3DS fixes Nintendo's piracy problem - THQ

[wraggster]

Nintendo believes that all-new anti-piracy tech in 3DS will be foolproof to cracks from illegal downloaders.

That's according to THQ's executive VP of global publishing Ian Curran, who told CVG that that piracy had scuppered his firm's ability to produce more games for DS Lite in the past.

"What excites me even more [than 3DS games] is that there's technology built in that device to really combat piracy," said Curran.

"The problem with the DS market in the last few years, particularly with the DS Lite, is that it's just been attacked by piracy. It's made it almost impossible to shift any significant volume. The DSi combated it a little bit, but the 3DS has taken that a step further."

"I actually asked Nintendo to explain the technology and they said it's very difficult to do so because it's so sophisticated," he continued. "They combated the piracy on Dsi, which they don't believe is cracked yet - but they know they've been hurt across the world and they believe the 3DS has got technology that can stop that.

"Therefore the opportunity for people to invest more in product development [on the system] and bring more 3DS products to market comes out of that. It's going to probably cost us more to do it all in 3D - so we want to make sure we get a return on our investment when we do it."

When Curran says piracy has "attacked" DS, he isn't kidding. Rampant illegal activity has killed revenues for publishers on the device - driven by the release of re-writable cartridges, particularly the R4 cart, which has been outlawed in Japan.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS

[F2bnp]

Bull.
Whatever is locked , can be unlocked eventually.

[LDAsh]

Something tells me they're going to force online activation or game updates, you'll need to connect to an official server to have the game activated or updated, a bit like Steam. They probably figure that is this day and age, everyone is (or should be) near a wireless access point to take their 3DS online to do that.

[Qmark]

Something tells me they're going to force online activation or game updates, you'll need to connect to an official server to have the game activated or updated, a bit like Steam.

Supposedly, 3DS is using a variant on Amazon's Whispernet, so this may actually be the case.

[rancor01]

..."which has been outlawed in Japan."

BS. I bought a DStwo last week in Akihabara. Signs for DS flash carts are in nearly every shop window.

And if I need to constantly be connected to play my 3DS games, how is this gonna work on my constant trans-pacific flights, or when I go to my farm in west Texas?

[mmochel]

Nintendo said nearly the same thing with the gamecube.
Everything can be hacked sonner or later.

[LDAsh]

I don't think they care who is travelling where or lives on what farm. Everyone is _supposed_ to have wireless broadband connection in some form or another, and they are making sure what happened with the DS never happens again. Online activation is the standard now, no matter how inconvenient. I'm still on dialup here in Australia, so I don't look forward to hours online with my 3DS for activations and updates, but if I want to play 3DS games I don't think I'll have much choice.

And for those who think there's nothing to stop pirated games, I would love to know how. This will essentially be like a form of DRM, encrypted and needs a license/serial to be unlocked via an official server, and likely needs to be rechecked every so often too.