By Reinier Macatangay
Sad news is in store for those eagerly awaiting Super Mario Run on iOS (scheduled to be released Dec. 15). According to a recent interview Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto gave to Mashable, the game only works online.
Miyamoto offered an explanation for the disappointing news:
“For us, we view our software as being a very important asset for us. And also for consumers who are purchasing the game, we want to make sure that we’re able to offer it to them in a way that the software is secure, and that they’re able to play it in a stable environment.”
He also told how the three modes of Super Mario Run function together:
“We had thought at one point that it would be nice to have the World Tour [story] mode available standalone, to be able to play without that connection. But then the challenge is when that’s operating in a standalone mode, it actually complicates the connection back to the Toad Rally and Kingdom modes.”
Of course, Nintendo has always been concerned about piracy and even Miyamoto admitted this in the interview.
When asked “When you say ‘security,’ you mean the risk of piracy, right?” he replied “That’s correct.”
Most gamers will likely not be affected and purchase it anyway, but others are disappointed at the possibility Super Mario Run not working in places where network coverage might be poor. For example, train commuters who go under tunnels, especially in a larger city like San Francisco, will have their connection shut off while playing.
Furthermore, some people turn off mobile data altogether when playing smartphone games.
The focus on preventing piracy on iOS is also being knocked, as critics wonder if there is a huge amount of people who really jailbreak their iPhone and play stolen games.
Nintendo’s restrictive policies might unleash a reverse effect and encourage such behavior though.
One Ars Technica reader wrote “Adding an online requirement for a single-player game solely as a DRM mechanic just screams to me, ‘Crack me! Pirate me! Don’t spend money on me even though you originally planned to!’”
The statement has been accurate before when companies tried to enforce DRM restrictions. Remember eight years ago when EA Games released Spore, and gamers protested by pirating it over 500,000 times?
Super Mario Run, priced at $9.99, releases next Thursday on iOS.
from Nerd Reactor
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