466
Nintendo Anti-Piracy Policy Device Lock Update Warns of Console Bricks for Unauthorized Use
(www.gamescensor.com)
this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
466 points (98.5% liked)
Games
38510 readers
1409 users here now
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Weekly Threads:
Rules:
-
Submissions have to be related to games
-
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
-
No excessive self-promotion
-
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
-
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
-
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here and here.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Personally I'm baffled by peoples responses. It has always been the case that you risked bricking your console when you hacked it with custom firmware. It has been the case since at least the PSP. Usually this was just security updates trying to prevent the recent hack method from working, but often had the potential to brick the system if you weren't careful.
Now people read some legalese that might just as well exist just to cover Nintendo's ass should this in fact happen and without any further proof some assume there is an actual kill switch in the device. People are just itching to bring out the pitchforks.
In another note, people most mad about this and stating they will no longer buy from Nintendo... seem to be the exact same people who demand the right to hack and mod their device. So in a way, Nintendo is winning here simply by discouraging exactly some of those people from buying the console. And all it took was a few lines in their user agreement.
“Nintendo may render...the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.”
This isn't just a warning from Nintendo that you risk bricking your console if you try to hack it.
No, because that's not the main goal of these kinds of documents. This is a broad enough definition of what might happen when you tamper with your device that might protect their ass in court should it ever get to that.
But it doesn't really imply they have a kill switch. Their currently used, fully locking devices out of the Nintendo servers, can already be seen as turning the device "permanently unusable in whole or in part". Especially with how digital and online focused consoles have become.