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Denuvo, the infamous company on which game developers rely on to implement DRM to almost every new release nowadays, to varying degrees of performance issues and even worse user experiences, has announced today that their protection technologies are now available and accessible as an authorized Nintendo Switch "middleware" in the Nintendo Developer Portal (NDP).

This means that now developers working on Nintendo Switch titles or ports now have the accessibility and option to add Denuvo's anti-piracy protection, which they titled "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection". Their goal is to disallow any new game release from running in Nintendo Switch emulators, although this remains yet to be seen and properly tested from the end-user perspective. It is currently unknown how they would check between an emulator and real-hardware, but we can be sure that the current emulator developers (be it Yuzu or Ryujinx) will catch unto it and go into details about it when they find a game that uses it.

Denuvo released a following statement regarding Nintendo Switch games that are released as multi-platform and their emulation on day one in comparison with other consoles/PC:

Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version. This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Nintendo Switch.

By blocking unauthorized emulations on PC, studios are able to increase their revenue during the game launch window, which is the most important period for monetization. The Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection will ensure that anyone wishing to play the game has to buy a legitimate copy.

Alongside this statement, Denuvo claims that "the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience", but given almost every release that uses it and comparisons in performance between before and after the removal of Denuvo's DRM from known games, it's doubtful that this will be the case. To close it up, the CEO of Irdeto, Doug Lowther, said the following:

As gamers, we know first-hand how piracy negatively affects the gaming industry. We’re thrilled to be part of the Nintendo Developers Portal, so that we can provide the latest technologies to help fight this issue for Nintendo Switch players and developers.

We witness an increasing need to protect against emulation on PC from game launch, our solution is a must have for publishers to monetize the games fairly on this platform and also not impact PC game sales.

Additionally, it remains to be seen just how this would affect gamer that don't connect their Nintendo Switch to the internet, or only use it for handheld gaming with no internet connection, given how the DRM is known to do its checks with a connection to the internet, as having a hybrid console this means that the system wouldn't always have an internet connection available.

Source

 

[Bladexdsl]

so that we don't have to rely on Empress considering she's a bit mental.

well HIS mental state shouldnt matter even remotely but i get the base point.

FIx'd

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

This needs to be boycotted, this cannot go through - man we are doomed if this goes without a hitch into process completely with games D: pc gamers have to suffer through denvu - thats a golden example and should be a major red flag warning to devs on consoles.

Hell sakes man please make this stop...;-;...

 

[stanleyopar2000]

this is likely setting up the New Switch which sounds like to me the infastructure on the new switch will just be an improved spec'd switch which means cartridges will still be able to be dumped

 

[raxadian]

Making DRM for a videogame console that's getting replaced next year? Lovely!

 

[SamuraiErikku]

This DRM will end badly for Nintendo & Denuvo is a worthless company this is what you get when you go a long to get a long with the enemies instead of the passionate customers that shower you with money. If Nintendo gets fucked due to Denuvo it's their own fault I will also say oh well maybe you shouldn't have teamed up with the enemy and that enemy is Denuvo and yet Nintendo don't mind shelling out their money to some stupid DRM company! I hope their next Console/Handheld they release gets hacked within the first week hell I'll be impressed if it was day one. Denuvo is shit & Nintendo is allowing this enemy to turn games into shit also those who work with the shit company Denuvo!

 

[Lodad]

The switch is already 7 years old. What's the point?

Anyone who chooses to implement this is a sucker for FOMO/greed or only wants to punish legit customers. It's already widely known that piracy doesn't make a difference as to whether or not you make a sale and companies know that making options available that are more attractive than piracy is the better plan.

Crack groups will turn this into a minor speed bump to doing business as usual while people who pay up will suffer. Nintendo is probably popping a chubby at the prospects.

 

[Viri]

There is only two people who crack Denuvo. One guy does it ONLY for Football Manager. I guess he really wants more people to play his favorite video game series.


The other is a mentally ill individual who has a cult. If you ever read his/her's posts in Discord, you'll lose all faith in Denuvo ever getting cracked for your favorite video game. It's so bad that you'll sometimes wonder if Denuvo pays him/her off to demoralize pirates. lol

 

[TomSwitch]

"the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience" should be "the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the developer experience".

Gamer don't care about build toolchain, only developer do. This only mean that developer do nothing and they get their game degraded effortlessly. They probably tested the game without it activated so they don't even know how bad the game actually is going to be

It needed to be seamless or Denuvo would just failed. No developer would lift a finger to degrade what they achieve with their blood, sweat and tears. They probably won't even know that management have decided to put their optimization effort to waste.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Denuvo on a cartridge is the worst idea - years later it will make the game unplayable when the console is no longer supported by Nintendo.

 

[Spider_Man]

The switch still struggles to play breath of the turd and other games without having some shit running in the background, nevermind having this performing checks.

But good point, what about those that don't even connect their console online.....

If that's supported then easy fix, block your emulator or dont even configure its network for the console side of it.

But nice to see efforts put in to stop emulators, Nintendo pretty much might as well admit that they did fuck all to preserve any security.... even in its bs legal claims hackers had exploited their new security methods and anti piracy after aparently spending loads to attempt to block them.

Fuck off shitendo, more like you knew you had been blown apart, dont use you crapping out new models because you were preventing exploits.

Nothing changed at all.

Let's hope this isnt as bad as shitbox's washed down windows OS that keeps telling you that you don't own the game and to download it again from the store......

