The Japanese publishing giant has offered a big "up yours" to internet pirates.

The DS software market has very recently been threatened by devices such as the M3 Simply and the R4 flash cards. These devices, although they are intended for the download of homebrew software and applications, have been used to pirate DS games.

Square Enix, best known for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series', have taken a stand against piracy however with the release of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. Pirates who found themselves downloading the latest installment in the popular RPG series were greeted with a "Thank You For Playing!" screen around twenty minutes into the story. This screen ends the game, but if the player wishes to carry on playing from the last savepoint, the screen will continue to appear randomly.

It seems that Square Enix have (very briefly at least) managed the impossible task of beating the pirates at their own game!