Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nintendo Creates Piracy-Proof Console For China

Posted by simoniker on from the go-retro-to-go-forward dept.

Thanks to Bloomberg for their story discussing Nintendo's announcement of a new console for China, apparently based on N64 technology. According to the article, "Nintendo will sell the console, called the 'iQue player' for 498 yuan ($60)... To prevent copying... users will download software onto a 64-megabyte flash-memory card at a local [retail] store, paying 48 yuan for each title" - a little like the Lawson partnership Nintendo had in Japan? The piece goes on to explain: "Nintendo will sell Chinese-language versions of software originally designed for the company's older-generation game players such as Nintendo 64."

2 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Umm, names been taken by redune45 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Gamin has had a line of iQue GPS enabled PDAs for a little while now, check out the link

    --
    redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
  2. stop piracy how? by evilWurst · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not seeing how writing to flash cards would stop piracy. If they're already mass producing copied hardware and software, what's to stop them from reverse engineering the custom flash card writer? What's to stop the pirates from running a business selling the service of writing games to your card for 50 cents each?

    Hell, this might make it *easier* to pirate by making it all digital. Customer supplies all the equipment, pirate vendor downloads all the games, and the flash writer is probably cheaper than a cd burner and stockpile of CDs, too. They wouldn't need to haul a cart full of CDs around, just a laptop.