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
Arai4006d ago

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

Sucitta4006d 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_RAIDEN4006d 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.

Arai4006d 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.

Th4Freak4006d 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.

fairyblaster4006d ago

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

Typical-Guy4006d 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.

Sucitta4006d ago (Edited 4006d 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.

Arai4006d 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.

DarthJay4006d 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.

Guwapo774006d 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.

Si4006d 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_MYSELF4006d 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_z4006d ago (Edited 4006d 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.

dangert124006d 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.

Sharius4006d 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

dangert124006d ago

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

MonkeyNinja4006d 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.

kayoss4006d 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_RAIDEN4006d 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.

kreate4006d ago

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

LOL_WUT4006d 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. ;)

kreate4005d ago (Edited 4005d 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

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130°

70 percent of devs unsure of live-service games sustainability

With so many games fighting for players' attention and interest losing out over time, time sink games are at risk of eventually losing steam.

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gamedeveloper.com
thorstein2d ago

It was worrisome to begin with.

It's a niche genre with only a handful of hits that can stand the test of time.

Cacabunga1d 4h ago

I like the sound of that!! I will for sure never support these gaas games.
Sony must be shocked at gamer's reaction, making them cancel a few of these and hopefully go back to the good heavy hitters they had us used to..
now bring on that PSPro reveal and show us some SP 1st party awesomeness.

CrimsonWing692d ago

What’s to be unsure of!? Look at the ratio of success to failure!

DarXyde1d 8h ago

It's pretty ridiculous.

Imagine having a breadth of data at your disposal to see the statistically low success rate of these games, only to be laser focused on the exceptional case studies.

shinoff21832d ago

Yes. Stop all the live service bs.

jznrpg1d 23h ago

Only a few will catch on. You need a perfect storm to be successful in GaaS and a bit of luck on top of that. But a potential cash cow will keep them trying and some will go out of business because of it.

MIDGETonSTILTS171d 23h ago

Helldivers 2 manages just fine…

Keep production costs low… don’t just make custscenes until the mechanics and enemies are perfected first.

Make so much content that you can drip extra content for years, and the game already feels complete without them.

Most importantly: make weapons, enemies, levels, and mechanics that will stand the test of 1000 hours. This might require more devs embracing procedurally generated leveled, which I think separates Helldivers 2 from Destiny’s repetitiveness.

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60°

The Battle Pass Is The Worst Thing To Happen To Modern Gaming

Nameer from eXputer: "Some exceptions aside, I don't think the battle pass is a net positive for gaming with how they're implemented in most live service titles."

got_dam2d ago

Battle passes AND meta gaming both.

DivineHand1252d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I like the way Helldivers 2 does battle passes. It allows you to make purchases on each level of the battle pass and gives you the option of choosing which item to unlock first. The more purchases you make using medals the further you progress. There is no timer and you can earn medals towards purchasing stuff via personal orders and Major orders.

I haven't played much live service games that have battle passes but I remember some games that have battle passes where you progress through it linearly using an exp system. What makes it really bad is that the battle pass will have like 50 or more levels with the cooler stuff being closer to the end. They also have an in-game shop that sells exp boosters so you can reach the end of the pass before it refreshes. Everyone ilse will have to grind their way through.

lucian2292d ago

battle pass in fortnite is perfect; buy one and it buys the rest for every other season as it gives you more money than the first cost. so 8.50 and season ends with you getting 13.00, it pays for the next and you have some pocket change to save up for cash shop. All of which is optional

80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."