Nintendo has claimed that they now rule seven seas, working with law enforcement agencies in a number of countries to squash piracy in the form of the R4 memory card. The R4 card allows for unofficial programs to be played on the Nintendo DS, including emulators and pirated games.

According to Nintendo, they’ve now seized 30,000 copyright-infringing piracy devices. Now that’s a lot of booty! Check out the full statement from Nintendo after the jump.

Nintendo told Gamesindustry.biz:

“Nintendo takes a global approach to piracy and has pursued the illegal game copying devices in 11 countries this past year,” said the company in a statement.

“Nintendo has worked with enforcement officials in Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, UK, and the US, seizing close to 30,000 infringing game copying products, as well as taking actions against those distributors and manufacturers.”

“Nintendo and software manufacturers are suffering tremendous loss caused by the import and distribution of such devices. Nintendo and software manufacturers have determined that the spread of such devices in the market would hinder sound growth and development of the entire computer game industry and will therefore continue to take strict legal measures against any game copying devices that operate like the R4.”

It will be interesting to see the way that game companies continue to deal with the threat of internet piracy. Sony, for example, has repeatedly upgraded the PSP with new firmware to try to thwart the homebrew scene.

The Big 3 console manufacturers don’t seem to have the same pull as the RIAA quite yet, but expect lawmakers to be lobbied even more heavily in lots of countries as the gaming industry grows and pirated games become more readily available.

Source: gamesindustry.biz