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.

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[WG481]

Emulation is legal. Stopping emulation requires CPU processing that the Switch will have to use to make sure that the Switch is a Switch. Stopping the stopping of emulation will be another 128 kilobyte patch file.
Seems like a lot of wasted effort to stop something that doesn't harm Nintendo in the first place, while also throttling everyone's Switch experience.

 

[osaka35]

So they're trying to stop pirating by making pirated games play better? Weird flex.

 

[Deleted member 446461]

Wasn't Denuvo for videogames on PC? It'd be pointless to have extra DRM on consoles when the console itself already has DRM, most likely.

Seems like Nintendo's getting even sussier after revealing their partnership with Tencent.

 

[MrSandstorm]

Denuvo already has a... peculiar (let's call it that) history regarding how games with it behave performance-wise on PC. Can't wait to see what it'll do to stuff running on a 7yo mobile CPU that wasn't particularly powerful even when it initially came out.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Interestingly, no mention of hacked consoles. I guess they couldn't get Nintendo on board to enable similar checks for CFW and sig patches.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

The best way to "solve Switch piracy" is to not ban people from the eShop. I wouldn't be pirating if I could be purchasing.
Plus, the more recent console models already fix the main way to enter CFW, so it's only targeting people that still have launch-model units (or have managed to get modchips, which is nowhere near as user-friendly), while punishing the far greater number of legitimate users.

In short, yet again this is pointless.

 

[lolcatzuru]

im skeptical of this, i doubt itll go anywhere, not only is it totally gonna bog the heck out of the switch itself ( unless the rumored switch pro is more capable) but im also not sure how it can even help them...

 

[TomSwitch]

exactly why i'm not worried

Worried? You shouldn't be for for having no games you can play. A specific game you have your eyes on that uses Denuvo-19? Perhaps you should be. Anything other than a handful of AAA titles won't get any attention.

If it is software developed by humans, it'll be cracked and reverse engineered. Patches for games will be made and life will continue like this never happened.

If this team is as good as the PC team it will be for a long wait if it ever happens. You might as well buy it or forget it. You do know that there is no generic hack and every game with Denuvo is custom and require significant effort and therefore a long wait or not at all for many PC games.

It will never be the same as before. Not unless the game company reject it for cost, performance or customer boycott.

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

I'm not reading all that.

I guess what they say is true, ignorance is bliss and you're about as ignorant as they come on GBAtemp.

 

[TomSwitch]

Won't this also prevent the game from running on Switch with Atmosphere-Mesosphere ? As Mesosphere is clean roomed version of HOS Kernel which is very likely to introduce traceable differences.

Atmosphere can make the game run exactly the same, perhaps dmnt needs to be disable for the game to run, the game don't have the ability to peek into the OS environment. Each official HOS release is going to create a certain traceable difference if there is such a thing, no the game company will not want to release an update every time there is a HOS update and customer won't want to buy such a game that requires the game company to be around and motivated to support. Nintendo also won't allow it as customer surely will complain not to mention any false positive that renders the game not playable.

So this Denuvo disease can make cheating impossible if they want to but to make it difficult to cheat wasn't a thing for Switch game since a long time and Denuvo didn't do that for PC.

I don't agree. pirates pirate for the sake of pirating. it doesn't get anymore complicated than that. pirates simply pirate because they can. it's insulting to think otherwise.

It's not an accurate statement, if you say many people that is probably true, if you say most then it is already questionable.
If you say that is the reason you pirate then there is no argument.

Many people buy loads of steam game to hoard them when it is cheap, so the cost is for sure a factor for many people.

Some people like to try before they buy, at least many said so. Is there less pirates thanks to Steam policy only god knows.

I sure be very happy if Nintendo let me return a game like Steam do if I quickly found that I didn't like the game. I would be buying a lot more game from Nintendo when the risk of wasting money is reduced.

 

[TraderPatTX]

If this team is as good as the PC team it will be for a long wait if it ever happens. You might as well buy it or forget it. You do know that there is no generic hack and every game with Denuvo is custom and require significant effort and therefore a long wait or not at all for many PC games.

It will never be the same as before. Not unless the game company reject it for cost, performance or customer boycott.

You're right. The customer will decide. As soon as we quit buying and stock prices plummet. The shareholders will demand change and change will happen. That's the beauty of profit driven models. The consumer is ultimately in control. Look what happened to Sega, SNK, NEC, 3DO and Atari. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo may think they are too big to fail, but the other ones thought the same thing before their consoles failed.

