Support NeoGAF

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Security software company Denuvo has announced that its protection tech is now available to Switch developers.

The company is the first security partner to be added to the Nintendo Developer Portal, which studios can use to access tools and documentation while developing Switch games.

The first of the tools Denuvo is offering to Switch developers is Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy”.

According to Denuvo, the new tech can be applied to Switch games to block the ability to play them on PC emulators.

“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,” the company says. “This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Nintendo Switch.

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

“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.”

Nintendo has been trying to prevent Switch emulation on PC for some time now, and in May it issued multiple DMCA takedown requests to software hosting service GitHub to remove Lockpick, a homebrew tool designed to make it possible to play Switch games on an emulator.

Lockpick is a tool which lets players dump the unique encryption key from their own Switch so it can be used to play backups of Switch games on PC emulators.

While some players claim this is legal for creating their own backups – something Nintendo nevertheless disputes in its takedown claims – one of the steps in playing pirated Nintendo Switch games involves downloading someone else’s encryption key, a number of which are available for download online.

The team working on Switch Android emulator Skyline also announced in May that it had received a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo, due to its use of Lockpick. The Skyline team chose to cease all development on its emulator “due to the potential legal risks involved”.

Earlier this year, Switch hacker Gary Bowser was released from prison early for his part as a member of a hacking group called Team-Xecuter, which in 2013 began creating and selling circumvention devices enabling users to play illegal ROMs on consoles, including Switch and 3DS.

However, Bowser now has to fulfil the other part of his sentence, in which he has been ordered to pay $14.5 million in damages, of which a $10 million payment to Nintendo is considered the priority.

Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation | VGC

The company is the first security partner to be added to the Nintendo Developer Portal…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Punished Miku]

Great news.

 

[Deft Beck]

This is going to be awful for games preservation.

 

[Operations66]

Great news.

Yay, Nintendo now gets to make even more money from gamers! All hail Nintendo the Great!

 

[Punished Miku]

Yay, Nintendo now gets to make even more money from gamers! All hail Nintendo the Great!

Let it out.

 

[ReBurn]

Yay, Nintendo now gets to make even more money from gamers! All hail Nintendo the Great!

Are they not supposed to be able to make money from their games? I don't understand this statement.

 

[Punished Miku]

Are they not supposed to be able to make money from their games? I don't understand this statement.

Best time to be a PC gamer! You get all 3 systems games now! Woooo!!!

This is going to be bad for games preservation of Switch copies I absolutely legally buy. Also capitalism is evil, even though I totally buy all my Switch games before emulating them legally.

 

[Fake]

This is going to be awful for games preservation.

I'm more worried about the current Nintendo Switch perfomance with games. Is already trash, just add one layer of obstable.

Denuvo will make Switch games unplayable.

 

[onnextflix5]

Keep this poison off our switches.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

People like playing switch games at 60 fps. This may stop piracy in the short term, but I think it will be cracked like the rest.

Maybe Nintendo should concider doing pc releases on steam, that would likely cut down on piracy more then introducing road blocks.

Edit: You can hold the empathy, this doesn't affect me lol.

 

[Operations66]

Are they not supposed to be able to make money from their games? I don't understand this statement.

Since the 1980s Nintendo has been ruthless in their business practices, always finding ways to screw gamers out of the most money possible.

From overpricing games and not putting them on sale, to creating fake shortages to drive demand, to not making purchases on previous systems backwards compatible (buy Super Mario and Legend of Zelda again, suckers!), to blocking emulation, if there’s an extra dollar to be sucked out of gamers, Nintendo will suck it out.

Fortunately for them, they have a Praetorian Guard of nostalgic gamers online to nobly defend them.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Meh. It’ll keep games from being pirated day 1 most likely, but it won’t take long for it to be removed/cracked out. It makes sense from a developer’s standpoint and I honestly doubt it’ll harm preservation.

I buy all my games, but I’m still planning on emulating TotK at 60FPS the next time I play through it…

 

[Agent_4Seven]

To bypass this, the ways will be found.

 

[Clear]

This is going to be awful for games preservation.

Spare us the fake nobility!

Its bad for convenience, and accessibility, that's it.

Collectors and historians preserve original hardware and software, ideally in pristine condition with all packaging intact, not hacked images that may or may not be 1:1 copies of the original.

 

[chlorate]

There’s a huge disinformation problem in the gaming community, where software exclusively useful for criminal activity is justified with flimsy excuses like “This is used for dumping your own encryption key”. In reality, there are zero lawful reasons to create such a product.

