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Japan has made console modding and game save editors illegal


IoIly

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It started with Korea didnt it? the future sure is a exciting place. Next we know everything is banned, and we need chips in our heads....

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That is screwed up. A $46,000 fine for distributing a game save editor or console mod/hack... What?  Not that I use save editors or modded consoles, but come on.  This is really some bullshit.

Some things the government just needs to butt the hell right out of.  Damn politicians.  This sounds exactly like something out of China's playbook.

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Seems like a way to handle grey markets like G2A mostly. Let's be honest, governments are really behind on their rules and regulations when it comes to digital only media and services. 

Who here really thought downloading copies of ROMs or buying hacked/fraudulent keys was legal? 

 

Modding consoles is a little more of mixed bag to me. Adding a video out to the 3DS and Vita should be fine but this news doesn't clarify.

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It sort of makes sense from an "unfair competition perspective". Especially if the people with the game saves or illegal software are using it to gain an unfair advantage over other people online or in a tournament. It also helps to protect software makers and their creations in order to be able to earn a profit on them I guess.

 

However...

 

From a community and fan-related perspective, this is pure garbage. Not only does it hurts video game preservation but it is also is a direct threat to fans who enjoy modding consoles as a personal hobby to get the most out of them for personal use. The punishment is a little out of proportion too. I mean, really? Like 5 year in prison for selling or distributing an Action Replay or any piece of code that can be used for the public's benefit? I also don't support governments butting in in things they don't understand.

 

This really is a double-edged sword. First China, then Korea and now it has finally made its way into the Mecca of video games, so to speak. It will be interesting to see how this will pan out and how are they exactly planning to enforce it, especially if it's in Japan. Personally, I don't see this going anywhere...

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I remember owning a game shark back in the day, it never stopped me from buying the actual games.  The article states it popular in japan (probably everywhere).  How is that necessary a bad thing for game developers.  The quicker one person beats something, the quicker they can go out and spend some hard earn income to buy something else.  

 

I wonder how soon it will be before this such ban will travel west.

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9 hours ago, AJ_-_808 said:

Well to be fair, isnt gaming far more mainstream in Japan and south korea?  Like serious business for their culture?  Itd make more sense for them to be the ones to start policing it

 

This is exactly correct. Professional gaming a legit job in these countries, which is why this law was passed.

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Let's be reasonable.  I do not support cheating, but that doesn't change what I said about politicians needing to butt out.  Don't prosecute, just disqualify.

 

It's not like those who sell cheat devices are forcing people to buy their goods.  The industry should police itself.  Surely, PSN & similar networks do have the ability to detect cheat devices/hacks/mods, & should block them.  If you're using some kind of mod, the firmware should be programmed to force you to play as a "guest" account & deny trophies or use of online features until the console is rebooted clean.  If you activate a mod during an online session, you should be kicked offline & have it count as a quit.

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For online games...yay.

For people's personal, mind-their-own-business offline gaming...nay. Both Sony and Nintendo have been known to be super-stingy about piracy and jailbreaks with their consoles. To the point where the GameCube was using a non-DVD format disc and for Vita...the overpriced (with a corruption rate not low enough for comfort) proprietary memory cards. Makes me wonder just how aggressive is the piracy scene there in Japan, that stuff like that and this happens.

Edited by Eraezr
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Wait, what, there was a version of Action Replay for the PS4? Modding saves for modern systems is idiotic. It was okay two generations ago, but it doesn't make sense anymore when everything is protected and/or uses internet. The only time i ever tried modding a modern-era savegame was with Resistance 3 on the PS3, but 1) i already obtained all trophies except a difficulty-related one (that i still don't have, just FYI) 2) it was only for editing the number of "points" you get by playing the campaign and the now-decommissioned online, to unlock the various artworks/cheats/etc. because you needed to play online to get enough points to unlock everything at the same time 3) i immediatly reverted to my original save because i felt "dirty" lol.

Edited by Lance_87
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Don't think anyone has mentioned this yet but the save editors (which you can actually buy worldwide - Save Wizard is the PS4 one which is all regions except Japan, as they had their own version) only let you edit single player games or things which don't affect online play. You have to link your account to the service and once you pick a cheat, the save is uploaded to their server, the change is made and the save is returned within a few seconds (depending on the size).

It's pretty much impossible to gain an advantage over other players by using these pieces of software and yeah, trophy unlocks can be made easier, but there's also a risk that you will give yourself too much of an item that a trophy will never trigger as well. Now, the biggest way people obtain trophies in a way they shouldn't is using the save resigner which these applications support. They allow you to download anyone else's save and resign it to your console - so you can load it up as your own. People put together platinum packs of saves where you load save 1, do certain things to get trophies, then load save 2 and do a few things to trigger more etc... 

Again though, they rarely touch on the MP side as all that stuff is handled on the servers of the game itself and not local to avoid this happening. 