When its a fucking physical disc you own that your trying to play.

I can imagine nintendos next shitgen console, its DRM better remain tiny in size or else you'll never get actual games anymore on your physical cartridge.

Well to be fair, Craptivision have been getting away with charging £60+ for a blank disc pretty much, none of the actual game that your purchasing is even on it, just a shitty little app for WarZone (that you didnt want nor even wanted) that then forces you to download your game.

I bet this is one of the reasons microshite wanted craptivision, so they can put this into all future shitbox games.

Though I still wonder why it is even today that not one hacker has found or released anything not even a whisper relating to any exploit or vulnerability in the shitbox one.

Yet we find hackers reporting and getting paid by Sony to find exploits.

Its not like windows is a secure app, litrally it does what nintendo does to prevent piracy.... fuck all.

Well, nintendo only care about them raping the legal system for millions in damages, bet not one third party gets a penny of that.

So not only are shitendo raking millions in by recycling the same shit over and over, even porting the same old shit, they also make millions more by taking any fucker they can to court.

And people love this company?

They even rape the customers, passing on costs and expenses to them so they can make its consoles as cheap as possible.

That might suggest why "emulation" is focused in its DRM, be another piss take to find your existing devices emulating and playing nintendos own shit better than they can, even worse when it comes their next shitgen console likely around the corner (and no, it will never be called switch 2 or pro.... wish people will stop claiming this shit).

 

[ChronosNotashi]

So Switch games will be playable online only?

Hopefully, it will be like with anything that requires an NSO subscription to launch (namely: the emulators and any game trials), and just require an online check every now and then. But then again, this is Denuvo we're talking about. No doubt that any third party that uses it is going to botch up the implementation somehow.

 

[17hitcombooo]

Hopefully, it will be like with anything that requires an NSO subscription to launch (namely: the emulators and any game trials), and just require an online check every now and then. But then again, this is Denuvo we're talking about. No doubt that any third party that uses it is going to botch up the implementation somehow.

still a ridiculous idea that nintendo would lock their emulation behind denuvo

 

[ertaboy356b]

This is pointless. An emulator gives all the tools for a dedicated hacker to find what's not being properly emulated and easily replicate how real hardware would work, making the DRM unable to distinguish between a real console and an emulator.

replicating how a real hardware work will require resources beyond the current one. See BSNES.

 

[Mark McDonut]

welp there goes another 15 FPS and "we totally swear it doesn't make your equipment and game run like trash"

 

[ertaboy356b]

Not everyone who uses emulation wants to pirate. This is actually gonna make it harder to preserve games. Durn you Denovo!

I agree with Not everyone, I believe it's almost everyone

Post automatically merged: Aug 24, 2023

I don't know which methods they would use to prevent emulation on other hardware but my guess they want to cripple the performance of the games when ran on non-switch hardware?

On Switch itself I doubt there's any method of protection that exist or can be developed other than phoning home the same way denuvo does on PC. I'd imagine a lot of people even those fanboys will be pissed when they realize they cannot play their games anymore until they authenticate online.

They will probably just prevent emulation by doing accuracy checks. Switch piracy on the switch won't have a problem with this.

Post automatically merged: Aug 24, 2023

This needs to be boycotted, this cannot go through - man we are doomed if this goes without a hitch into process completely with games D: pc gamers have to suffer through denvu - thats a golden example and should be a major red flag warning to devs on consoles.

Hell sakes man please make this stop...;-;...

boycott never works, see Bayoneta 3 and that Harry Potter game.

 

[sKoMo]

Amazing! Super fast timing too, since the switch just released and has at least 5 years before a successor.

Rumors says a "new switch" will appears in 2024.
Maybe this denuvo shit is focused for the new hardware?

 

[wurstpistole]

I'm pretty sure 95% of the people posting here didn't really read the article. It's not Denuvo on the Switch, it has literally nothing to do with games running on the console. It's to protect games from being emulated on on Yuzu or Ryujinx for example.

 

[bonkmaykr]

The announcement on their Twitter is absolutely being bombarded, and the only positive comments are from Nintendo fanboys who believe "emulation == piracy" and "teh switch is special an won lag lik ur PC "

Spoiler: brainrot

I can't believe people actually fall for this

Watch this bullshit get circumvented in like a month or less. You might be able to do some dirty tricks like the Disney Trio of Destruction, but ultimately the goal of an emulator is to accurately recreate the architecture of one system on another, so this will be worked around no matter what.

I'm pretty sure 95% of the people posting here didn't really read the article. It's not Denuvo on the Switch, it has literally nothing to do with games running on the console. It's to protect games from being emulated on on Yuzu or Ryujinx for example.

It's still a variant of Denuvo, and it has to run on the Switch to tell if it's fake or not. The code that runs these checks isn't just magically disabled on your Switch thus defeating the entire point.

The asinine nature of the DRM depends on it's implementation, but considering Denuvo's reputation in going way too far in some cases and causing legitimate copies to be the worst versions (whether the game developer was to blame for poor integration with the SDK or not), it's not unreasonable that people expect the same poor outcome on their consoles.

 

[NakedFaerie]

Denuvo is hated EVERYWHERE so why not also be hated on Switch.​

 

[seseiSeki]

Denuvo out here promoting Switch hacking to install patches that remove DRM.
And normal users will be lying in shambles, but they should be used to that at this point