14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo, which has been long affected by piracy, especially on the DS family of handhelds, sees the launch of the 3DS device as a turning point in the fight against piracy, saying that the new platform will have better protections at launch than any other of its products.
Speaking to CVG David Yarnton, who is the general manager for Nintendo in the United Kingdom, has stated, “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.”
He added, “I think perhaps there's been a 'heyday of piracy' and we've now seen a lot of rules come in to stop it,” talking about how many countries are moving to protect intellectual property rights when pressured by companies like Nintendo and other companies linked to the video game industry.
Nintendo has not said exactly what anti piracy measures it has included in the 3DS handheld, but the company has previously talked about its protections against piracy only to see it prosper in the last few years on the DS.
The company has managed to win some victories against hardware devices like the R4 cards in courts, but their use remains widespread, with both pirates and the homebrew community relying on them to load content into the handhelds that has not been delivered directly by Nintendo.
The video game and hardware developer might have to do more than beef up anti piracy measures in the long run, as some gamers see the small prices for titles coming to the iPhone and the Android platforms and might pressure the company to also drop prices on its products in order to allow more gamers to get and play them.
The Nintendo 3DS is set to be released in Japan on February 26 and North America and Europe will get it about one month later.