Irdeto is a brand that some may not be familiar with, but many will know the name of their controversial anti-piracy software, Denuvo. After attempting to crack down on the piracy of PC games, Irdeto has set its sights on the Nintendo Switch. Believing piracy to be rampant on the platform, either through modded consoles or emulation, Irdeto has unveiled their aptly named "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection" technology.

As with all other Denuvo solutions, the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience. It then allows for the insertion of checks into the code, which blocks gameplay on emulators.

They claim that their solution, which would run similarly to Denuvo, would have occasional checks to ensure the software was legitimate, and prevent the games that use it from being emulated. Irdeto also promises that there is no impact on the gaming performance with it enabled, a claim that has led to many controversies in the past with Denuvo.

Beyond the press release, there's not much known about the Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, when it will launch, and what games it will launch with. By the phrasing in the announcement, however, it appears that Irdeto is targeting indie developers or third-party studios more than they are Nintendo itself, specifically for multi-platform games that can be protected from piracy on both PC and Switch.

Source

 

[mituzora]

lol did you read the post even? they are marketing this more for indie and 3rd partys games than nintendo itself, they want to make multiplatform games protrected, it says it right there on the op... they did this because the switch is selling like crazy and they want to sell to more developers...

Yes I read the OP, and yes, I'm aware it's geared toward third party developers. what does that have to do with correcting my point that Nintendo isn't involved?

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

gonna run worse than x65943 laptop trying to run crysis

gonna run like hyrule warriors on the old 3ds

 

[pedro702]

Yes I read the OP, and yes, I'm aware it's geared toward third party developers. what does that have to do with correcting my point that Nintendo isn't involved?

i was awnsering Xzi reply not yours tough, since he is convinced nintendo asked for this and its gonna use it on every game lol.

 

[Xzi]

lol did you read the post even? they are marketing this more for indie and 3rd partys games than nintendo itself, they want to make multiplatform games protrected, it says it right there on the op... they did this because the switch is selling like crazy and they want to sell to more developers...

Nevertheless, this type of thing would require hooking into Switch's proprietary hardware/firmware somehow, and so it's something that would require Nintendo's blessing. It'd also be quite pointless for multiplat games to use this, since people would just pirate the superior (non-Switch) version instead. I'd bet on more exclusives including it than anything else.

 

[mituzora]

i was awnsering Xzi reply not yours tough, since he is convinced nintendo asked for this and its gonna use it on every game lol.

oh, my bad. For some reason I thought you quoted me. I read the notification wrong lol

 

[mituzora]

Nevertheless, this type of thing would require hooking into Switch's proprietary hardware/firmware somehow, and so it's something that would require Nintendo's blessing. It'd also be quite pointless for multiplat games to use this, since people would just pirate the superior (non-Switch) version instead. I'd bet on more exclusives including it than anything else.

Eh, I doubt it. Developers have been putting in piracy checks in their game with or without the blessing of Nintendo since the SNES. Jet force Gemini for example doesn't play right at all if it detects the wrong lockout chip.

They'd likely do something along the lines of watching certain calls, or watching CPU cycle behavior or something like that.

 

[Plazorn]

Theoretically this will only apply to games released after a certain date, meaning all the games that are already playable on emulators will stay that way, only newer games may have this feature. However, they may implement it into existing games through updates... If my hypothesis is correct: DON'T UPDATE YOUR GAMES!!!

 

[pedro702]

Nevertheless, this type of thing would require hooking into Switch's proprietary hardware/firmware somehow, and so it's something that would require Nintendo's blessing. It'd also be quite pointless for multiplat games to use this, since people would just pirate the superior (non-Switch) version instead. I'd bet on more exclusives including it than anything else.

They dont need nintendo permission only the devs, no more than they need microsoft permission for pc games, they just make afew checks on the game itself and the values they are giving, they dont need to be part of the fw, they are reading only, then the game just stops itself from playing with a game side code.

 

[Kioku]

They dont need nintendo permission only the devs, no more than they need microsoft permission for pc games, they just make afew checks on the game itself and the values they are giving, they dont need to be part of the fw, they are reading only, then the game just stops itself from playing with a game side code.

Depending on what the anti-piracy checks involve? They very well could require permission from Nintendo even in third party/indie titles. The Switch is a walled environment whereas PC only has different store fronts. So, the anti-piracy checks could be invasive and stupid but as long as it doesn't infect a PC, Microsoft seemingly doesn't care.

