Is the Wii U condemned to hackers?
There is an old saying: history tends to repeat itself. Using this as a basis, I’m gonna make a very superficial and personally driven analysis of the Wii U system and it’s possible flaws.
To do this, I will go back two generations, to the golden era of consoles, the sixth generation. In this generation we find the Gamecube as Nintendo’s answer to the Ps2, the Dreamcast and the Xbox. The security system found in the Gamecube is very similar to the one found on the Dreamcast: it heavily based on preventing the game medium from being copied. In this case, the Gamecube used a DVD-based format called the GOD (Gamecube Optical Disc). These discs were (and for the most part are still) unreadable by PC DVD-Drives. While I won’t get into details of how the Gamecube security works (I’ll do it another time), but I can tell you, that the Gamecube was, for the most part, the most secured console of it’s generation, it’s scene can be compared to the one we now find in the ps3: late and limited.
The problem is, by the time the Wii was released, the Gamecube was already hacked up and down, both the system itself and the proprietary Disc format it used. This, combined with the fact that the Wii was basically a Gamecube 1.5, made Wii hacking a lot easier. To have a clearer picture, imagine if sony basically made the Vita with the same exact hardware as the psp, only a bit faster, which is what the pspemu is inside of the vita and it’s why it was hacked.
To sum up: the Wii was hacked because it was too similar to the Gamecube, which was already hacked when the Wii came out.
Now, you may be asking what this has to do with the Wii U, nothing! except that this time, Nintendo has done the same thing! the Wii U uses a similar hardware than the one found on the Wii: a PowerPC CPU and an ATI GPU (it’s called AMD now btw).
You might not know this, but the Wii mode inside the Wii U is already hacked, pretty much like the pspemu inside the vita. The difference here, like I said, is that the Wii U is very similar to the Wii and the Gamecube, while the Vita hardware is different from the Psp, which could mean breaking out of the wii sandbox should be fairly easier than breaking from the pspemu sandbox. This was true for the Wii and Gamecube, specially since the Wii never emulated the Gamecube, it didn’t need to, it ran Gamecube code natively. If the same applies to the Wii U, then we might see a native Wii U hack coming right after the Wii mode hack.
Again, this is just a wild guess, it might turn out quite the opposite, but I just find it amusing how Nintendo keeps making the same mistakes over and over again while Sony seems to be learning from them.
Let me know your thoughts.
anyone else have N64 piracy with Mr. Backup Z64? zip disks and long load times… cant beat that 😀
The wii u has been hacked already. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=oogfQq_7vsE
As mentioned in the article, this is the Wii mode of the wii U, just like we hacked the psp side of the vita.
How do you explain DSi mode not being hacked yet?
the DS scene is huge, the DSi is just a “faster DS” with more RAM when put to technical terms, therefore breaking the DS “sandbox” to reach DSi access should be fairly easy, don’t tell me it’s because 3DS gets all the interest, the DSi had a large amount of time in the scene before the 3DS was even released…
I believe Nintendo is just BETTING you would approach hacking the Wii U this way and therefore increased the security to fit it
DS mode on 3DS is hacked btw, was done in a couple of weeks of release 😛
also DSI was hacked too but it is harder due to their new security measures.
Maybe Nintendo isn’t “learning” from their security mistakes because they’re more about utilizing a system than locking it down.
You must know little about the 3DS security 🙂
Wii U = GC v2.0?
At best, you would have to say the Wii is GC 2.0. The Wii U would be Wii 2.0 (especially since it doesn’t even run GC games!). Although, since the hardware is based on the same tech (CPU architecture), I would guess that GC emulation wouldn’t be a problem (at least with GC ISOs or the virtual console). You wouldn’t be able to use a GC controller though…
People still blame piracy? The Wii was the easiest to hack out of this generation’s consoles and it still did well. Only reason the sales died down was because the Wii’s catalog catered to little kids and their parents more than actual gamers. If piracy is hurting anything, it’s PC gaming.
Somehow that’s true. Wait, it is true.
Wii-U’s Wii mode has already been hacked. Using literally the EXACT same exploits that were on the Wii.
Wii U mode will still protected like 3DS mode that still
need to buy original card and correct region zone…
Well I think a lot of usefull and true things have been said in this post and a lot of *** has been said as well.
