For as long as there’s been video games, it seems like there’s been video game piracy. It’s sadly become a commonplace occurrence, with deserving developers and publishers becoming victims of disrespectful players who would rather steal than pay for a quality game.

Some developers and publishers attempt to strike back. Anti-piracy measures are designed, created and implemented in the hopes of thwarting the game pirates. Unfortunately, these measures are typically no match for determined pirates with plenty of free time on their hands.

This constant struggle between companies and thieves has lead to some memorable, and occasionally funny, piracy protection measures. Today, Gamertell takes a look back at the anti-piracy included in Spore, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and Earthbound…

Well, the score is now Square Enix: 0, Hackers: 2. Square Enix has attempted to put copyright protection in its DS games, first in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and now in the Japanese version of Chrono Trigger DS. Chrono Trigger is scheduled to debut in Japan on November 20, 2008, but already the rom of the game has been leaked online.

Initially, pirates were unable to play the Chrono Trigger rom though, due to Square Enix copyright protection that would make the game glitchy or crash. Not to be deterred, some adept hackers created a code which allows the game to run normally. Two codes were created, one for M3 Real flashcarts and one for general flashcarts, to allow pirates to play undisturbed.

Its disappointing to see protection broken so quickly…

In May 2008, Crytek announced that it will be abandoning PC exclusivity due to problems with pirated copies of Crysis. Now, Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater revealed to Videogaming247 reasons why the copany won’t bring the anticipated EndWar to the PC.

Ubisoft has been having such big problems with piracy of Assassin’s Creed that they sued the disc’s manufacturers, Optical Experts Manufacturing. This is because the PC-version was leaked to the public two months before the…

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.