The 3DS contains the most sophisticated anti-piracy technology of any console in Nintendo history, UK general manager David Yarnton has told CVG - and arrives at a time when illegal software distributors are under greater threat than ever.
Speaking at its 3DS event in Amsterdam last week, Yarnton and UK marketing manager James Honeywell said that thanks to improved security and changes in international law they now see a time when piracy isn't viable.
"We can't divulge any technical details on that but needless to say this is probably one of our best pieces of equipment in that respect. There are a lot of things we've learnt over time to try and improve the security and protection - not only of our IP but of our third-party publishers' IP as well.
"It's not just to the extent of the technical side but on a global basis many countries and governments are recognising that the IP of creative industries and such needs to be protected," he added. "There are things happening all the time, but as I said if you went and made bold statements saying 'this is uncrackable'..."
Marketing man Honeywell echoed Yarnton's comments on international law changes, telling CVG he now sees a time when game piracy isn't viable.
"There's definitely a step change coming and you see it in various countries around the world," he said. "People are aware that video games, music and movies make massive contributions to the economies of countries. They need to make sure they start protecting those things.
"I think perhaps there's been a 'heyday of piracy' and we've now seen a lot of rules come in to stop it."
Yarnton added: "Recently there's been some quite significant cases where there were some grey areas as far as IP protection goes. Recently there have been a couple of rulings with R4s where people have been found guilty and had quite significant sentences against them.
"This now makes a precedent that potentially in the future it won't be a viable thing for people to do."
In the same interview, the Nintendo UK pair told CVG that 3DS is definitely worth the money.
Comments
21 comments so far...
WHERESMYMONKEY on 26 Jan '11 said:
Has the best piracy protection of any nintendo console. You mean it actually has some. Rather than the wii which practically had the ability for it initially built into the hardware or the ds which made it as easy as buying what was essentially a blank cartridge for it.
Cyber6x on 26 Jan '11 said:
Just seeing how faithful Nintendo is to gamers with 3DS games like Kid Icarus and Ocarina of time 3D I really don't want anyone to hack the 3DS (And this is coming from someone who plays pirated games on a R4 for DS). I only regret the region-locking though hopefully it was to stop piracy.
Imaduck on 26 Jan '11 said:
They have a really sound strategy now definately. They just make sure that 80% of the games they release these days aren't worth pirating or buying in the first place. And ye, I have a Wii so keep your bra on.
mfnick on 26 Jan '11 said:
Imaduck on 26 Jan '11 said:
I love his "gangsta" pose in that photo. Why are all the Nintendo head dudes fat and have that same sort of "fresh cut lawn" haircut? Sony's American bunch are all fat with grey hair and a sort of "casino owner" air. Microsoft have a sort of "hai wer nerdz lolz, chek out mah cardigan" thing rolling. They should all have a showdown, Anchorman style.
eastldn on 26 Jan '11 said:
thye are fat because they eat the best food money can buy
ragna_bloodedge on 26 Jan '11 said:
"Platform holder has learnt a lot and improved security, says UK boss"
Apparently they haven't learned to keep their mouth shut and not give pirates an incentive to target your system. It's like Nintendo is daring pirates to try and hack the 3DS.
bloodbathrich on 26 Jan '11 said:
this kinda stuff i agree will make hackers hack it just for the challange, i give it a month or two after launch.
And hey if they get rid of any region locking then good for them, the snes and n64 made me lose faith in EU release dates from Nintendo.
nicostorm on 26 Jan '11 said:
I give it less than a month!
dannyhulse on 26 Jan '11 said:
Well he just jinxed it didn't he?
I look foward to the 26th March headline:
"3DS Cracked, egg on face"
photoboy on 26 Jan '11 said:
I think one of the reasons Nintendo is a bit behind the curve on piracy is because they've never been an easy target in the past. Back in the NES/SNES/N64 days all their stuff was all on cartridge, and while there were pirate cartridges, they weren't easy for just anyone to make, unlike burning a CD/DVD.
With the GameCube I don't think it was ever really popular enough to be a target like the PS2 or versatile enough to do other things like the Xbox so it was generally ignored. The GBA did have some Flash carts but it was the DS that made piracy really easy thanks to cheap and ubiquitous flash memory and easy ROM distribution via the internet. And IIRC the Wii was just using the GameCube's encryption key in uppercase so it got hacked the moment the GameCube was hacked.
It will be interesting to see what clever ideas Nintendo have come up with to stop piracy this time, but I'd be willing to bet it won't take the hackers long...
nicostorm on 26 Jan '11 said:
SNES piracy was on Floppy Discs with one of these:
http://karchedon.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/super-wild-card-dx2-32mbit_karchedonwordpresscom.jpg
boskersrevenge on 26 Jan '11 said:
There was a heyday?
Was there cake and balloons? Why was I not informed?
The_Jaster on 26 Jan '11 said:
Clicky
photoboy on 26 Jan '11 said:
Yeah but it wasn't easy to get hold of one of those (or the CD based unit for the N64) unless you knew where to go and who to speak to to import one. Whereas these days an R4 can easily be found with a quick Google search.
potnoodle1 on 26 Jan '11 said:
If the thing comes region locked then I personally hope it gets cracked very quickly. I like my imports and I'd rather not resort to having to buy two of the damn things!! Something similar to the homebrew channel on Wii would be very nice.
beemoh on 26 Jan '11 said:
He makes a good case, but I'm not buying it. (I'm torrenting it instead, tee hee)
razors edge on 26 Jan '11 said:
Nice.
mrlister on 26 Jan '11 said:
At least, even if they're cracked 3DS roms will be useless if you want 3D. No more playing them on phones either. Unless someone can write software that removes one of the viewpoints, you'd be stuck with either weird interlaced dual images, or two next to each other depending on how Nintendo coded the hardware. I bet they made it Really hard to untangle the composite images.
Nollog on 26 Jan '11 said:
So play them on the 3ds...
kimoak on 26 Jan '11 said:
Excellent!