One thing I don’t think has been said is that there is a pride factor here particularly with $ony and to a slightly lesser degree with Micro$oft. I just don’t feel Nintedo takes it the same way. The other issue is online. Nintendo was very slow coming to the online seen and still doesn’t have the crazy online play volume in games like Halo, COD, and Killzone have spawned on the other systems. Hacked or Modded systems often lead to cheaters (dumbos) that ruin the fun for everyone. So because M$ in particular is so vested in online and acutally charges for online play (xbox gold) they have more of a duty to protect their legit users and 3rd party developers. Hence all the waves and waves of bans and other hostile behavior twards modders.
I have to agree with others that pirating does not seem to be hurting profits that much. Look to the DreamCast people, that system was sc*** from the start because PS1 was so successful and had so many great titles up until and after ps2 came out. There were so many loyalists that even though DC had nice hardware improvements it was sort of a .5 type jump over the previous generation. People just were going to wait another year for PS2 and not blow their money on DC. Additionally so many of the good games for DC were very hard to find at retail or not released in all teritories. In the US you could get the 2K sports games and other sega releases but finding Grandia (awesome) and headhunter (great game) and other titles that weren’t Sega was very difficult. So piracy did not kill the system.
I think Nintendo have probably put more into Wii U security than meets the eye. I agree with other on 3DS and DS analogy. 3DS has been out what now almost 2 years and no fricking flash carts or exploits. Who cares about DS mode. I have a 3DS compatible DS flash card and rarely use it. It eats too much battery power and 3DS already has a *** battery. I find when I want to play DS title I just break out my old white DS and play on that as it is more portable, better battery life and screens more ideal for DS games.
Other people have said this but hacking/modding is relatively small potatoes these days. I mean we likely have in the tens of thousands of people hacking on console bases that have tens of millions of installed units. So the numbers are something like 1-5%. People have also said and it is true there are far more cassual and children gamers and they just don’t have the appitude or intelligence to do this stuff, plus when Mommy buys them whatever game they want every week/month why bother.
As for Vita others again have said this but there are several things hurting it. Lets start with not enough good content. I mean the COD game is a disgrace. They use a powerful name brand, do a bundled system xmas release and then the game absolutely sucks. Its a horrible PR move that *** off consumers and damages the brand. AC Liberation is atleast a decent game but who the heck wants a white unit (unless its a star wars x360). Plus 2K sports is putting out NBA2k13 for PSP and not for Vita? Again great franchise that people would buy a system for but no release that really rocks for Vita. Madden for Vita…sucked, MLB TS was pretty decent but didn’t sell. So I throw this at the feat of $ony for poor marketing and not coordinating well enough with 3rd parties. The Vita is a f***ing great kit. I mean it deserves better games. Then the PSN/PSP strategy for Vita is also ***. Apple is killing people with the app store concept of fun, cheap, throw away games. $ony is out there charging $20-30 for many PSP games. $10 or more for PS1 games. Its a bad model. They really need some help on the marketing/pr side. Some of the japanese companies like $ony seem to be stubborn and prideful and that has hurt Nintendo in the past as well but they seem to get bailed out by great first party games and sales (all things mario and zelda)as well as the kiddie crowd that eats up whatever *** the 3rd parties put out that includes jumping and dancing around.
Sorry for the long rant but I am an old gamer (42) have owned all these sytems, have hacked things since 8bit computers and have bought Castlevania SOTN and SuperMario about 4 times each so I have some knowledge of what I am talking about. $ony needs to get a better model. All PSP games should be 10-15 and all PS1 games 10 and under. They should never let a COD, Resistance, or KZ game come out that sucks and they should quit trying to make the Vita a phone/social networking compeditor and focus on console level gaming on a handheld. If I want BS throw away gaming with phone capabilities I will use my Iphone which I carry all the time anyways. They need to give us a reason to lug around a Vita and for me that would be great games like Drake, Gravity Rush, MGSHD and even Rayman was fun for a a 2D fix. Still no AAA FPS title with online play which would certainly lure in a lot of gamers. They blew the pooch with COD portable (I know they didn’t dev it but should have never pushed it with a bundle as a killer xmas title).
I just hope they don’t kill the damned Vita because it truly is an amazing piece of hardware and deserves to not be the next PSP or DC!
I can imagine that hardware modders will use the controller to phut a N64 in it. the board should fit.