R4 won’t work on DSi–for now

If you’re using an R4 cart for your DS Lite, then brace yourself for the news—the current crop of flash carts don’t work on Nintendo’s spanking new DSi handheld. To make things worse for flash cart owners, Nintendo has confirmed to trade publication MCV that R4, and most likely other similar products, wouldn’t work on the DSi.

Given the history between Nintendo and flash carts, the outcome doesn’t come as a surprise. However, while flash carts don’t currently work on the DSi, expect that it won’t stay this way for long. Based on the embedded video below, a successful DSi hack already exists.

Does piracy hurt the industry as a whole? Of course it does, but flash carts aren’t the sole reason why DS game sales could be better. Let’s not forget that the video games industry has existed for over 30 years, and its biggest crash was caused by several factors, including a) an influx of consoles and b) bad games—not piracy.

Isn’t it possible that DS sales aren’t up to snuff because there are just too many bad games available in the handheld?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!