Last month, we reported that Nintendo was banning Switch consoles used for piracy from going online. This was a result of the company"s new anti-piracy system which allowed it to identify when a game had been pirated thanks to a unique identifier that was included with every copy of the game.
Now, it seems this anti-piracy system has been backported to the Nintendo 3DS through the latest software update (version 11.8) released yesterday. The official changelog published on the support page only cites improvements to the stability and user experience, which has become synonymous with anti-piracy measures for the company. The new system was discovered by Twitter user SciresM, who was also the source of the Switch related news last month:
While Nintendo has always taken some steps to minimize piracy of the software on its consoles, this seems to be a more aggressive approach than before, as SciresM goes on to say that there"s not much that can be done to fight back should the company aim to crack down on the hackers.
With the 3DS nearing the end of its lifetime, it"s likely that those who wish to pirate the games won"t feel too affected by the measure, but it"s still interesting to see Nintendo going after these users on a seven-year-old system. It remains to be seen whether the hacking community manages to find a way to circumvent the bans.
Via: Nintendo Soup