New Nintendo Switch Patent Hints at Stricter Anti-Cheat Measures
Cheating in online games has become a very big problem lately, and it seems Nintendo is taking proactive measures ahead of the release of Mario Strikers: Battle League and Splatoon 3. On May 19th, the company filed for a new patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a program that auto-generates attestation programs to check to see if the software has been compromised or modified in any way by the user. According to Nintendo's filing, the technology would make it much more difficult for cheat software to go undetected.
"Attestation results computed by each attestation program is dependent on the used code sequences. Since there are thousands of usable code sequences in a typical game, results cannot be easily predicted and faked. The logic described herein does not necessarily need to rely on any secrets (e.g., keys, algorithms) and can work even when the system is completely compromised," the filing reads.
As Kotaku notes, it's difficult to say whether this method would be more effective than any of the anti-cheat measures we've seen from companies like 343 Industries and Activision. However, it shows that Nintendo is taking this issue seriously, and looking for ways to proactively address cheating. As we've seen recently in games like Halo Infinite and Call of Duty: Warzone, cheating has become a major problem for online games, and it's making it a lot less enjoyable for players. If this new method really does make it harder to cheat in online games, it couldn't come at a better time.
"These unfair advantages result in the game being much less satisfying to the user thereby affecting the overall human-user experience and interaction in the game," the filing reads.
With Mario Strikers: Battle League set to release on June 10th, and Splatoon 3 coming on September 9th, Nintendo Switch users will soon see for themselves if these online games remain fair to play for everyone.
Are you happy to see Nintendo taking cheating seriously on Switch? Has cheating had a negative impact in your online experiences? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
[H/T: Opattack]