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Nintendo Creates Piracy-Proof Console For China
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."
I love it when they claim something is piracy-proof.
I give it a week.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
It's too bad this is only coming out in China. I've thought that something like this would have serious potential for a while. I would gladly pay $50 for even a Super Nintendo and $5 each for some of the better games for it. I realize you can buy a system on eBay and elswhere for cheaper than that, but the good games aren't there. If this were released on a wider scale, I'll bet it could make some good money, especially if it had the best of N64 + SNES + NES. So many great games for so little!
If this were released on a wider scale, I'll bet it could make some good money, especially if it had the best of N64 + SNES + NES. So many great games for so little!
If you want to play SNES+SNES+Genesis+SMS etc games:
1. Buy a used Dreamcast for $40 or so.
2. www.dcemulation.com.
3. Got a good NNTP client?
4. Burn
5. Play
6. Support the companies (the ones that still exist, at least) by buying their current products (since the morons aren't set up to receive payment for electronic versions of discontinued products).
If the problem with piracy is rampant, as Nintendo thinks it is, why would people buy a console that's designed around piracy prevention? Since software piracy is legal in China, why not buy a PS2 and burn games for a couple cents each?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
By the way, Nintendo is not dead. I won't get into the arguments (profits on the consoles, GBA, piles of stored cash) because they've been done to death here. Of course, I'm not totally aware of the situation in China, but I have a hard time believing that the X-Box is just blowing it away there, or Microsoft would have some loaded press release out about it and the death of Nintendo there.
hed.
http://goldysmom.blogspot.com
Having spent a significant time in both China and HK for my company, I can assure you that the mainstream of gaming over there takes place on MegaDrive and Super Famicom "clones". Fanboy-ism rears it's ugly head once again.
So its the Famicom Disk System Mk 2?
Interesting... Of course they won't get the really good games, cause the biggies like Ogre Battle 64 are kinda on the large size
Insert Sig Here
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
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.
I can't find anything on this console except for the foggy details we see here. Anyone?
Great post, AC no less. Piracy protection is not about perma protection, its about the here and now. As you said GC has been unpirated for how long now? Long enough. If it were pirated literally a week after release they wouldn't have made nearly as much money as they have. Despite the fact that GC isn't the most popular of the consoles, it's still made a crapload of money in retrospect.
Putting this in perspective, I'm an emu enthusiast and a rabid pirate. I would love to see a GC emulator along with a solid way to rip the disks so I can actually play the damn games =P
But alas, Touche Nintendo; you're anti piracy efforts are the most valiant of all console makers indeed.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
it's not been cracked yet, right?
The custom DVD format the Gamecube uses has been broken and in a manner Nintendo is unlikely to be able to block. Take a look at the fledling GC home brew scene on Dexrose.
.... any statement of a console being secure against piracy when the words 'download' & 'flash cartridge' are in the same article.
It'll just take time.
Piracy means, basically, being able to buy / download counterfeit software, and play it in my console with a minimum of hassle. Running homebrew software on an emulator does not constitute piracy, I think.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
The reason why ordinary people (not devoted hackers that can crack it, download it, burn it themselves mind you) buy pirated instead of original software is because is substantially cheaper. However they know this comes with a degrade in quality (no manual, no internet key, no license, etc) what if a company was able to sell their original software at almost the same price than pirated somehow? per example what about if Nintendos next console (or handheld) came with dvd-rws (or other kind of recording device) that could be recorded at your favorite store? additionally you could get a licence, guarantee and a printed manual? for lets say $10?
Maybe Nintendo is using this as a testbed for such a system before launching it at a bigger scale.
Piracy wouldnt be stopped (thats practically impossible) but it would be seriously hampered though
Reading between the lines this idea is not so bad, I hope though they are considering the testbed they've choosen is bound not to succesful since the software they are "protecting" has already been pirated "ad-nauseum" before. This has a much better chance to succeed with new software that users can freshly obtain at a much better price with a marginal difference to pirated.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
It's current US retail is $99 (not that much more). It's had the greatest success of piracy protection of any console in the last decade and they're got warehouses full of the damn things. Surely the production costs of the actual disks can't be that high (and if you're tapping the chinese market you could easily justify a fab plant for them there).