Nintendo Files Lawsuit against HackYourConsole.com

Nintendo does not mess around when it comes to video game piracy, and their latest attack is against the site HackYourConsole.com. The site promotes and sells unauthorized Nintendo games and other hacking devices. They also want your help in tracking down others. Find out more in the press release below.

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– In the ongoing global fight against video game piracy, Nintendo of America Inc., has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against the owner of HackYourConsole.com. The site blatantly promotes and sells unauthorized Nintendo games along with devices and services that circumvent the security in the Nintendo DS system and the 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 website operator, for a fee, also provides services to hack and modify the Wii console and allow the play of illegal software.

HackYourConsole.com also claims to be an authorized distributor for the yet-to–be-released 3DS Gateway cards. 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.

“Piracy on the Nintendo DS system has a huge impact on games sales,” said Jools Watsham, co-founder and director of Renegade Kid. “It can affect everyone involved, including the many honest players out there. If independent studios, like ours, are unable to recoup the money they invest into game development, through the sales of their games, we will unfortunately see fewer independent games developed in the future.”

Illegal copying of video game software is an international problem that continues to stifle the growth of the creative development community. Companies such as Nintendo, various law enforcement authorities and trade organizations such as the Entertainment Software Association, continue to take aggressive steps to prevent the proliferation of these devices on a global scale.

To report game copiers, illegal Nintendo software or other piracy-related activities, please contact Nintendo at 800-255-3700 or piracyscene@noa.nintendo.com.

For more information about Nintendo’s fight against piracy, visit http://ap.nintendo.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™ and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.1 billion video games and more than 655 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™ and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.

[PR Email from Nintendo of America]

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Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword save files repaired by Wii channel

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Dec 21st 2011 9:45AM

What's that, Link? You say your progress in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been halted by a game-breaking sequence of events? And that I must deliver expository text because you're unable to speak? Alright then.

Nintendo's corrective strategy for Skyward Sword, which will strike you as unorthodox and elaborate compared to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 patching procedures, is to release a full Wii Channel. It will repair (or effectively patch) save files created after the glitch has occurred. According to an announcement from Japan, the "Zelda Data Restoration Channel" will be available through the Wii Shopping Channel, from the Wii Channel section.

Nintendo of America has not yet updated its support page to highlight the new channel. At the moment, it's letting customers send in their save files for repair.

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Nintendo to repair buggy Zelda: Skyward Sword save files

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Dec 16th 2011 11:50AM

While Bethesda scrambles to control unforeseen events born from thousands of characters, objects and dragons interacting with each other in the sprawling land of Skyrim, Nintendo addresses a game-breaking error that occurs if you complete one of three quests in the wrong order ... and then talk to a guy twice.

"If you are experiencing this situation, we are able to repair your saved data," Nintendo writes on its support page for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. If you couldn't avoid triggering the bug (here's how), you can now send in your save file to be repaired. The company also intends to release "a program that will repair save data for those who have their Wii connected to the Internet." That sounds almost like a patch, filtered for technical terminology, but Nintendo only refers to it as a "program." (Aside: The mythical Wii game patch does exist in some cases!)

We'll let you know as soon as we hear more about this restorative download. If, in the meantime, you feel paranoid about Link's bugs, you can keep up to two duplicates of your save file -- just select "copy" from the main menu every now and then.

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UltimatePointer files patent lawsuit against Nintendo, and, uh, everyone else

by Ben Gilbert on Sep 27th 2011 1:00PM

It's been kind of a while since Nintendo was sued by someone for purportedly infringing on existing patents, but UltimatePointer LLC is doing just that in a complaint filed just under two weeks ago. The Texas-based LLC claims that Nintendo's Wiimote conflicts with its own patent (no. 7,746,321) for an "Easily Deployable Interactive Direct-Pointing System and Presentation Control System and Calibration Method Therefor." While UltimatePointer's patent was filed way back in May of 2005, it didn't actually receive official status until June of 2010 -- approximately four years after Nintendo launched its Wii console in North America.

Bizarrely, UltimatePointer is also suing, like, everyone else even remotely involved with the Nintendo Wii. The complaint notes that the various retailers listed (in addition to Nintendo of Japan and Nintendo of America) are liable due to sales association. In so many words, the retailers were involved in the "making, using, importing, and/or selling" of Wii "systems, games, and related accessories (the 'accused products')," and therefore are just as liable for patent infringement as the hardware manufacturer.

Even more bizarrely, the list of defendants includes a scattershot of retail chains in the United States that sell various Wii hardware, including places like QVC and Tiger Direct, but not, say, Amazon or NewEgg. The complaint doesn't request a specific award should UltimatePointer succeed, instead asking that Nintendo of America pay "a reasonable royalty" due to the alleged infringement, in addition to lawyers/court fees and "enhanced damages" owed.

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