Nintendo bricking R4 cards in new firmware update?

According to several sources, the most recent 3DS firmware update contains another anti-R4 countermeasure that will actually render your R4 card completely useless. That’s right, apparently the card will be bricked by the latest 3DS firmware. R4 cards have long been a thorn in the side of Nintendo, by making piracy on the platform easy and attractive. Although R4 cards do not run 3DS games, they still run the huge DS and DSi software back catalogue. R4 cards do have legitimate, legal uses, such as allowing users to run homebrew and ROM images of game cards they own, effectively reducing the amount of game cards the user needs to carry. The latest R4 cards however, make no attempt to hide that their target market is piracy, and even shamefully include tools such as the extremely immoral Wi-Fi ROM downloader that facilitates easy stealing of all the latest Nintendo DS games from their private servers.

Considering how blatantly R4 cards encourage and facilitate illegal piracy, it’s probable that Nintendo feels entirely justified in taking such harsh countermeasures against them. Of course, R4 owners out there might see it differently. I dare say someone will utter the words “class action lawsuit”, though best of luck with that considering the dubious legality of the device in the first place. For now, if you’re an R4 owner you may want to hold off on updating your 3DS firmware until a solution is available.