Nintendo 3DS Automatic Firmware Updates To Thwart Piracy
Satoru Iwata Holding 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo’s latest upcoming portable console, will feature firmware updates. Satoru Iwata, the company president, says that its only goal is not to halt piracy.
The Nintendo 3DS will update automatically, and Nintendo considers this an important feature. Iwata says that, from past experience, manual updates can cause some individuals to skip updating their machines, probably due to laziness.
The 3DS’ automatic updates will certainly be a tough obstacle for pirates to over come, but, as Iwata stresses, it will also allow Nintendo to introduce new features without having to worry whether or not the user will actually download the update. Iwata considers that to be more important than stopping piracy.
For those whom are living under a rock or do not have access to a WiFi spot will be able to get firmware updates through the software cartridges as well.
Some gamers may be wondering why automatic updates may be so troublesome for some hackers to overcome, if done right. What Nintendo aims to do with these automatic updates is regularly release improvements that may block some of the more popular flash carts. So now, the flash cart developers will have to be working around the clock to make sure their product does not get axed by one of the updates.
While Nintendo is claiming that this automatic firmware update is mainly to provide content to those whom are too lazy to download the updates manually, I think their underlying, and more important, motive is to simply combat piracy on another level.