 

[pedro702]

Depending on what the anti-piracy checks involve? They very well could require permission from Nintendo even in third party/indie titles. The Switch is a walled environment whereas PC only has different store fronts. So, the anti-piracy checks could be invasive and stupid but as long as it doesn't infect a PC, Microsoft seemingly doesn't care.

like i said they dont ask for microsoft permission on every pc game so they know how to do checks without breaking into the protected code of the fw/os, they are not random people, they have been doing this for some time, they are not gonna illegally make the game hack the console to check for stuff or nintendo would sue them and they would pay more than they gained from the devs lol.

 

[mituzora]

Depending on what the anti-piracy checks involve? They very well could require permission from Nintendo even in third party/indie titles. The Switch is a walled environment whereas PC only has different store fronts. So, the anti-piracy checks could be invasive and stupid but as long as it doesn't infect a PC, Microsoft seemingly doesn't care.

yeah, if it's something that doesn't bypass security, Ninty likely won't care. Like I said, Developers like Rare have been doing anti-piracy checks outside of Nintendo's typical checks for years now.

 

[Blavla]

View attachment 324118​

Irdeto is a brand that some may not be familiar with, but many will know the name of their controversial anti-piracy software, Denuvo. After attempting to crack down on the piracy of PC games, Irdeto has set its sights on the Nintendo Switch. Believing piracy to be rampant on the platform, either through modded consoles or emulation, Irdeto has unveiled their aptly named "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection" technology.



They claim that their solution, which would run similarly to Denuvo, would have occasional checks to ensure the software was legitimate, and prevent the games that use it from being emulated. Irdeto also promises that there is no impact on the gaming performance with it enabled, a claim that has led to many controversies in the past with Denuvo.

Beyond the press release, there's not much known about the Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, when it will launch, and what games it will launch with. By the phrasing in the announcement, however, it appears that Irdeto is targeting indie developers or third-party studios more than they are Nintendo itself, specifically for multi-platform games that can be protected from piracy on both PC and Switch.

Source

Nice news. That can easily backfire

 

[Kioku]

like i said they dont ask for microsoft permission on every pc game so they know how to do checks without breaking into the protected code of the fw/os, they are not random people, they have been doing this for some time, they are not gonna illegally make the game hack the console to check for stuff or nintendo would sue them and they would pay more than they gained from the devs lol.

A PC isn't as "exclusive" as proprietary hardware. There are far different rules involved.

 

[pedro702]

A PC isn't as "exclusive" as proprietary hardware. There are far different rules involved.

doesnt matter, they arent amateurs, they know their bondarys for sure, if it doesnt break into copyrighted acess code beyond the game access rights nintendo wont care and its not worth risking do to possible lawsuits.

 

[mituzora]

doesnt matter, they arent amateurs, they know their bondarys for sure, if it doesnt break into copyrighted acess code beyond the game access rights nintendo wont care and its not worth risking do to possible lawsuits.

I would agree with you on this except that Nintendo delisted an indie game not too long ago for having a fully functional ruby interpreter in the game. It was sandboxed, and technically didn't circumvent any security, but Ninty didn't like the idea of a programming interpreter in a game.

 

[Alexander1970]

View attachment 324118​

Irdeto is a brand that some may not be familiar with, but many will know the name of their controversial anti-piracy software, Denuvo. After attempting to crack down on the piracy of PC games, Irdeto has set its sights on the Nintendo Switch. Believing piracy to be rampant on the platform, either through modded consoles or emulation, Irdeto has unveiled their aptly named "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection" technology.

The correct description would be:

Irdeto took over the Denuvo Developer Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH (an Austrian company) in 2018 and is the name giver / licensee and responsible for BOTH brands.

 

[peteruk]

it's like trying to shut the barn door when all the horses already ran free

too little too late

 

[subcon959]

I think this is more about trying to get their foot in the door for Nintendo's next console.

 

[SilverWah]

DRM never is and always will be the wrong answer.
Like come on, it's getting figured out and the guys who made said DRM will look like asshats after it happened.
Modern games already suck, don't make it worse. At least there's always emulation.

 

[VinsCool]

Right, because those sanity checks to bypass emulators always worked forever, just look at those games that specifically targeted Dolphin Emulator in its later days.
Sure, it did work for some time, but at the end, more accurate emulation rendered those hacks pointless since the emulated console ultimately behaved exactly like the real thing, and thus became undetectable.

I give at most 1 week for 1 game release that uses this fancy new Denuvo for Switch to run without any issue.