r/gaming • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 PC • 1d ago
Nintendo wins court order banning sale of Switch piracy devices
https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/nintendo-wins-court-order-banning-sale-of-switch-piracy-devices-3408162/1.0k
u/WrongLander 23h ago
Anyone remember having an R4 card on their DS? You were the shit on the school playground if you had one of those. And I recall them being openly sold in mainstream game stores to boot. Different times I suppose.
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u/scrilldaddy1 23h ago
The article mentions that Nintendo went through the Dutch courts to get the R4 card banned in 2010 and they were able to use that case as precedent in this case, so it's not that different afterall
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u/WrongLander 23h ago
I'm in the UK and I defo remember from like 2007-2010 they were very easy to find on the high street.
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u/ComradeJohnS 23h ago
in the US they were only ever online sales, never saw in person anywhere.
I had a supercard though.
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u/Valatros 19h ago
Honestly the entire idea of a flashcart just being sold in stores has me sitting here flabberghasted. Back in the DS days I ordered my r4 and later my acekard off a site that was well-reputed in the scene, but looked like it was made in an afternoon via geocities... Now apparently they had flashcarts for the switch in stores? I can't believe they managed the supply chain for that without Nintendo sending a hit squad...
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u/ComradeJohnS 19h ago
yeah at least where I grew up in New England, USA nobody knew what flash carts were, idk how I found out lol. no where in any reputable store sold them near me, and I lived near enough and frequented a city, mainly for a fun comics / game shop that’s still running decades laterx
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u/ratnissneverclean 8h ago
Used to see them being sold on the cape in those little mall kiosks in and in those beach stores in the toy section with the fake gameboys
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u/CautiousCatch1102 21h ago
I bought mine from a eb games in Texas and took that shit to school and everyone got shiny Pokémon
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u/Aus1an 20h ago
Lucky, I had to go to this Chinese mall in Toronto to find one. Absolutely worth it though. xD
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u/WallySprks 23h ago
I was 30, it would have been weird for me to be king of the playground. Ha
Prior to the R4 lots of shops sold mod chips. In the late 90s I paid the local shop $50 to install one in my PS1. They also sold the boxes that plugged into the serial port on the PS1.
I bought both PS2 chips at the store. Nintendo put and end to all that over the R4
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u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre 22h ago
I never saw an R4 sold in EB Games.
I only saw them sold at the Chinese flea market where they sell pirated/copied games and movies openly.
And the best part is that they were often selling fake R4s that would fail quickly and you weren’t getting a refund because that store got raided by the cops the week after you went there.
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u/Diggumdum 23h ago
Bruh you just sent me back in time. The R4 was probably the single best device in all of my childhood! I never realized how good I had it as a kid lol.
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u/Alliille 23h ago
Ok Satan. Just woke up and decided to bring up how old some of us are.Jesus in elementary the game boy color was the newest model. The R4 didn't even release until after I graduated.
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u/theShpydar 23h ago
Dude, the original Game Boy came out my freshman year of high school. 😆😆😆
Insert Matt-Damon-aging.gif here.
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u/residualriskdeclined 22h ago
I was playing Game and Watch and Tiger Electronics LCDs in elementary. Gameboy was cutting edge tech in 3rd grade.
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u/TheDarksider96 21h ago
What like the devices with one game on them that were just black and white screens man don't make me feel ancient lol
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u/residualriskdeclined 15h ago
I'm not even sure they're technically black or white. They were that LCD grey-black crystal on a hazy translucent plastic with no distinct colors in a primary or secondary scale. If it makes you feel better, I have half a dozen of them still, and my kids love playing with them and have no idea they're 40 year old tech.
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u/WrongLander 23h ago
Hey man, I grew up with the DS and even I'm pushing 30. We're all getting up there.
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u/TheBusStop12 23h ago
My dad got me and my sisters all R4 cards for our DS' when we were kids and loaded them all up with personalized games. I discovered stuff like Tomb Raider because of that. The older I get the more I realize how awesome my dad is
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u/Lexaraj 22h ago
R4 cards are still actively sold on Amazon.
