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Nintendo 3DS more resistant to piracy, claims Nintendo UK manager
Before all you Zero Cools and Crash Overrides out there start taking the headline you see above as a challenge, we'd like to note that Nintendo wasn't intending on baiting would-be hackers regarding its forthcoming 3DS' hackability (or lack thereof). "It's always like a red rag to a bull isn't it? I almost don't want to comment on that sort of thing," Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton said in an interview with CVG recently. Yarnton continued, shying away from getting too specific. "We can't divulge any technical details ... but needless to say this is probably one of our best pieces of equipment in that respect," he said, adding, "There are a lot of things we've learned over time to try and improve the security and protection - not only of our IP but of our third-party publishers' IP as well." That said, it's not all technology driving the protection. "People are aware that video games, music and movies make massive contributions to the economies of countries. They need to make sure they start protecting those things," Nintendo UK marketing manager James Honeywell noted. "I think perhaps there's been a 'heyday of piracy' and we've now seen a lot of rules come in to stop it." Honeywell also points out precedent-setting legal cases regarding the R4 cart, and other DS flash carts as helping with the 3DS' piracy protection. "This now makes a precedent that potentially in the future it won't be a viable thing for people to do." We're not sure if additional laws prohibiting piracy will make the act any less viable, but it'll at least drop a hefty penalty on those who get caught.
Activision UK head polls execs from 'The Big Three' on digital distribution, cloud gaming
[Image credit: Vermin Inc] If it weren't for the fact that the recent "Andrew Brown asks" is a featured piece on UK-based MCV, the answers to his questions repeatedly starting with "Whilst" would have likely tipped us off to the Britishness of the feature and all involved. Both Sony's Ray Maguire and Nintendo's David Yarnton employ the subordinating conjunction whilst responding to questions about everything from the future of digital distribution to what the industry will look like in 2019. Though the Sony and Nintendo execs were a bit more reserved in their predictions, Microsoft's Neil Thompson believes digital distribution will "explode in the next three years." All three gentlemen admitted that retail will still play a major role for (at very least) a few more years. As for cloud computing, only Microsoft's Thompson seems to be on board. "I'm convinced cloud will play a central role in the games industry of the future ... our strategy is certainly to enable people to connect to their key entertainment content through innovative services that span across multiple devices." Our only worry is that, by the time all this future stuff arrives, we'll be too busy cruising around in our flying cars to care.
Nintendo supports Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008
Nintendo UK, along with the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, are teaming up to offer patrons of this year's show a chance to try out some Nintendo products. The show itself is a 3-day event, which is held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, and will be conducted between Sunday, August 10th and Tuesday, August 12th of this year. We have no idea exactly what Nintendo will have available on the show floor, but you can bet the Wii will be there.David Yarnton, Nintendo UK boss, said Nintendo is "very proud to continue our support of EIF for the third year running. Edinburgh Interactive Festival raises our industry's profile into the wider cultural arena and celebrates the input, talent and creativity from all with a common interest in video games." EIFChairman Chris Deering also chimed in, commenting that "Nintendo's support of Interactive Festival in Edinburgh is great news and demonstrates an understanding of the importance of a cultural games event within the landscape of the world's biggest cultural Festival. Games and EIF have been embraced this year by Scotland PLC like no other year and the support of Nintendo is an important factor in encouraging these respected organisations' commitment to us." So, you Edinburghians are in luck, yet again!Having never been to the UK, we honestly don't know what to expect from these shows. Sure, the official website provides some insight, but we'd much rather hear from folks who've attended. So, have you been to EIF in the past?
Wii launches in Europe, loads of people buy it
The demand for the system has been "unprecedented," according to Nintendo UK's David Yarnton. He notes that Nintendo is very confident about the Wii's launch and predicts nothing but a huge success -- a prediction very much backed up by the gigantic lines that formed at the UK's HMV store in Oxford Street yesterday. The crowd even had to be broken up and asked to return at a later stage, though not before being given several (likely sturdy) wristbands. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, Tim Ellis, head of games at HMV, says that demand is most certainly exceeding supply and that the retailer could easily have "sold many more times than we've got, to be honest." Despite the presence of orderly lines and a lack of violent, Wii-related crimes (so far), he goes on to label the launch as "bedlam." Not to worry, Nintendo promises more stock is on the way and aims to satisfy everyone that wants a Wii this Christmas. That would be everyone, then.
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DS rocking in the UK [update 1]
Well, according to Nintendo, at least. Nintendo's UK boss, David Yarnton, claims that the heat of the handheld battle with "another company" (he never mentions Sony by name) has helped drive the DS to a 75% market share. He says that by the end of the year, Nintendo will have sold 2.7 million DS units in the U.K., and that week by week, those numbers come out to 75% worth of dominance in that market. Just imagine how it would be if the games weren't continually delayed![Update 1: Completely ridiculous typo fix in the last line. "How" is not spelled "would."]
