Supposedly the 3DS has Been Cracked

1up.com: Let's not get into a moral argument about piracy. You either think it's wrong or you don't, and this blog post won't change your opinion either way. But that argument aside, piracy does have a far less subjective impact as well: The business considerations. In that light, 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.

[GraveLord]

Boo!
Go away hackers.

[Ult iMate]

From the article:
"Someone has broken through the system's region-locking, which honestly shouldn't exist in the first place."

Project Diva on 3DS could be a reason for me to buy a 3DS, but it's only for Japan. I bought Project Diva f to play it on my EU-PSV, but I will not buy a JP-3DS just to play one particular game.
Region locks are stupid.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Region lock sucks.
One of the best things about the PS3 and Vita is the region free. Nintendo should do the same, I was surprised to hear the Wii-U is region locked too.

[Ult iMate]

@HarryMasonHerpderp
Not only WiiU itself has a region lock. Even the WiiU tablet controller is region locked. Don't know about other WiiU peripherial devices. Why Nintendo is doing this?

[badz149]

but since the introduction of online pass the Vita is actually not 100% region free. yes you can play other region games but you can't redeem online passes from different regions using your own region's PSN! that's why, multi account is currently my most wanted feature on Vita! I hate to wait for games to come out locally and like some Japanese games...they simply never come out outside Japan at all!

[ziggurcat]

@ Ult iMate

it's a bit of a stretch on my part, but the screen may have something to do with it... different resolutions, maybe (i.e. EU's PAL versus NA's NTSC)?

it's the only thing i can think of since region-locking a peripheral is a tad silly.

@ nukeitall below:

did it ever occur to you that the reason why hardware manufacturers lock their s**t down is *because* of hackers not leaving well enough alone? do you not understand that if things were just left alone, the hardware we purchased wouldn't be so restricted? linux would still be freely available on the PS3 had it not been for idiot hackers' tampering, more user-replaceable parts would be available on our devices, and so on...

and lol... the only thing hackers are trying to make free are the games, not the hardware.

[ronin4life]

So?
Do you really think hacking will stop at subverting region locks? Would anyone here be this supportive if it was the Vita being hacked to subvert the online pass system? (SPOILER: I have been to vita hack n4g comment threads, and gravelords comment would have been agreed with to high heaven there.)

@badz
Except ps3 has the capability of being locked at whim as well: see persona 4 the arena. So Sony has been showing an acceptance and a wish to enact region locking at an increasing rate.

This a MARKET trend, caused by regional currency imbalances. Expect it to only get worse from everyone.
(Which is stupid... especially since I thought regional lockouts were made illegal by the global markets...)

[rainslacker]

@ziggercat

Resolution differences aren't really the reason anymore, maybe in the SD days, but HDTV does not have to worry about that. Also I've been told most European SDTV's could display NTSC, just not the other way around. In the PS1/PS2 days it ripped games usually just required a patch to display correctly, as the systems themselves were able to display either.

@ronin
One game from a 3rd party with region locks is hardly a telltale sign that Sony wants to increase region locking at an alarming rate. Sony said pretty early on they would leave that decision up to the publisher, and wouldn't interfere, but the system itself would be region free. That quite possibly is the only good thing to ever come from piracy.

@badz
I agree with you on multi-account...even though I probably would never use it. However there may be something more at play there, possibly licensing of DD content (which is different than physically licensed content), or an attempt to prevent piracy. The biggest problem I see is that companies don't say why they do some of these things, so everything gets thrown around as speculation.

[nukeitall]

I support hackers to liberate our hardware. It maintains the balance:

Hardware manufacturers try to lock it down, hackers try to free it. That ensures it doesn't go one way or the other too far!

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

"In the video game industry, Nintendo was the originator of regional lockout."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

wiiU was hacked say 1!

[rainslacker]

I support your endeavor to learn to do this yourself, keep it to yourself, and do whatever you want with your hardware and not affect the average consumer. Oh wait...you want others to do the work for you.

[nukeitall]

@rainslacker:

"I support your endeavor to learn to do this yourself, keep it to yourself, and do whatever you want with your hardware and not affect the average consumer. Oh wait...you want others to do the work for you."

That doesn't make any sense, as most people in the industry likely can't do this let alone an average Joe.

Most people think that hacking devices affect the average consumer, but that is just FUD. If that was the case, smart phones wouldn't have the eco-system it does today as it is likely one of the most hacked devices out there.

@ziggurcat (way at the top there):

"did it ever occur to you that the reason why hardware manufacturers lock their s**t down is *because* of hackers not leaving well enough alone?"

Hardware manufacturers lock their sh*t down so they can control how you use your device, to best profit from you and not necessarily due to hackers.

"do you not understand that if things were just left alone, the hardware we purchased wouldn't be so restricted?"

That is actually incorrect, as hardware manufacturers seek to control your usage to profit. That means they will lock it as much as you (as in average consumer) would be willing to put up with. If there was one dominant player, we would have more less restrictive console right now.