People like the Dolphin developers should be behind bars.

 

[graywolf323]

Collectors and historians preserve original hardware and software, ideally in pristine condition with all packaging intact, not hacked images that may or may not be 1:1 copies of the original.

not even remotely true… digital preservation is a big aspect of it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/01/12/video-game-preservation-emulation/

“Archivists and preservationists move games files from media at-risk to media that is less at-risk, and that’s where we end up in section 1201 [of copyright law] land,” Albert said, citing the law that prohibits the circumvention of technological measures used by copyright owners to protect access to their works. “Digital preservation is incredibly hard. [Section] 1201 takes this fundamentally difficult thing and makes it legally risky and uncertain.”

 

[Mr Moose]

Yay, Nintendo now gets to make even more money from gamers! All hail Nintendo the Great!

What do you mean? They don't make PC games, they sell their games for Switch. And while I don't agree with their prices (fuckers don't drop) they have every right to make money for the games they make.

 

[winjer]

The Switch hardware isn't that strong, but adding Denuvo on top, will make things even worse.
I wouldn't be surprised if more games have performance issues and stuttering o this console.

 

[Punished Miku]

The Switch hardware isn't that strong, but adding Denuvo on top, will make things even worse.
I wouldn't be surprised if more games have performance issues and stuttering o this console.

Thank the millions of people that pirate every Switch game prior to release.

 

[winjer]

Thank the millions of people that pirate every Switch game prior to release.

Denuvo is always cracked. Most of the times, at launch.
Pirates don't care about DRM. The only people affected by DRM are paying consumers.
So having companies using crap like Denuvo, will only hurt paying consumers.

 

[Sintoid]

Will it reduce game performances?

 

[Punished Miku]

Denuvo is always cracked. Most of the times, at launch.
Pirates don't care about DRM. The only people affected by DRM are paying consumers.
So having companies using crap like Denuvo, will only hurt paying consumers.

I still cant blame them for trying honestly. You cant even go in a Switch related thread without people flaunting it.

 

[nkarafo]

As always, this is going to affect the paying customers only (negativelly).

 

[winjer]

Will it reduce game performances?

On PC, several games have drop in performance, especially on older CPUs.
DRM also adds stutter in some games, as data is verified and decrypted.
Since the Switch doesn't have dedicated hardware for this stuff, it's probably going to use a CPU thread, or more. And use memory bandwidth.
So it's probably going to cause performance issues. But of course, that Denuvo will claim there is no problem.

 

[spons]

As always, this is going to affect the paying customers only (negativelly).

How, exactly?

 

[Same ol G]

Meh. It’ll keep games from being pirated day 1 most likely, but it won’t take long for it to be removed/cracked out. It makes sense from a developer’s standpoint and I honestly doubt it’ll harm preservation.

I buy all my games, but I’m still planning on emulating TotK at 60FPS the next time I play through it…

This is exactly the reason they said it themselves in the text.

By blocking unauthorised emulations on PC, studios are able to increase their revenue during the game launch window, which is the most important period for monetisation.

They know it will get hacked down the line but it will help with the launch sales.

 

[nkarafo]

Thank the millions of people that pirate every Switch game prior to release.

The vast majority of them would never buy those games either way. So, pirating them doesn't really affect the sales as much as you may think. But the paying customers will suffer anyway.

 

[spons]

On PC, several games have drop in performance, especially on older CPUs.
DRM also adds stutter in some games, as data is verified and decrypted.
Since the Switch doesn't have dedicated hardware for this stuff, it's probably going to use a CPU thread, or more. And use memory bandwidth.
So it's probably going to cause performance issues. But of course, that Denuvo will claim there is no problem.

Doubt it, very much. It's going to work flawlessly, add a few checks for emulators they (emu developers) can't legally circumvent, and be done.

 

[nkarafo]

How, exactly?

Performance issues and not being able to replay the games when the DRM servers are down.

 

[winjer]

Doubt it, very much. It's going to work flawlessly, add a few checks for emulators they (emu developers) can't legally circumvent, and be done.

That is such a naïve take on Denuvo.

 

[jshackles]

This was announced last year

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/denuvo-launches-new-technology-to-prevent-switch-emulation.1640541/

It was a bad idea then, it's a bad idea now.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

This is clearly a move against those who say they buy legit copies but don't, and then proceed to steal the games and play them on PC. Hope this stops that shit for good.

