Irdeto is a brand that some may not be familiar with, but many will know the name of their controversial anti-piracy software, Denuvo. After attempting to crack down on the piracy of PC games, Irdeto has set its sights on the Nintendo Switch. Believing piracy to be rampant on the platform, either through modded consoles or emulation, Irdeto has unveiled their aptly named "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection" technology.

As with all other Denuvo solutions, the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience. It then allows for the insertion of checks into the code, which blocks gameplay on emulators.

They claim that their solution, which would run similarly to Denuvo, would have occasional checks to ensure the software was legitimate, and prevent the games that use it from being emulated. Irdeto also promises that there is no impact on the gaming performance with it enabled, a claim that has led to many controversies in the past with Denuvo.

Beyond the press release, there's not much known about the Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, when it will launch, and what games it will launch with. By the phrasing in the announcement, however, it appears that Irdeto is targeting indie developers or third-party studios more than they are Nintendo itself, specifically for multi-platform games that can be protected from piracy on both PC and Switch.

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[TomSwitch]

Wonderful, Switch class action suit coming soon for Nintendo slowing down Switch to make customer buy Switch 2.

 

[isoboy]

I laughed out loud the second I read "we're thrilled".

 

[Kioku]

It’s so weird how they actually think they’re doing something good..

 

[esmith13]

"... As with all other Denuvo solutions, the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience. It then allows for the insertion of checks into the code, which blocks gameplay on emulators..."

Uh huh, riiiight...

If a beefy PC can have issues in games due to Denuvo, what are our poor little Switches gonna do? Ask us to upgrade to the "next generation Switch"?

 

[gunfort]

yeah, let's go 5fps Zelda!

 

[ZER-O]

its probably a last man standing move to curb Pirates from running the games on Emulators for PC, i doubt this will do anything on switch consoles

 

[Guacaholey]

its probably a last man standing move to curb Pirates from running the games on Emulators for PC, i doubt this will do anything on switch consoles

That's not possible. The DRM will have to check if the game is running on console or an emulator. There will be overhead because of that.