Nintendo to beef up piracy measures in 3-D device

[shega]

Does anyone know exactly what they mean by 3d? I saw a vid a while back where the ds was used to view a 3d scene by moving it around and the scene moved about on the ds, kind of like looking through a camera into the game world.

If that is the kind of 3d they are on about then fine, but if it's the stuff they are using in these new 3d films then they can suck my bum because I can't even see it due to one of my eyes being useless.

[Hatta]

I also don't see how you can know for a fact that the 3DS will be hacked. If a company puts serious effort into security, they can stop piracy on a platform like the PS3.

The PS3 hasn't been hacked *yet*. It will be. Everything else has. The key of the issue is that any device that plays DRMed media must contain the key to decrypt that media. A skilled enough hardware hacker can retrieve it.

[CRTGAMER]

Don't know why all the fuss. Handheld game market will be taken over by convenient cell phones anyways.

[Hatta]

I sure hope not. I've never seen a phone with a good d-pad.

[CRTGAMER]

I sure hope not. I've never seen a phone with a good d-pad.

Agree, hate playing Earthworm Jim with the touch screen or small slide out keyboard.

The large D-Pad with good action-fire buttons are probably the main obstacle that will keep the cell from taking over.

[gtmtnbiker]

The PS3 hasn't been hacked *yet*. It will be. Everything else has. The key of the issue is that any device that plays DRMed media must contain the key to decrypt that media. A skilled enough hardware hacker can retrieve it.

I'm not sure what that will buy you. So you can decrypt the media. You still need a way to play it. You would need to find a mode on the PS3 that allows you to play unsigned media.

[fastbilly1]

All consoles get cracked, it just takes time. It might not happen in its lifetime, but it will happen. Going forward this will be harder since it is believed that a full download/always online system will be implemented in the next two or three generations.

[Hatta]

You have a good point gtmtnbiker, but it's just a matter of time until someone reverse engineers the ROMs on the board and figures out where the encryption check is. Then they replace it with a NOOP and they can start building mod chips.

I don't think moving to always online schemes or download only media is going to help much either. There's always going to be a local copy of the game stored on a disk or flash which you can rip out of the machine and crack. Traffic to an activation server can be sniffed and cracked. RAM can be frozen and plaintext keys can be dumped.

None of this is easy, but neither is it impossible.

[fastbilly1]

True, there are dark versions of most online services - darksteam being the most famous. But itll be alot trickier than it has been. Granted once they go all download I am mostly out of the buying new games.

[lisalover1]

Piracy on the DS was relatively easy due to the cartridge medium, and except for the DSi, no upgradeable firmware. Hackers always win eventually, so I know for a fact that the 3DS will be hacked.

That doesn't make sense. How can you say that the cartridge format helped enable piracy on the DS? I also don't see how you can know for a fact that the 3DS will be hacked. If a company puts serious effort into security, they can stop piracy on a platform like the PS3.

Where have you been? The PS3 was hacked several months ago. Also, name a mainstream console from any previous generation other than 1st [systems like the Odyssey had built-in games] where backups did not eventually become playable on the native hardware. That's right; there isn't such an instance. Well, okay, maybe the Neo-Geo, but that's an obvious exception, and there are multi-game carts available. The PS3 has been the last hurdle for this generation of consoles for hackers. GeoHot has hacked it, now all it needs is some homebrew, and a way of loading PS3 isos.