Nintendo Tries to Stop Used Sales With a Form of “Hardware DRM”
It seems Nintendo is not satisfied with the amount of money that the casual market is slipping into their garters. In an unprecedented and frankly offensive move, they have added a sort of “DRM” to prevent Wii users from re-selling or even sharing their newest peripheral: the WiiSpeak.
How do you prevent someone from sharing a piece of hardware, you might ask? Why, by giving you a single use code in the instruction pamphlet! MTV Multiplayer blog caught this when they broke the WiiSpeak out of its packaging:
There is a pamphlet packaged with the peripheral that includes a 16-character code, a “Wii Download Ticket Number,” to be used for downloading the Wii Speak Channel. According to the pamphlet, this code “cannot be replaced by Nintendo or your retailer if it is lost or stolen.”
This means you can only use the WiiSpeak peripheral if you have the “software”–so you have to buy it new. There is no possible way to buy this product used, so you will most likely not be able to trade it in as well. Also, this means that you can’t take the device to a friend’s house to share the fun. You’ll have to drag along your entire system to use one piece of hardware.
Many games such as Rock Band and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts are taking steps in the right direction by offering bonuses for customers who pre-order and buy the game new. However, it seems Nintendo is taking a step backward by taking something away from customers–part of their ownership of the hardware.
I want to say I understand why Nintendo is doing this, but I just don’t. They make so much money off of system and game sales that they are in no dire need to make more. This is another step towards the disturbing trend of publishers not allowing their customers to fully own something that they have rightfully paid for. Who is hurt more by piracy these days: the multi-million dollar corporation or the average game consumer? Doesn’t seem like such a hard answer to figure out.
