Nintendo are truly going all out with the Anti-Piracy measure with the 3DS. GoNintendo has picked up word from retailers in Japan that they will check any 3DS systems brought for trade in because Nintendo are going to brick systems via firmware updates if a flash cart shows up in the activity log.

Nintendo actually acknowledging that they will brick systems is probably going to get them a lot of flack from hackers and pirates but i say bring it on, its great to see Nintendo really leading the way here. The text below is from a sign seen at a retail counter in Japan.

"Dear customers who resell Nintendo 3DS "
"non purchase able 3DS system"
In case if you use equipment which is illegal or unapproved by Nintendo or if you do customization which is unapproved by Nintendo, there is a possibility that Nintendo 3DS become non bootable by system update.

- From Nintendo 3DS terms of agreement

Because of terms of agreement above, Enterking refuses to buy 3DS system with record of illegal or unapproved equipment.

"Request to format before you sell"

To protect from leaking your personal and internet connection information, We ask customer to format system. In case purchasing could not be established after you format 3DS system, Enterking is not responsible for lost datas and settings. Please understand before you format.

See the original GoNintendo articles here and here

URL to share (right click and copy)

If firmware updates transfer automatically with the street pass feature, I wonder if it's possible that someone could install a potentially malicious software update on their 3DS which triggers other 3DSs to download it and then break their system. Probably not best to think of such ideas

Posted by

VofEscaflowne

on: 03/07/11, 19:13

VofEscaflowne said:

If firmware updates transfer automatically with the street pass feature, I wonder if it's possible that someone could install a potentially malicious software update on their 3DS which triggers other 3DSs to download it and then break their system. Probably not best to think of such ideas

If so wouldn't they have already been able to do something like that with Bark Mode in Nintendogs and such? The feature isn't new, it's just expanded.

Posted by

-JKR-

on: 03/07/11, 20:22

If you were a pure homebrewer/pirater though, you could just never turn in the wireless though, right? It just stops those who try to use online functions?

Posted by

heliumsky

on: 03/07/11, 20:31

And play new games, I guess.

Posted by

Anand

on: 03/07/11, 20:55

@-JKR-

The DS doesn't have internal memory or any way to install and run data though.

EDIT: Forgot about DSi... still, it seems like it could be a possiblility. Maybe something in the Current models stops this from happening?

Posted by

VofEscaflowne

on: 03/07/11, 21:43

Edited:

03/07/11, 21:45

-JKR- said:

Phalanx said:

When I was younger, I would "borrow" copies of PC games from friends. If I liked the game, I would buy it. If I didn't I would delete it. I still have some of the disks, but I've never re-installed the games.

This means no more "borrowing" copies of games. You'll have to borrow the real carts or rent them I suppose. Or just not buy the games, but generally speaking that's a small price to pay to the company making the game, since you are in a minority of people who still buy the full game if they like it. Most people simply beat the games and then find some reason why it "makes sense" not to have bought it. One I always used to use when I pirated things was "It wasn't worth the price they're charging, that would have been a rip off." Oh, or "They have enough money, they're a billion dollar company." Very easy to rationalize stealing with that one...

I got out of PC gaming a long time ago. None of my laptops have good enough video cards and I can't afford one that does what I need for development, and also has a kick ass graphics card. My current laptop is a dual core I7 with 8GB of RAM. Perfect for development, but crappy for games.

Posted by

Earendil

on: 03/07/11, 21:57

@Phalanx

Same here. My PC is terrific for work, but I can hardly run three year old games on it, let alone new stuff.

Perhaps one day again... For now I'm content with my iPhone throw-away games and the brilliant DS library.

Posted by

-JKR-

on: 03/07/11, 22:08