THQ VP is confident that technology in the upcoming system will significantly curb handheld piracy.
THQ's executive VP of global publishing Ian Curran has had a look at the anti-piracy technology in Nintendo's upcoming 3DS, and he believes that it will be a significant step forward in the fight against handheld piracy.
While pinning his company's recent inability to "shift any significant volume" on the Nintendo DS squarely on piracy, he admitted that the Nintendo DSi was a little better in combating pirates (Nintendo doesn't believe the DSi has been cracked yet). However, Curran believes the Nintendo 3DS is on another level entirely. "I actually asked Nintendo to explain the technology and they said it's very difficult to do so because it's so sophisticated."
Many publishers have been hit hard by devices like the re-writeable R4 cartridge, which has been outlawed in Japan and has been the subject of several recent piracy sting operations around the world.
Curran pointed out that the 3DS raises the piracy stakes even higher, due to its increased cost of development. "It's going to probably cost us more to do [game development] all in 3D - so we want to make sure we get a return on our investment when we do it."