Nintendo apparently intends to eliminate piracy on its new 3DS with a suite of measures “too sophisticated to explain,” according to one bamboozled publisher.
Publisher THQ’s executive VP of global publishing is clear that in his view piracy has made DS publishing non-viable and that Nintendo’s efforts to stymie it in the new 3DS are essential if the console is to succeed:
“What excites me even more [than 3DS games] is that there’s technology built in that device to really combat piracy.
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. 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.”
“Too sophisticated for us to explain it to you” – for one of THQ’s executives to accept so vapid an explanation this either indicates an extraordinary amount of trust in Nintendo, an even more extraordinary level of gullibility, or perhaps both.
Whilst most such promises of uncrackable protection have only seen the inevitable delayed, it is notable that the PS3 remains uncracked, so the commonly bleated pirate refrain that “no protection is uncrackable” may yet have to be discarded.
