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

 

[smf]

Which is why the DMCA has always been on shaky legal ground from the start, and enforcement of it is largely voluntary. It's just a bunch of corporations trying to avoid stepping on each others' feet.

DMCA is not on shaky ground. Enforcement of all laws is voluntary.

 

[smf]

This is all just a scare tactic by the company behind Denuvo so publishers will pay to have Denuvo put into their games.

That is your opinion, they state that they were approached by publishers.

If Denuvo doesn't achieve what the publishers want, then they will stop paying for it. It will be easy for them to tell, because people won't be able to keep their mouths shut on here about how good or bad it is.

 

[tabzer]

It's still fail after 25+TB of games that have come out LOL

That logic is right on par with the idea that we don't need more video games because there are already "plenty". I don't like it, and I don't like the DMCA, but the incentive is obvious, no matter what time they decide to start. EOL may prove advantageous for their future pursuits as even in the case they mess something up, they can manage damage control. Maybe Nintendo already made an agreement with them, and they agreed that this would be the best time to do a "trial run". We don't know.

DMCA isn't for consumers, and even if something is illegal in theory, the enforcement is the law of the land. Suing dead grandmothers and 12 year olds isn't a good look. It's currently legal to mind your own business, but the scope of that is shrinking as days go on.

 

[Xzi]

DMCA is not on shaky ground. Enforcement of all laws is voluntary.

DMCA conflicts with other laws that were already on the books. It's legal to keep digital backups of physical media, no matter how much certain companies may not like it. The reason enforcement is voluntary is because it's a civil matter, not criminal, and therefore it's all about trying to squeeze money out of people. There were a couple trials for show some twenty years ago, and since then nothing.

The dumbest part about it is that anybody can request a DMCA takedown of anything for any reason, without having to provide proof of ownership. It's a fucking joke of a law in 2022, and we need somebody with the money and resources to challenge it and have it removed already.

 

[tabzer]

DMCA conflicts with other laws that were already on the books. It's legal to keep digital backups of physical media, no matter how much certain companies may not like it. The reason enforcement is voluntary is because it's a civil matter, not criminal, and therefore it's all about trying to squeeze money out of people. There were a couple trials for show some twenty years ago, and since then nothing.

The dumbest part about it is that anybody can request a DMCA takedown of anything for any reason, without having to provide proof of ownership. It's a fucking joke of a law in 2022, and we need somebody with the money and resources to challenge it and have it removed already.

You are mostly correct, but he's banking on the idea that it is illegal to "decrypt" those backups. Because you aren't allowed to be smart.

 

[Xzi]

You are mostly correct, but he's banking on the idea that it is illegal to "decrypt" those backups. Because you aren't allowed to be smart.

Yeah and that's about as enforceable as the mattress tags that claim it's a felony to remove them.

 

[tabzer]

Yeah and that's about as enforceable as the mattress tags that claim it's a felony to remove them.

At the risk of coming off as hypocritical, why he isn't actively engaging that is a mystery to me. Maybe he is, in another forum.

@smf, I know why. Just being an ass.

 

[Guacaholey]

That is your opinion, they state that they were approached by publishers.

If Denuvo doesn't achieve what the publishers want, then they will stop paying for it. It will be easy for them to tell, because people won't be able to keep their mouths shut on here about how good or bad it is.

They outright lie several times during this announcement, so I doubt publishers are approaching them saying "Can you make our Switch releases pirate-proof?", cause that's part of the reality of console ports, your protection is things like the signatures on games. They're also claiming Denuvo doesn't affect PC performance which is a blatant lie, and that there are millions of people following Switch piracy groups. This is likely a lie too, because the most popular videos on CFW on emulation have a few hundred thousand views at best.

 

[chrisrlink]

I see this is only for emulators which accounts for a small fraction of piracy of switch games steam deck aside most is on the official hardware itself Nintendo could (though illegally and could be brought up in court) scan an SD card during boot of the console/game

 

[gisel213]

I mean so called because with all the unpatched hardware out there couldn't SciresM main big time dev sniff the code and or watch what is happening... Im not on that kinda level but with a console wide open i would think so perhaps emu authors could do the same. Well atleast once its defeated isn't that how emulation comes along we will see how this is gonna go..

 

[tabzer]

They're also claiming Denuvo doesn't affect PC performance which is a blatant lie

"Politico has investigated this claim and found that in some cases, the impact on performance could not be verified. We rate this claim as false."

 

[Subtle Demise]

Yeah there's going to be game-specific Yuzu and Ryujinx mods within days for these "protected" games, if not day one. Most them probably aren't even worth pirating to begin with. No need to be concerned with this, I think.

 

[smf]

They outright lie several times during this announcement,

Where do they lie? How do you know that your opinion isn't just wrong?

Yeah there's going to be game-specific Yuzu and Ryujinx mods within days for these "protected" games, if not day one.

Maybe, maybe not. Why care?

 

[sombrerosonic]

Where do they lie? How do you know that your opinion isn't just wrong?


Maybe, maybe not. Why care?

yo your sig is missing

 

[smf]

yo your sig is missing

yeah, they wouldn't let me slag off foxi in there because he's an op

 

[Guacaholey]

Where do they lie? How do you know that your opinion isn't just wrong?


Maybe, maybe not. Why care?

Because it's a fact that Denuvo impacts PC game performance. That's why cracked games that had Denuvo or have patches to reduce the amount of syscalls it does end up running faster than with it enabled. If the most popular sites for "Switch piracy" as they call it, we should have 1 million members.

You're essentially asking me to prove a negative. I can't prove that the 80 or 90% of developers claiming they're afraid of console game piracy and wanting DRM is accurate because they haven't proven it themselves.

 

[Labradudette]

nintendo at it again with their extreme stinginess

 

[JFizDaWiz]

[redacted]

 

[Xzi]

did you ever read those tags? you the owner/consumer can remove them. terrible analogy.

You the owner can also decrypt your own backups offline, nobody would even know, same as removing the tag. Perfectly passable analogy since everybody understood the intent, yourself included. Now is it a perfectly accurate analogy? No, but honestly who gives a shite.

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

did you ever read those tags? you the owner/consumer can remove them. terrible analogy.

It is but it does have a valid point, the things done behind closed doors that doesn't harm other people (Something that harms people would be things like rape, kidnapping, domestic abuse, etc. anyone Arguing Piracy is on this same level is mentally sick and has no credibility on the matter) even if it were illegal to remove said tag from a mattress it wouldn't be easily proveable nor worth the effort to investigate and prosecute people for it.