Today (July 29, 2008), Nintendo and 54 Japanese software makers filed a lawsuit against five Japanese companies which have been distributing R4 DS units and similar slot-1 devices. The five companies have reportedly been importing the devices and selling them to the public.

This news comes on the heels of retailers in the UK asking for R4 cards to be banned. According to MCV, retailers in the UK are noticing a decrease in DS game sales and are blaming the use of piracy devices like the R4. Sure, its the fault of pirates. It isn’t because games are much more expensive in Europe than in the US so people may be a bit more choosy concerning purchases. For example, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training aka Brain Age is £14.98/$29.87, Mario Kart DS is £24.98/$49.82 and Harvest Moon DS is £28.48/$56.80.

A small little chip is going to be responsible for a decline in holiday cheer at Nintendo. The R4 chip for the Nintendo DS is experiencing a huge sales spike this holiday season, and is frequently selling out in the Akihabara electronics district in Japan.

The R4 chip, which looks like a DS cartridge and fits in the cartridge slot, can hold a micro-SD memory card filled with homebrew applications, books, mp3s, movies and illegally cracked games. People simply buy the cartridge in a store or online, install the software on their computer and then drag and drop items to the memory card. The chip itself is not illegal, but certain owners choose to take advantage of the fact that the card can run DS roms without any kind of patch.