170°

Nintendo Wii U Hacked; This is the Real Reason Next-Gen Implements DRM

VG Republic Writes: Yesterday came news that a group of hackers known for their work on the Nintendo Wii and the ability to enjoy backed-up versions of retail games, was at it again saying that they have unlocked the Wii U and are working on finalizing the hack of the Next-Gen console. While there were not any true details given other than saying via their website “Yes, its real – we have now completely reversed the WiiU drive authentification, disk encryption, file system, and everything else needed for this next generation K3y. Stay tuned for updates!” said the group via WiiKey.com, there are thoughts that the group is on the verge of breaking through the barriers needed to play pirated or “backed-up” copies of your currently owned Wii U titles.

There are some that will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on the device that would allow you to play games at a rate of free, but the bigger issue lies for those that choose not to go the route of piracy and purchase games for retail costs. Is nothing sacred anymore; have we become so cheap that we can’t just leave a machine for what it is instead of defacing a unit? These are the very reasons that consoles like the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Next Xbox are discussing ways to implement features that discourage use of pirated copies of games, but are even going to lengths of stopping the use of second hand copies of games as well.

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vgrepublic.com
Arai4444d ago

The bad luck doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
Nintendo is finding itself in some rough waters at the moment.

Sucitta4443d ago

How so, the Wii went on to win last gen, hacked almost right away..

Do you think Soccer mom Sally is going to flash her Wii to play free games or use homebrew? Maybe her daughter Tiffany so she doesn't have to pay for Barbie rides horses?

Out of the 100 million plus Wii sales, how many family's do you think modded their systems?

MASTER_RAIDEN4443d ago

okay so not a ton of mods, but believe me brother that first off, the modded systems were definitely out there. im sure there were most definitely a few million modded wiis out there. secondly, of those modded consoles, im sure a fair percentage have almost thousands of dollars worth of pirated games on them.

nintendo probably lost millions upon millions of dollars due to hacks on its console. just because the problem wasnt widespread in relativity to percentages, doesnt mean it didnt hurt them, badly. i didnt know too many people with modded PSPs or fat 360, but that didnt stop sony from openly admitting that they were losing a ton of money because of homebrew. wii was most likely more of the same, as may be the wii u soon. only time will tell.

Arai4443d ago

Case in point is that hacking is not good for anything.
Doesn't matter if they won the last generation or not, the fact remains that hacking is not good for any company.

Th4Freak4443d ago

Well the difference is that Nintendo wasn't losing money with these modded Wii's, Iwata said that they're selling the Wii U at a loss and they start making money when someone purchase a software so it's a completely different situation.

fairyblaster4443d ago

yeah sure buddy. i want shadow of the C. on wiiU

Typical-Guy4443d ago

It's really unfortunate, but it's ok for them to release already existing games on the Wii U for $60! That's something.

Sucitta4443d ago (Edited 4443d ago )

EXACTLY !!

60$ for any game that isn't AAA and deserving of your 60$ is a reason in itself to pirate.

Trillions of dollars stolen from the people since the beginning of time does not equate to some tech savvy hackers trying to save some $$$ from a multi trillion dollar industry that will do just fine with the hackers leeching a little.

Make no mistake. DRM is about greed and outrageous bonuses, given to fatcat CEO's that bleed every possible penny from the consumer, just to appease the vampire stockholders.

Arai4443d ago

While I agree to certain extent, hackers usually only cares about filling their pockets and/or just cheap out.

Granted that it's ridiculous to pay 50-60 USD for games that are sometimes 5-6 hours.
Long gone are the days when games usually used to be around 25+ hours.

DarthJay4443d ago

There is never a reason to pirate. If you want the product, you pay for it. If you don't want to pay $60, wait until there is a price drop.

If they want to save money, they can do it by not playing video games. It's a nice luxury to have, but it's a luxury. No one has a right to every video game ever because they are them and god damn it they want it.

There is no justifying piracy. The problem is, people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to complain about the price and then contribute nothing at all. It's a product. You wouldn't walk into a car dealership and say "hey, I love this car but it's too expensive, so I'll just take it," so why are video games supposed to be different? Just because you can do it and get away with it, doesn't make it right or your justifications OK.

Guwapo774443d ago

That doesn't justify stealing the game because they re-released a game at $60. If you do not think it's worthy, don't buy it. Oh so you say you want to play it anyways? Well you have a couple options...