I've worked hands-on with a few of these editors on secondary accounts for review purposes in the last few months. They are very helpful in obtaining hard to achieve items, boosting your stats, unlocking certain things quicker, or even just giving you a bunch of cash and xp to spend in-game. However, only in single player and only at the benefit of the gamer who doesn't have the time or patience to grind for hours in order to enjoy the game. You only have certain set cheats per game as well, no actual modding or manual cheats (well, you technically can find them manually in a few games, but it's very hard).

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On 1/6/2019 at 10:50 PM, SnowxSakura said:

Nintendo has been trying to get this stuff made illegal for decades back when they sued the company galoob for its game genie on the NES.

 

They have, they also suck that bad at trying that every console they ever released is hacked within a few months.

 

I really miss the days of the Gameshark and Action Replays.

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/6/2019 at 2:24 PM, turniplord said:

Don't think anyone has mentioned this yet but the save editors (which you can actually buy worldwide - Save Wizard is the PS4 one which is all regions except Japan, as they had their own version) only let you edit single player games or things which don't affect online play. You have to link your account to the service and once you pick a cheat, the save is uploaded to their server, the change is made and the save is returned within a few seconds (depending on the size).

It's pretty much impossible to gain an advantage over other players by using these pieces of software and yeah, trophy unlocks can be made easier, but there's also a risk that you will give yourself too much of an item that a trophy will never trigger as well. Now, the biggest way people obtain trophies in a way they shouldn't is using the save resigner which these applications support. They allow you to download anyone else's save and resign it to your console - so you can load it up as your own. People put together platinum packs of saves where you load save 1, do certain things to get trophies, then load save 2 and do a few things to trigger more etc... 

Again though, they rarely touch on the MP side as all that stuff is handled on the servers of the game itself and not local to avoid this happening. 

I've worked hands-on with a few of these editors on secondary accounts for review purposes in the last few months. They are very helpful in obtaining hard to achieve items, boosting your stats, unlocking certain things quicker, or even just giving you a bunch of cash and xp to spend in-game. However, only in single player and only at the benefit of the gamer who doesn't have the time or patience to grind for hours in order to enjoy the game. You only have certain set cheats per game as well, no actual modding or manual cheats (well, you technically can find them manually in a few games, but it's very hard).

Well, many of these so called cheats make time saver dlc packs useless, so I bet some other companies besides Sony or Nintendo was behind this as well. I don't know how many people make use of these pack, but I can imagine 200.000 people buying one for 5euros, a company would be losing 1 million right there. And we all know how greedy some of them are, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens here in the West as well. Besides these devices might also be at one point, not sure if not already, be able to unlock dlc items already in the game, which makes this move even more logical.

Edited by cera1volta
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4 minutes ago, cera1volta said:

Well, many of these so called cheats make time saver dlc packs useless, so I bet some other companies besides Sony or Nintendo was behind this as well. I don't know how many people make use of these pack, but I can imagine 200.000 people buying one for 5euros, a company would be losing 1 million right there. And we all know how greedy some of them are, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens here in the West as well. Besides these devices might also be at one point, not sure if not already, be able to unlock dlc items already in the game, which makes this move even more logical.

Old thread, but fair enough. 

 

Not seen any cheats in the save wizard that unlocks DLC (other than playing as Red XIII in FF7R - but that's a hidden thing, not paid DLC). That's because you need the licence which is downloaded from psn to activate them. 

 

Also, most of the time savers you're referring too also can't be unlocked as they're tied to an online check. For example, Crash racing you can't unlock the paid-for-credits, same with things like credits in sports games, gold in RDR2 and I believe all the MTs currencies and sped up things in the AC games. 

 

The general cheats you'll see are things like infinite money, health, unlocking weapons, and boosting stats in single player games which have no online aspect at all. 

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Exactly what I mean, you don't need to buy time saver packs to maybe double your exp gain, if you can go max exp from the start. Of course it will ruin the game in the progress. I don't know about many games but in the need for speed series and the newer assassin's creed it would definitely cut the grind (exp and resource), both have time saver dlcs. Also saw that capcom was selling red orbs and save wizard was giving you a bunch. It's all single player and you're ruining your game, but still. Also a bunch of games still include DLC weps for example, you might normally buy which you won't if you have save wizard.

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Sounds good to me.

 

Some of the commenters:  ‘I want to get tough on cheating, but I don’t want to get tough on cheating.’  ?

 

And let’s be honest...it’s the idea of affecting leaderboards and multiplayer ranking where this has merit to it.  If you mod your personal console and don’t go online (I.e. sync hacked trophies/mod a ranked multiplayer lobby room)...I’m sure you’ll have no problems whatsoever.


But...that’s not what the average modern day mod scene is about now, is it?  ?

Edited by Starcade_Legend
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