 

[Punished Miku]

There’s a huge disinformation problem in the gaming community, where software exclusively useful for criminal activity is justified with flimsy excuses like “This is used for dumping your own encryption key”. In reality, there are zero lawful reasons to create such a product.

People like the Dolphin developers should be behind bars.

I think that's their next target. The status quo clearly isn't working.

 

[spons]

Performance issues and not being able to replay the games when the DRM servers are down.

100% sure this won't require any online connection.

 

[Banjo64]

Yay, Nintendo now gets to make even more money from gamers! All hail Nintendo the Great!

Imagine that, a company being profit focused.

 

[Dorfdad]

Man the switch already has performance issues and we all know how their DRM hampers and slows down pc gaming. If it’s anything like the pc the switch is going to have some major performance hits

 

[Sleepwalker]

100% sure this won't require any online connection.

It better not, my OLED switch wifi doesn't work unless its docked and nintendo wants $200 to fix it so they can stuff it.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Will it reduce game performances?

yes

 

[Draugoth]

Incredible,

Now instead of running at 30 FPS, games will run at 15 FPS.

 

[Lokaum D+]

This is clearly a move against those who say they buy legit copies but don't, and then proceed to steal the games and play them on PC. Hope this stops that shit for good.

this is just envy cause they can play TOTK at 4K@60fps and Switch users dont.

i wanna see u prove that ppl dont buy their games to use on emulation, there is absolutily nothing wrong in emulating a game that u already bought it.

 

[Guilty_AI]

100% sure this won't require any online connection.

denuvo is based around online connection

Great news.

Enjoy your physical switch games now tethered to a server i guess.

 

[Banjo64]

Since the 1980s Nintendo has been ruthless in their business practices, always finding ways to screw gamers out of the most money possible.

From overpricing games and not putting them on sale, to creating fake shortages to drive demand, to not making purchases on previous systems backwards compatible (buy Super Mario and Legend of Zelda again, suckers!), to blocking emulation, if there’s an extra dollar to be sucked out of gamers, Nintendo will suck it out.

Fortunately for them, they have a Praetorian Guard of nostalgic gamers online to nobly defend them.

 

[RagnarokIV]

There’s a huge disinformation problem in the gaming community, where software exclusively useful for criminal activity is justified with flimsy excuses like “This is used for dumping your own encryption key”. In reality, there are zero lawful reasons to create such a product.

People like the Dolphin developers should be behind bars.

LMAO!

Parody?

 

[spons]

this is just envy cause they can play TOTK at 4K@60fps and Switch users dont.

i wanna see u prove that ppl dont buy their games to use on emulation, there is absolutily nothing wrong in emulating a game that u already bought it.

Soon there will be since you will need to circumvent copy protection.

 

[nkarafo]

100% sure this won't require any online connection.

Then it doesn't sound like it's going to be effective at all. It will be cracked day 1. But the performance issues will still be there for the non-pirates. Heck, maybe some paying customer will prefer the pirated version because of better performance. Who knows.

 

[ssringo]

Challenge has been issued to the folks that enjoy cracking Denuvo. And there's not very many Nintendo releases each year to divy up their focus.

 

[Mithos]

On PC, several games have drop in performance, especially on older CPUs.

Isn't it even in some cases that DENUVO itself require a newer CPU to even run but the game itself could have run on an older CPU without DENUVO present?
I want to remember that this happened to a game/games at least once in the past.

Also as long as the Denuvo logo is on the game so you can OPT OUT from buying them/supporting trash.

 

[Clear]

not even remotely true… digital preservation is a big aspect of it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/01/12/video-game-preservation-emulation/

Digital preservation is only a necessity for digitally distributed properties, not physical properties. A relatively recent development, and due to that the whole argument about "media degradation" making it a necessity is transparently bogus.

You don't need to "preserve" a digital image, you just replicate it infinitely! Because that done all you need is functional hardware to execute the data... and with that we're back on the requirement for the preservation of PHYSICAL hardware as the critical element!

 

[Operations66]

Not crying, just speaking the truth. Am I wrong?

 

[Guilty_AI]

Digital preservation is only a necessity for digitally distributed properties, not physical properties. A relatively recent development, and due to that the whole argument about "media degradation" making it a necessity is transparently bogus.

You don't need to "preserve" a digital image, you just replicate it infinitely! Because that done all you need is functional hardware to execute the data... and with that we're back on the requirement for the preservation of PHYSICAL hardware as the critical element!

physical hardware can be emulated. You don't need a ps3 to play many ps3 classics.