Nintendo mulls auto 3DS firmware updates

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 2 October, 2010

Console manufacture takes on pirates.

Nintendo is looking into making the 3DS automatically download firmware updates from the internet.

The move may enable Nintendo to combat piracy more effectively than it has done with the DS.

During an investor question and answer session (translated by Andriasang), an attendee asked CEO Satoru Iwata if Nintendo will implement anti-piracy measures via the internet. He replied: "As part of the functionality of SpotPass, we're looking into having automatic system updates via the internet."

SpotPass means 3DS units set to sleep mode will not only communicate with other 3DS units but the internet via Wi-Fi.

However, Iwata said piracy prevention is secondary to offering new functionality to owners. Once the system has found an access point, it will download rankings, ghost data, free software and notifications.

Meanwhile, Iwata said Nintendo expects to keep game prices around the same price point as current DS releases.

"We don't believe that the world is in a state where high priced software will sell well, so we don't believe it will be in a price range too far off from current DS software," Iwata said.

The 3DS, revealed at E3 2010 and dated and priced for Japan last week, is due out in Europe and the US in March.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sanctusmortis #1 2 years ago

    At that price, it better update itself.

  • Phishfood #2 2 years ago

    and make ice cream

  • rock27gr #3 2 years ago

    Is Wi-Fi always on then? I wonder what that would do to battery life...

  • rock27gr #4 2 years ago

    Also, I imagine auto-brickage will be quite fun too.

  • Genji #5 2 years ago

    What if you're in a place that - shock! - doesn't have wifi? Will not being able to update firmware result in non-working games?

  • cak #6 2 years ago

    No need to complain about battery life I guess, the article states clearly that the 3DS will be automatically downloading stuff only when in sleep mode. You will just have to turn it off if you're concerned.
    Presumably, firmware updates will work just like all other current gen consoles: they will be mandatory to connect to the ds shop or whatever, and they will be included on the cartridge for games that require them and people who don't have a wifi connection. Hardly shocking, I'd say.

  • lavalant #7 2 years ago

    Fair enough they want rid of piracy, but the great thing about the DS was all the great homebrew apps, why not make a nintendo app store and let the community upload their own software similar. You'll never beat pirates, and thanks to them I never had to pay £30 to get my DS to play movies, or use a DS paint program, at least give them a portal from which to operate legally.

  • NunianVonFuch #8 2 years ago

    @cak that'll still have the result that the battery is drained away while you're not using it. It'll probably work the way you said tho.

  • darth_paul #9 2 years ago

    @Genji
    its the same with the Wii. If you dont have interenet, but a certain newly released game needs a more recent firmware, the game disc comes with the necessary firmware and installs it on your wii before playing for the qst time.
    I mean, its so obvious that the 3DS will use the same system, that i dont understand why you even ask. Just trolling around, or what?

    Cant see how this will prevent pirates? A pirate just has to keep its 3DS off the internet, and install "custom firmwares" (like the PSP), and piracy will continue. heck, nintendo even has a "SD-Card Slot" on the 3DS.
    Edited by darth_paul at 02/10/10 @ 16:41

  • darth_paul #10 2 years ago

    @Astro-Creature
    Theses measures by Nintendo wont change piracy.read my post above yours. it wont change a thing. pirates are certainly not "hanging themselves". in the contrary: they just keep out of the internet, and install their cracked firmwares off a SD card, thanks to the SD slot Nintendo is building into the 3DS. In terms of piracy, all will be very similar to what is happening with the PSP right now
    Edited by darth_paul at 02/10/10 @ 16:41

  • Stuz359 #11 2 years ago

    I am always nervous about auto updates for anything. I always wait a few days with the PS3 updates to see if it bricks any consoles. Once, I left my Laptop alone for 15 minutes, it installed a windows update automatically and it killed my Blu-Ray drive. Wasn't best pleased.

  • orangpelupa #12 2 years ago

    @lavalant
    i agree with you, but maybe there some things that prevent nintendo from doing it.

    atleast, if nintendo will allow "user generated apps", they need an approval procedure (maybe something like apple, xbox indie game). So apps with ability to "jailbreak" will not be approved.

    or something like Other OS in PS3. So the apps will not have acccess to fullhack the main system.
    Edited by orangpelupa at 02/10/10 @ 17:26

  • smelly #13 2 years ago

    >At that price, it better update itself.