 

[TomSwitch]

could this theoretically be used to detect hacked switches? Assuming it looks for CPU speeds, and assuming you had something like SysClk enabled?

No more 60FPS hack

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

I look forward to seeing all the new anti emulation anti homebrew influencer crap online related to this similar to what they did when Nintendo started banning people for pirating games.
Seems like we're going to be in for a new golden age of "NX Homebrew Misinformation" (I'm calling it that because Switch is codenamed NX and people back in the day and indeed to this very day like to spread misinformation on Switch bans and their cause).

 

[TomSwitch]

I look forward to seeing all the new anti emulation anti homebrew influencer crap online related to this similar to what they did when Nintendo started banning people for pirating games.
Seems like we're going to be in for a new golden age of "NX Homebrew Misinformation" (I'm calling it that because Switch is codenamed NX and people back in the day and indeed to this very day like to spread misinformation on Switch bans and their cause).

There won't be any difference concerning information about whether a game can run or how well it run on an emulator.

If someone going to lie about it they could have and probably already did .

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

There won't be any difference concerning information about whether a game can run or how well it run on an emulator.

If someone going to lie about it they could have and probably already did .

I'm referring to how back in the earlier days of the scene there was a plethora of Youtubers and influencers spreading lies and misinformation on Switch hacking and bans and how when/if this releases there will be many more doing the same, hopefully this time though people will challenge them a bit more than in the old days.

 

[tabzer]

What does mean "a pirate is a pirate"? Do you think there are just two kinds of people, good ones and evil ones? Good ones always buying their games at full price and evil ones always getting their games for free? You really think human behavior is as basic and binary than this?

The truth is way more complex. When someone see a product and in one hand he can get it for free and in another hand he has to buy it, there are many factors which will determinate his behavior (price, savings, vendor, purchase benefits,...).

Money is a really subjective topic, and as long as there will be the free option versus the paid option, people will make choices and these choices are way beyond the simplistic approach of "I'm a good guy / I'm a pirate."

While this is too "high-context" for some people and I don't think it should be met with scorn or ridicule, I do think this veers some attention away from the source of the argument.

This Denuvo for Switch may be enough to get some pirates to pay, and that is the marketing it's banking on. Nintendo and devs are their potential customers. It doesn't need to work. It needs to convince potential buyers that it might work with little repercussion in the case it does not. Most of us know Denuvo is baggage and hurts performance despite the product promise, but complaints tend to be spun into positive marketing and brand awareness anyway.

They are trying to sell the "better than not" approach, even if history disagrees. "Fake it 'til you make it!"

 

[realtimesave]

This late in the game = ultra fail.

 

[tabzer]

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

This right here. This is probably more of a proof of concept to get their foot in the door towards a bigger future. It'll still make money, but it's not their end-game, despite the possibility that the Switch is close.

 

[Carltrek]

Atmosphere can make the game run exactly the same, perhaps dmnt needs to be disable for the game to run, the game don't have the ability to peek into the OS environment. Each official HOS release is going to create a certain traceable difference if there is such a thing, no the game company will not want to release an update every time there is a HOS update and customer won't want to buy such a game that requires the game company to be around and motivated to support. Nintendo also won't allow it as customer surely will complain not to mention any false positive that renders the game not playable.

So this Denuvo disease can make cheating impossible if they want to but to make it difficult to cheat wasn't a thing for Switch game since a long time and Denuvo didn't do that for PC.

I am not sure if I got it correctly but as a part of the game, Denuvo for Switch is and only runs at user state? That doesn't sound safe at all as a rigged kernel/driver could easily get it disabled or spoofed. If you aren't at kernel level then you can't anti anything.
Even if the anti-piracy/anti-cheating is running at the kernel level, there are also cheats that actively does kernel confrontation but that is not that common as one step wrong, no matter the anti-cheat side or cheat side, bang, BSOD.

Wasn't Denuvo for videogames on PC? It'd be pointless to have extra DRM on consoles when the console itself already has DRM, most likely.

Seems like Nintendo's getting even sussier after revealing their partnership with Tencent.

When devs need to consider external security on a console, that means the DRM provided by the console sucks, like really sucks.
But third-party or self-made DRM precautions could date back to PSX era.

 

[tabzer]

When devs need to consider external security on a console, that means the DRM provided by the console sucks, like really sucks.
But third-party or self-made DRM precautions could date back to PSX era.

Games for NES/Famicon would try to independently detect if it wasn't legit.