Earlier this week at Gamescom, Denuvo by Iredeto launched a “Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection Solution” to safeguard games launched on the hybrid system.
Essentially, it’s going to be inserted into Switch games in an attempt to prevent them from being played on emulators. Denuvo, as you might already know, doesn’t have the best reputation on PC – with the tech often accused of cutting the performance in games.
Since this announcement, there have been some concerns raised about Nintendo’s possible involvement. According to Kotaku, a Denuvo spokesperson has clarified that Nintendo is not involved in this new Switch DRM initiative. This solution is apparently in response to demand from Denuvo’s existing publishing partners, and it’s also stated how performance won’t be impacted:
“Because of NDAs, we are not allowed to disclose company names, but we can say this solution comes from strong demand from publishing partners. Software publishers and Denuvo take great care to deliver the best gaming experience…The protection is designed not to affect the gamer’s experience, and it does not have any in-game performance impact. It is the same for this new solution when protection is only active in non-performance critical code parts.”
Denuvo also mentioned how the tech for Switch would not require online checks and was a solution designed to be fully offline.
Over the past few days there’s been a lot of speculation from the Switch hacking and modding community about Nintendo’s possible involvement in this new initiative, with all sorts of takes:
@OatmealDome – I do have to question their [Irdeto] claim about Nintendo not being involved, because they must be (at least a little bit). In order to develop software for the Switch, they must have access to the SDK and devkits, and that requires Nintendo to give your company a developer account.
And here’s another from Nintendo Life user and programmer LuigiBlood (via Twitter):
“It may not be obvious, but this anti-emulation system has to be approved and within Nintendo’s requirements because else it’s not going to pass lotcheck. It also cannot be a DRM measure: Nintendo is the only one with DRM control on their systems. It’s only Denuvo by name.”
“…Nintendo is clearly not involved in this. And if Nintendo was to develop anti-piracy/anti-emulator measures… you may as well include these things into a module on their software development kit, not a seperate third party thing.”
Switch emulation platforms have also vowed to continue developing emulation for Nintendo’s hybrid system in response to this announcement:
You can learn more about Denuvo for Switch in our original Nintendo Life story. How do you feel about Denuvo ‘Switch Emulator Protection’ coming to Switch? Tell us down below.
