Japanese gaming giant Nintendo reckons that the popularity of video game piracy is waning as companies and government deploy measures to curb it.

In an interview with CVG, the marketing manager for Nintendo UK James Honeywell said that the lately there has been a "heyday of piracy" but a lot of rules are being put in place to curb it.

“There's definitely a step change coming and you see it in various countries around the world. People are aware that video games, music and movies make massive contributions to the economies of countries. They need to make sure they start protecting those things,” he said during a 3DS event in Amsterdam.

In the same event, Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton said that the upcoming Nintendo 3DS will come with some of the most sophisticated anti-piracy measures, making it extremely difficult for people to crack the device and run pirated software.

"We can't divulge any technical details on that but needless to say this is probably one of our best pieces of equipment in that respect. There are a lot of things we've learnt over time to try and improve the security and protection - not only of our IP but of our third-party publishers' IP as well," he said.