Japanese Hits Piracy by Banning R4 Cartridges

The government authorities in Japan have banned the import of flash cartridges, best known as R4, for use with handheld gaming consoles, in an effort to limit the impact of piracy on the older DS and the new 3DS line of devices from Nintendo.

In Japan, it was illegal to sell the R4 cartridges at local retail, but now gamers will also be unable to legally import them from abroad, according to a report from Kotaku.

The big problem is that the measure can drive down piracy for handheld devices, even if some gamers defy bans and obtain cartridges illegally, but it will also affect those who want to run homebrew content on them.

Nintendo, which has recently failed to post very good financial results, might see a welcomed boost in overall game sales in Japan.