Reports last week quoting a senior ELSPA representative as saying “up to 90 per cent” of DS owners in the US are using R4 chips to “play pirated software” appears to be about as grounded in reality as sightings of the Loch Ness monster.
Actually, the reference to ‘Nessie’ is entirely appropriate here as the attributed quote originally popped up in the Scottish regional newspaper, The Sunday Post. As is often the case with such things, it wasn’t long before the ELSPA quote appeared on several other sites, including the respected Next-Gen and IGN websites.
Nintendo even felt compelled to deny the claim, telling Next-Gen that the R4 chip at the heart of the DS piracy claim had “not reached the mass market as indicated.”
However, ELSPA has since denied ever making the statement, and has reportedly told GamesIndustry that it “would never presume to comment about America.”
In fact, what really appears to have happened is that The Sunday Post has bodged together some facts and figures gained from a Singaporean website and then, for reasons as yet unknown, attributed an ELSPA quote to them.
TechRadar did contact ELSPA for comment, only to be told that an official statement would be released shortly.
