Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, which shipped to North American retailers today for the Nintendo DS, includes a new copy protection scheme that attempts to discourage users from running an unauthorized copy of the game on certain DS flash cards.

Users of popular flash cards such as the R4 and M3 Simply are greeted with a “Thank you for playing!!” screen after twenty minutes of playing. Then, as if it were a demo, the game automatically quits.

Let’s face it, it’s almost inevitable that someone will crack the protection, but this seems like a good tactic to fight piracy in the short run — seeing as pirates often give the “try before you buy” excuse for illegally downloading games.

Crystal Chronicles’ Clever Piracy Protection [Wired]

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