Tiny Cartridge

Not everyone’s happy about the 3DS hacking news Opponents of the Nintendo 3DS’s region-locking and homebrew-blocking welcomed yesterday’s news that hackers have made great strides in working around the system’s security. You can see evidence of that in the above image posted this morning, which shows a custom 3DS notification (with a nod to The World Ends With You). Though hacker Neimod is against allowing his 3DS exploit to be used for loading commercial software, some are worried about the piracy implications of this latest development. Jools Watsham, head of Mutant Mudds maker Renegade Kid, believes this could nonetheless pave the way for 3DS piracy: “Piracy on the Nintendo DS crippled the DS retail market, especially in Europe. … If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games. … The good news is that Nintendo has the ability to put up a good fight against pirates due to 3DS system updates and such. Let’s hope this is enough to stop piracy.” 1UP’s Jeremy Parish voiced similar concerns: “The underlying intent of hacking a machine like this is to open the door for piracy. … The advent of 3DS software piracy seems likely to be the worst possible thing that could happen to the system, especially in the U.S. I can’t help but worry that the only thing helping to prop up the 3DS’s meager U.S. software sales so far has been the fact that you have to buy them to play them. Take away that limitation, and will we see the 3DS market implode the same way the DS market did? It’s hard to imagine otherwise.” NeoGAF’s Duckroll, however, has a great argument for why cheering on 3DS hacking isn’t necessarily wrong, despite its potential ramifications: “If somehow the advent of piracy is tied to something which also makes buying customers who do not pirate rejoice, this means you’re doing something wrong. That does not mean buying customers are cheering for piracy, it means that either the feature set in the base package is not satisfactory, or that somehow in the pursuit of preventing piracy something has been implemented which has an adverse effect on paying customers. Neither of these factors are good. Ideally, a company should keep consumers happy because they are what keeps the company alive. If no one buys anything, then the company dies. It is often better to put resources towards keeping customers who you know exist happy, rather than being stubborn and believing that by preventing piracy completely, you will automatically make money. This is why in general every draconian DRM scheme has largely failed.” As for where we stand on the controversial topic of hacking the 3DS, we’ve decided that we’re neutral on the issue — a brave and bold stance, we know! We’ve mentioned in the past that there is a lot of value to homebrew capabilities and devices add to consoles, but we believe Parish and Watsham’s concerns are valid. Piracy on the DS was no joke, and that likely affected what publishers ended up releasing for the system. So, while we would love a region-free 3DS, we wouldn’t want it to come at the cost of developers abandoning the system because they can’t make a buck off it anymore. BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming releases

Not everyone’s happy about the 3DS hacking news

Opponents of the Nintendo 3DS’s region-locking and homebrew-blocking welcomed yesterday’s news that hackers have made great strides in working around the system’s security. You can see evidence of that in the above image posted this morning, which shows a custom 3DS notification (with a nod to The World Ends With You).

Though hacker Neimod is against allowing his 3DS exploit to be used for loading commercial software, some are worried about the piracy implications of this latest development. Jools Watsham, head of Mutant Mudds maker Renegade Kid, believes this could nonetheless pave the way for 3DS piracy:

“Piracy on the Nintendo DS crippled the DS retail market, especially in Europe. … If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games. …

The good news is that Nintendo has the ability to put up a good fight against pirates due to 3DS system updates and such. Let’s hope this is enough to stop piracy.”

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“Publishing games on 3DS is hard. I give up!”

[Jools Watsham from Renegade Kid (Mutant Mudds) offers some advice to publishers and developers who are giving up on 3DS games, in this reprinted piece.]

“Publishing games on the 3DS is hard. I give up!”

That’s basically what I am hearing from publishers these days. “Only first-party games are selling on the 3DS,” is what they tell me. Hm, I wonder why that would be?

It wouldn’t have anything to do with the quality of the first-party games compared to the third-party games, would it? I doubt it would have anything to do with the marketing and PR efforts put into the games either. No, it must be the fact that first-party games use known brands and have the word Nintendo on them; nothing more.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if Nintendo’s games were handled in the same manner as most third-party publishers handle their own games, they would be in the bargain bin in no time.

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Breaking down eShop pricing (or why 3DS downloads aren’t as cheap as iPhone games)

[Though the eShop is fast becoming a great source for some of the best gaming on 3DS, many still take issue with its pricing — refusing to pay $7 for Pushmo because iOS puzzlers sell for $.99 or less, or passing up on VVVVVV because it’s not as cheap as the Steam version.

Renegade Kid’s Jools Watsham, who will soon release retro-style platformer Mutant Mudds to eShop, recently vented on App Store comparisons, game development costs, and attitudes toward download pricing — we’ve reprinted his thoughts here with his permission.]

It seems as though the price tag of video games has always been criticized as being too high. Now that we live in a world where iPhone Apps are available for $1 or even $FREE, a $40 video game seems outrageous in comparison to many people. Perhaps $40 for a 3DS game is outrageous, but what surprises me is when people scoff at the cost of $5 and $10 Nintendo eShop games. Really? Now even $5 or $10 is too much for a game?

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