Nintendo loses Flash card lawsuit

In a blow to its ongoing battle against video game piracy, platform holder Nintendo has lost a lawsuit against a manufacturer of a DS Flash card.

Ruling in favour of the Divineo Group, a French judge accused Nintendo of deliberately locking out developers from its range of hardware, adding that it should adopt a system more like Microsoft’s Windows where anyone is free to develop applications that run on the OS.

The enthusiastic report on Maxconsole suggests that the ruling indicates that Flash cards are legal and that it could pave the way for open platform development on DS and Wii.

In reality, one ruling from one sovereign state is unlikely to change the global stance of Flash card piracy – particularly in light of the growing moves to clamp down on such accessories in other, larger markets such as the UK and Japan.

Nintendo told MCV that: We are reviewing the judgement and it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage”.