Earlier this week, Nintendo pushed live an updated piece of firmware for the DSi. It was aimed at stopping piracy. Less than a day later, however, flash cart manufacturers had already found a way around it.
It took flash cart (cartridges allowing the use of homebrew and/or pirated software) producer R4iDSN less than 24 hours to crack Nintendo’s new copy protection, which begs the question: why bother?
It’s the policy of Nintendo (and other platform holders) to combat piracy from a “top down” approach. To constantly release updated pieces of firmware and restrict the features of their consoles in an attempt to stop people from playing games without paying for them.
Yet this immediate circumvention is just the latest example showing that this approach does not work. What’s worse is that great features of games machines, like OtherOS on the PS3 and the ability of Nintendo’s handhelds to play games from other regions, have been taken away from loyal customers as part of this approach.
While some will argue that some protection against piracy is better than none, I don’t think that’s justifiable when you’re forced to negatively impact loyal paying customers as a result.
Anti-flashcart DSi update released, defeated [Tiny Cartridge]
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