1. If you like it, buy it at $60.

2. Wait till the price is reduced. All games hit the bargain bin eventually.

3. Don't play the game at all.

I use to play pirated games when I was dumb and didn't fully understand and only cared about my enjoyment and my wallet. I was enlightened after I saw what happened to the Sega Dreamcast. I owned maybe 1 or 2 legit games and over 50 pirated. I to some degree feel responsible for helping my favorite system to date be destroyed.

Si4443d ago

Sega Ceo died during the end dreamcast generation the remaining shareholders sold the company to nintendo. Sega is still around as a developer. They didnt vanish because of pirates.

I_LOVE_MYSELF4443d ago

Nintendo games don't drop easily. I saw Mario64DS in a store the other day for the same price it originally launched at.

sway_z4443d ago (Edited 4443d ago )

I don't see the point for the general gamer population. 25GB games will take a whole lot of storage and let's be honest...there are maybe 3 games worth pirating on Wii U if you're the kind of scumbag who cannot see the harm this type of modding can do to the industry...

Piracy affects all legitimate gamers and I am against.

dangert124443d ago

I'm not interested in the Wii U but what i think will be interesting is...The POSSIBILITY of boosting WiiU sales for Nintendo...we all know piracy sells consoles.

Sharius4443d ago

what the point of that sale?

they may boost the hardware market a little but in long run they will hurt software market alot

the sale of 3rd party isnt good now, and if nintendo ignore that then even the indie will be scare away

dangert124443d ago

Not true always the case, take the PS1 and Ps2 for example and even the WII

MonkeyNinja4443d ago

There are many who wouldn't even bother buying a WiiU UNLESS they can hack/mod it. These people will increase hardware sales, but if they wouldn't have bought the hardware if it wasn't able to be hacked, then the games they pirate wouldn't have been bought in the first place. Although it would look bad to publishers/indies. And shareholders. This could be another Wii situation.

kayoss4443d ago

@dangert @ monkeybootey
The difference ps1 and ps2 is back then not everyone have Internet. So the number of people who knew how to mod were very small. The modding occur late in the life cycle of the system. Wii was hacked almost immediately but two reason why it didn't affect Nintendo.
1) the majority of wii owners were parents who bought it for their kids. Most owner were casual gamers who didn't know about modding or didn't care.
2) Nintendo made money every wii console it sold. Wii u, they are selling at a lost

@monkeybootey
It's always the same excuse, either for home brew or I wouldn't have gotten the game anyways. Then why would you play it now? Because you got it for free? If you're cheap then say so. It's a lame excuse.

MASTER_RAIDEN4443d ago

Wrong thread, i know, but.......price drop this baby and im alllll over it.
wii u has a few decent titles to its name, but the bulk of those i could just as easily fire up on my ps3 or 360.

price drop, with or without hacks, might actually motivate me to get on top of this.

kreate4443d ago

Problem with price drops is that, after a price drop is initiated, most gamers wait for another price drop.

LOL_WUT4443d ago

@kreate Really? Because i'm pretty sure if Nintendo price it right tons of people would definitely go out and buy one. Fifty dollars off would be a good start. ;)

kreate4442d ago (Edited 4442d ago )

@LoL

yea dude.. some ppl would go out and buy a wii-u after a price drop, but some gamers wait for another price drop..

havent u been on CAG? gamers are cheap. including myself.

- and i didnt click on the disagree button

Show all comments (37)
300°

Looming Xbox layoffs threaten Microsoft's reputation

Even as the company sets out to overhaul the very definition of Xbox, cuts at its studios risk creating a negative image reminiscent of EA's worst era

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
Jingsing3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I appreciate the article but this guy must be living in a delayed universe, The reputation was ruined 10+ years ago and hasn't recovered since. As such people have voted with their wallets and stopped buying Xbox products in large amounts.

YourMommySpoils2d ago

Their reputation was lost way before that. From the moment Microsoft said they entering the console business, we all knew it would be a downgrade.

Bathyj1d 14h ago (Edited 1d 14h ago )

That's not true at all the OG Xbox had drive and they had hunger and they wanted to accomplish something. It was a great console.

they didn't quite reach their goals and they gave up prematurely because they couldn't win. It was halfway through the Xbox 360 when kinect released and that was when they lost their way and we're a rudderless ship ever since

Agent751d 11h ago

In all fairness, Xbox had some great games with online play, Xbox 360 even better. Xbox consoles started to die with the Xbox One. Ditch consoles for the PC and PS.

