DS piracy "difficult to put a stop to", says Nintendo president

***wraggster*** · June 23rd, 2010, 22:31

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has said that piracy on the DS has "reached a threshold where it is no longer easy for (Nintendo) to completely put a stop to", before suggesting that security issues will be improved on their next handheld, the 3DS.

When asked how Nintendo is planning to tackle the "serious issue" of piracy with 3DS, Iwata replied:

"I am in complete agreement with you that piracy is a serious issue. Unfortunately, the piracy issue has reached a threshold where it is no longer easy for us to completely put a stop to now.

"Naturally, we are taking a two-pronged approach, from both a legal and a technological angle, to try to do what we can to combat the piracy issue.

"Although we have made some progress, unfortunately, it's kind of like a game of "Whack-A-Mole" where you hit one over here and it pops up over there, and it has been a bumpy ride."

It's been widely reported that piracy on Nintendo's handheld is running rife on a global scale, with programmable carts freely available to buy and fake carts frequently sold to unsuspecting customers through online channels like eBay.

However the company's hopeful that things won't be quite so bad for the 3DS.

"On the Nintendo 3DS, when the new hardware is launched, various measures can be taken. So, we'll continue to take advantage of technological attempts. In the case of Nintendo DS, the pirates work to find ways to then overcome that and enable it, but we'll continue to try to do what we can to limit the amount of piracy that's going on. We will pursue these two routes."

Nintendo 3DS is expected to launch worldwide before April 2011.

http://www.gamerzines.com/ds/news/ds...t-to-stop.html