    At what price? Only the japanese price has been announced so far, and it isnt much higher than the DSXL launched for.

    In Japan the current price of an XL is $220, and a DSLite will set you back $200! That's way higher than the US prices. You cant use the current exchange rate to determine what itll cost here.

    Edited by smelly at 02/10/10 @ 18:58

  • CallousB #14 2 years ago

    "Is Wi-Fi always on then? I wonder what that would do to battery life"
    "that'll still have the result that the battery is drained away while you're not using it"

    @rock27gr @NunianVonFuch

    I'm assuming that's the point of including the charging cradle with the 3DS. They want a "home" to store your 3DS in so it will always have a high charge so the wi-fi drain won't matter.

    With the current DS most people likely just play it, wait for the red light to come on..and then plug it in to recharge. By including the cradle they want people to get into the habit of not letting the 3DS get to the point where they specifically need to go and recharge it..it just charges while it's being stored in its "home" (a very simple idea by Nintendo..but a pretty clever one IMO).

  • Pirotic #15 2 years ago

    Doesn't the Wii have by far the biggest vampire power draw when it's on stand-by for the exact same reason? Don't really like the thought of a games console wasting so much energy for something so trivial.

  • smelly #16 2 years ago

    No. Both the 360 and the ps3 use much much more power than the wii does in standby.

    The wii uses the equivalent of running a small lightbulb.

    I remember reading a full story showing how much power each uses in standbye - wii is by FAR the best when it comes to power usage.

    Greenpeace keep rating them down because nintendo refuse to bow down to their demands, and give them their data (and rightly so)

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #17 2 years ago

    Nintendo's last great piracy breakthrough was the introduction of the DSi, at which point DS software sales promptly fell by 50% almost overnight.

    [link url=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38598/Piracy-accounts-for-dropping-DS-sales
    ]http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38598/Piracy-a...[/link]

    Whether Nintendo and all the pious twats on here like it or not, being pirate-proof makes consoles fail, not succeed. A history of the hardest-to-pirate games platforms is also a history of failure: Saturn, N64, Gamecube, PSP, PS3, all spanked by their easier-to-pirate rivals. Maybe one day people will make the connection, but I'm not holding my breath.

  • Genji #18 2 years ago

    "I mean, its so obvious that the 3DS will use the same system, that i dont understand why you even ask. Just trolling around, or what?"

    It could be possibly because I didn't know about that system. Thanks for jumping to conclusions, though.

    Yeah, it makes sense. Obviously they will have thought this out if they decide to go with auto updates.

  • smelly #19 2 years ago

    Campbell, (edit) i wont lower myself to common insults at you.... I know you're probably poor and probably live in your parents basement still, and as such cant afford to pay for games. But this really is a simple thing to grasp.

    Yes piracy MAY increase the sales of a system. But most systems are sold at a loss. At i'm SURE knowing how many systems have been sold is a great help to the developers who spent millions of dollars making software for your entertainment only for you to think everything should be free like some communist dick.

    Surely it'd take a REALLY BIG hypocritical twat to be so pro piracy and not paying the people who make your entertainment, while making a "career" out of writing about said entertainment - and even once taking someone to court yourself for copyright infringement? I dont know who'd do that, but if they did - they'd be a huge twat.
    Edited by smelly at 04/10/10 @ 05:58

  • Gooner1982 #20 2 years ago

    The story he quoted was about SOFTWARE sales, not system sales.

  • smelly #21 2 years ago

    I dont know which article you were reading, but the article mr hypocrite posted said nothing of the sort about sales going down following the piracy problem being "solved" - quite the opposite.

  • onyx_elite #22 2 years ago

    Yay! More DRM!

  • Gooner1982 #23 2 years ago

    the article mr hypocrite posted said nothing of the sort about sales going down following the piracy problem being "solved" - quite the opposite.

    Uh, yes it did. Which article did YOU read? That one described how in the months following the release of the DSi (which also saw Nintendo get some landmark court decisions against flashcarts which made them harder to obtain), DS software sales fell almost 50%.