you a hill of beans, rip you off, overcharge for utter garbage... but I will continue to say that pirating other's work-product is wrong, wrong, wrong. Whatever bad crap you may think they've done, however, bad a company is behind the thing you're after, no matter how much you may think they're overcharging, it's their right to charge whatever they want, and your only right is to choose whether or not to buy it. If you don't want to pay for it, you don't get to use it. It should be that simple.
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    Nintendo is 5-10 years late to the game. They have a legitimate point, but it's like Microsoft suing for Windows XP violations.
    Reply
  • ipwn3r456
    Only in America.
    Reply
  • madjimms
    First step- go to piratebay
    Second step- determine if its a good game
    Third step, buy game if good, delete game if bad.

    You can call me a thief all you want, but in the end I DUPLICATED data, not "removed" data from someone else.
    Reply
  • bustapr
    ^still sounds like a thief.

    how about this. buy the game, determine if its good, keep it if you like it, return it if you dont. is that too hard?
    Reply
  • rwinches
    A lower price seems to be indicated.

    It must be considered that a lot of the games would never be sold as they cannot be afforded, so in that case the revenue is not actually lost.

    Real data about what is the makeup of the downloaders. If the copy could not be downloaded or otherwise obtained, then a copy could be borrowed. If the game is download only or on your friends device then you could go to their house or swap devices or whatever. Don't they rent games? How much do they get from that?
    If it's less profit and they are happy with that arrangement then it suggests they could do well by charging less.
    The point is no additional revenue would be realized in that case.

    This was no different with movies or music initially, drm and redbox per song purchase does change things, but the idea that stopping all copying would cause a huge revenue spike is not necessarily true. People would just borrow a friends copy, make a mixtape or listen to the radio or wait for it to be on TV.

    What is the demographic make up worldwide how much can or are willing to spend on gaming? Android/ifruit games are cheap and getting better every day.
    All these CEO finance guys want to maintain the status quo, but the 'game' changes and evolves. How many times has the Angry Birds series been downloaded free or paid? True they can be sideloaded, but still I am sure money was made.
    Reply
  • itchyisvegeta
    It's very simple. Emulation is legal. Roms are not (unless authorized or you make a back up copy for yourself). If you sell roms, you are screwed. If you sell something legit that is used for emulation or can be used for copying roms, you can be sued over and over and over again, til you go bankrupt (even if you win every time). IE, Sony vs Bleem!
    Reply
  • kinggraves
    As someone who pirated quite a lot for the last generation, I have gone back to buying games. There is little satisfaction in beating something you stole. It devalues the experience in your own mind. If you pay a lot for something, you consider it valuable. If you get something for free it's disposable. I had some really awful games as a kid, some of AVGN's top episodes give me nostalgia. But I still played them because they were all I had. Despite the fact consumers seem to think the video game industry is a bunch of fat cats that drink out of golden goblets, the industry is suffering more than ever. If people continue to pirate you may not have games, good or bad, to play. We've seen enough studios closing this year. Demos are becoming far more common than they ever were and Gamefly is a great service for console gaming to legitly rent titles. What excuse do you have to pirate anymore? If you can't afford 15 a month for GF then you shouldn't have bought a system worth several hundred.
    Reply