Gamertell

Many know that video game pirates roam the internet, dumping roms of games shortly after they are released. Those who unwittingly downloaded the rom of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates encountered an unexpected surprise. After a short period of play, the screen depicted at the right, with two moogles saying “Thanks for playing!!” appears and the game ends. Game pirates have reported that only some flash carts encounter the problem. Also reports at GBA Temp state that the screen will pop up randomly at latter points throughout the pirated copy of the game. This is a phenomenal measure on Square Enix’s part to deter illegal distribution of a quality game.

DS Fanboy offers an interesting take on why Square Enix might have designed it this way. Eric Caoili, author of the post at DS Fanboy, suggests this is a good way for pirates to sample a game, see how phenomenal it is and then do the right thing by purchasing it. It makes a lot of sense. Reports from GBA Temp users state that the game stops after 20 minutes of playtime, a reasonable amount of sampling time.

This is an incredibly smart move on the part of Square Enix. I hope that their future big releases, like Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and The World Ends with You also have the same protection. The company makes quality games, and it isn’t right that some internet pirates would be able to sneak in and get them for free. Even moogles agree, piracy is bad.

Read [GBA Temp] Via [DS Fanboy]