While ELSPA has denied that the manager of its Intellectual Property Crime Unit, John Hillier, said to The Sunday Post that 90% of American DS owners are using pirated games, an official statement has yet to be released.

An ELSPA representative has been quoted^† as saying, "[John] didn't quote The Sunday Post on any figures whatsoever... ELSPA would certainly never presume to comment about America or anywhere else outside of the UK".

The representative went on to say, "The quotes from The Sunday Post were ascribed to his name from another article which originates from a website in Singapore. This, it appears, is where The Sunday Post first found out about the supposed R4 situation and for some reason unknown to John have quoted him on what this article said".

"As far as Nintendo are concerned, the facts are completely spurious", the representative added.

A source close to ELSPA told SPOnG that the organisation would prefer that comment had not yet appeared. ELSPA is not prepared to comment further until an official statement has been prepared. We were told that the official statement would be issued "soon".

The issue is simple: Did Hillier say this to anybody in an official capacity or did he not?

SPOnG appreciates that with some issues a properly prepared statement can take time to put together, especially where multiple parties are involved. However, if it's just a case of issuing a straightforward denial why has it taken this long?

SPOnG will bring you ELSPA's official response as and when it is made available.

^{†Source: Gamesindustry.biz}