Nintendo: Game piracy has had its heyday

Because hackers won’t already be tempted enough to crack the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has gone on record as claiming the ‘heyday of piracy’ is over. The company has also said the 3DS is ‘probably one of our best pieces of equipment in [respect of piracy]’. Way to start a fight, Ninty.

Speaking to CVG, Nintendo UK’s product manager James Honeywell had this to say:

“There’s definitely a step change coming and you see it in various countries around the world. 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.”

I certainly hope he’s right. Nintendo itself felt the pinch of piracy strongly, with a worryingly high percentage of Nintendo DS owners playing downloaded games on flashcarts (which are perfectly legal due to their use for homebrew). However, Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton thinks some hefty prison sentences may have solved that issue:

“Recently there have been a couple of rulings with R4 [flashcarts] 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.”

Yarnton was also quick to add that the 3DS could prove a tough nut to crack for would-be pirates:

“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.”

Are you in agreement with Messrs. Honeywell and Yarnton? Has gaming piracy peaked?

[Via CVG]