YourMommySpoils1d 3h ago

@Bathyj hard to compute ay. Xbox was never better than a PC and that's all they ever were. A demo box. Doesn't get more true than that.

3d ago Replies(1)
isarai3d ago

What reputation is this threatening exactly? 😂

Lightning773d ago

Rumors of Turn 10 being either shut down or hit with massive lay offs is on the horizon.

The issue is MS will do something right only to do something very, very wrong. And they do this what seems calculative at this point. Doesn't matter what they do the Investors and leadership want more and more money an endless bottomless pit of purr insatiable greed. A company that acts like it's broke or hurting is what really, really infuriates me. They've surpassed apple again well over 3 trillion who acts like they're a million dollar company is fk stupid. Pivots and changes for no reason and can't do things for more than a year with out a pivot or changing their metrics.

Christopher2d ago

That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest.

1Victor2d ago

@christopher: “ That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest”
The key word big can be ether good or bad 🤷🏿only time can tell

DarXyde2d ago

First Forza being generated entirely via AI?

If any company would do it, it'd be them.

Nacho_Z1d 19h ago

Isn't the point that it's irrelevant how profitable MS is, the suits have decided it's time that the Xbox division started making them money. Hence the layoffs, the pivots.

hennessey861d 14h ago

That wouldn't surprise me, as motorsport has been heading down hill since the great number 4. Where as playground have consistently put out better games. I think the two studios will be merged under playground games banner.

2d ago Replies(2)
Show all comments (63)
90°

The 'Stop Killing Games' initiative is close to its final deadline

Ross Scott—also known as Accursed Farms on YouTube—has been fighting tooth and nail for almost a full year to help spearhead game preservation. Starting after it was announced that Ubisoft's The Crew would be shutting down, permanently ending support for the game, Scott launched the "Stop Killing Games" initiative.

That makes a twofold deadline for the Stop Killing Games initiative. Or, at least, one headed up by Scott: The UK petition, which ends July 14, and the EU Citizens' Initiative, which ends July 3.

M3talDiamond6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

If you live in the EU then Please sign this or our game ownership rights and game preservation is
at stake. I know there isnt much time left but please consider signing the petition

-Foxtrot5d ago

I never knew Ross Scott was doing this

I love Freemans Mind

Inverno5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

People whine and in the end don't do a thing. Then whine more when they get screwed some more smh. If this makes it then it'll be monumental for consumers. That Pirate software guy was no help either smh.

GazCBG4d ago

The EU Date is the 31st July not the 3rd

Show all comments (6)
170°

Xbox June Update: Copilot for Gaming Available on Mobile, Aggregated Gaming Library, and More

There are many exciting updates this month for Xbox. Copilot for Gaming is available now for early preview on mobile and will be coming to PC soon. Xbox PC app introduces a wave of new updates: Aggregated gaming library gives players quick access to games from Xbox, Game Pass, and other leading PC storefronts, and with publisher channels players can browse their favorite franchises. Updates for the Xbox Console includes customization for Most Recently Used, free-to-play benefits, Game Hubs, and dialog improvements for game saves.

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news.xbox.com
darthv727d ago

"Players can now hide system apps, pin favorites to the list, and reduce the number of tiles displayed. This update is part of our ongoing effort to make Home more personal, flexible, and responsive to feedback."

This is welcomed, i like a less cluttered home screen.

Profchaos7d ago

Not everything needs co pilot ms

1Victor6d ago

Gotta be a slow news day when a 18 hours and 3 comments (now 4)makes it to the front page🤷🏿
.
Well anything that adds and help gamers is a good thing even if some don’t need it there’ll be more that will use it.

darthv726d ago

Well its MS news... those are usually pretty dry, unless it has something to do with another game being ported to PS. then its top of the pops.

Obscure_Observer6d ago

"Well its MS news... those are usually pretty dry, unless it has something to do with another game being ported to PS. then its top of the pops."

Oh look no further than the "Upcoming layoffs at MS" topic. It will easily top the Hottest of the week.

Special guests like Mr. Dead might also show up. You just watch.