"linux would still be freely available on the PS3 had it not been for idiot hackers' tampering, more user-replaceable parts would be available on our devices, and so on... "

That is BS, as hardware manufactures now want to profit from replacement and upgrade parts.

Linux shut down was due to a major financial loss from government agencies as well as private sector using the PS3 as a cheap processing power for complex calculations. That wasn't in Sony's plan, and they lost money on every PS3 sold.

It wasn't the work of hackers that cost them!

[rainslacker]

I personally have nothing against the hacking community if indeed they are only doing it to open up their system to do what they wouldn't normally do with it, piracy being an exception, and even then I do see some positives for piracy in certain cases.

However piracy has a negative effect on the end user, which is what ziggurcat was getting at, although he didn't cite the best examples. While hacks may not be intended for piracy, it does invariably lead to it.

The Lvl0 key hack got put aside by those that originally found it because in their words "crooked personalities are widespread in this so called 'scene'." For that I can respect them because they knew what it could lead to. It only took one person to release that, and they did so against the groups wishes. The reason they ended up releasing the keys (according to them) was because CFW wanted to charge for it, which they took exception to.

My point was, that yeah, if someone wants to go and hack their system, I say more power to them. But do it for your own enjoyment, and stop bringing the bad effects it can cause into the rest of our lives. Too many deny the negative effects for personal gain, and it shouldn't be that way.

[nukeitall]

@rainslacker:

I'm of the opinion that hacking and eventually piracy (it always leads to it), does minimal harm to consumers. Take the smart phone market or even the PC market, both rampant with piracy, but developers still made games for years. In some sense, their open nature actually popularized the device.

The eventual decline of PC was more due to the inconveniences of incompatibilities, drivers and DRM than piracy. The DRM on consoles is pretty much transparent and doesn't inconvene, while on PC sometimes the DRM actually caused problems. Some games had nasty hops you had to jump through as well.

I cannot remember a single device where piracy was the major reason for it's poor support or death. That doesn't mean piracy is fine with me, but I think it acts kind of like a balance.

"Too many deny the negative effects for personal gain, and it shouldn't be that way."

I do agree with this, but don't think it applies significantly to the gaming industry.

[Irishguy95]

Gonna buy it now.

Edit---ah **** it, it's still not worth the price

[GenericNameHere]

I just want action replay for the 3DS... Yes, I admit to using cheats when I just want to mess around in a game, or to be able to eat a hard level/stage/boss. I still want to beat SMT:DSO, but I don't wanna grind!!

*note* I don't cheat when it comes to multiplayer though. I don't know how to hack lobbies and how to add cheats to my PS3, Xbox, or Wii. I admire the dedication some online gamers' works to get the best scores possible, and I definitely don't want to undermine their achievements. All of my console contents are legit, except for Pokémon. I hack the heck out of that game (I doubt a lot of people have the patience to complete the Pokédex)

[animegamingnerd]

lets face it the 3DS was going to be hack eventually every console does

[ninjahunter]

Even toasters, the classic control reward system with more ram than a wii. :P

[Rivitur]

They need to lessen the learning curb though my toast always comes out burnt. I tried hacking it once with a fork but that only made matters worse.

[G-cis]

"supposedly"

[Chrono]

Sooner or later. Nintendo only has itself to blame. Region lock in 2012?

[MasterCornholio]

Nintendo even went so far as to place a region lock on the Wii U controller. I mean what next region lock the console so that it only works in a specific country.

[ronin4life]

The controller being locked is actually proof that region locking is an currency countermeasure. We all know it is going to vary wildly in price across all regions, and you can't have Japanese or European people buying gamepads and games cheaper.(well actually, the yen to dollar ALONE is killing Nintendos profits, so they kind of can't... still stupid though.)

This is something I have been trying to get across since the whole Last Story/Xenoblade bruhaha: it is all about currency exchange rates and maximizing profits. Something other companies are starting to resort to as well, or come up with other countermeasures to losses like digital only releases and timed exclusivity to pricier regions.

@gepsent
There is already 1 dev lined up to jump ship:
http://www.destructoid.com/...

Anyone still think this hacking is a good thing for gamers?

[-Gespenst-]

Something's been brewing for like two weeks now. Old news.

Still, we probably won't be playing games on flashcarts for a while yet. They've hit a major milestone, but piracy won't hit the 3ds for a while yet.

Still, I can't help feel it's a little bit early in it's lifespan. If developers can't make money off the games they make, they're probably not gonna develop them, and that's no good.

I think these cracks should be saved until a console has reached the end of it's lifespan.

[badz149]

but the DS was hacked like no tomorrow but games still coming out! but the PSP...not so much! so...I don't know

[Baka-akaB]

the ds involved extra purchases (r4 ... r6 card readers etc) wich werent so easy to find for the general public and could scare them . Some shop were even fined and closed in EU for selling it , and rather quickly

At worst the psp hacks only involved own an umd of the most popular games of the time

[GreenRanger]

Hackers ruin things, even when they try to make them better.
Hacking will always lead to piracy.