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u/ActivistZero 17h ago
Nintendo isn't likely to kick up a fuss about them these days since the DS has long been out of production, no point wasting money on legal fights that don't matter in the grand scheme of things
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u/UrameshiYuusuke 18h ago
I remember buying one of those fake "300 in 1" DS cartridges at a local flea market that had like every single Mario DS game, all the Pokémon games up to HGSS, a few Japanese Naruto and DBZ games, etc
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u/WrongLander 18h ago
Wow. What was the catch, did they run like ass? Fail to save?
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u/HagurumaAss 16h ago
Not OP but I had one like that too and ngl I genuinely never had any issues with it. It always worked for me.
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u/Buckminsterfullabeer 22h ago
That R4 card was awesome, and also allows you to permanently install games onto your SD card on 3DS' as well.
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u/froid_san 1d ago
Your honor, this is a Raspberry Pi 2040 Zero, made by the Raspberry Pi foundation and this is not a Piracy Device :)
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u/WallySprks 23h ago
Yeah, but the MigSwitch is not a raspberry pi. The pi zero is still available. The only thing that makes it a “piracy device” is the cable you use to connect it to the switch.
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u/ADhomin_em 23h ago
Can I buy that cable elsewhere?..
..hypothetically, I mean
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u/Trickpuncher 22h ago
you can solder the wires yourself, they cant ban wires
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u/ADhomin_em 22h ago
You wouldn't download a wire...
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u/Busy-Reality-1580 21h ago
Fun fact that commercial used pirated music. I feel like most people know that at this point but yea.
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u/ERedfieldh 19h ago
the SMB rom that Nintendo used on the Switch for their Classic emulator was a rom that a guy had ripped in the late 90s.
It's always hypocrisy every single time.
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u/WallySprks 23h ago edited 17h ago
If you buy a pi
zeropico for a switch it will come with the cable. They cost like $10 on EBay18
u/Pretty_Dingo_1004 22h ago edited 22h ago
I'm totally out of the loop, was new ways to play backed up switch games discovered lately?
What is the pi's role in talking to the switch? Does it allow playing backups?
Edit: I'm not asking about what a raspberry pi does. I own many of them lol, I'm asking specfiically in the context of using it with a switch.
Sorry english isn't my first language so I may have worded it strangely
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u/jlips 22h ago
They’re talking about the chip on the Raspberry Pi Pico. It’s a micro controller, not a full sized raspberry pi. It’s way less performant, but is great for small things like reading and sending signals. It’s used in Switch mod chips. The cable they’re talking about is the ribbon cable that sits internally to the Switch and connects the Pi Pico board to the Switch motherboard.
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u/Pretty_Dingo_1004 22h ago
Oh a pico. That's nice those are dirt cheap. I'm gonna have to google this and learn more haha.
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u/_Imposter_ 21h ago
TLDR when installed with the right software, and soldered to specific points on the switches motherboard it forces the console to enter "RCM" mode or in other words "recovery" mode.
When in this state you can send the console a "payload" to boot any software you want, this is intended for repairing damaged consoles at the factory but can be used to boot anything so if course we use it for booting custom firmware.
The pico's role here is to both trigger the recovery mode, and send the payload when it detects that recovery mode was successfully triggered.
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u/wildcarde815 14h ago
You can do this by just bridging two contacts in the side of the earlier models as well.
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u/xsjpaql 21h ago
Aren't you just jailbreaking the device then? Why was it deemed illegal? Installing homebrew on a device you own is nothing new, this practice was done for years and illegalizing it always failed
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u/WallySprks 19h ago
Yes you are jailbreaking it with the pi pico. That is still legal. They still sell them. This case was about the MigSwitch. It’s a flash cart like the old R4 for the DS
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u/timeandmemory 22h ago
For what its worth I too have the exact same question as you. I'd suggest changing "What does this raspberry pi thing do?" to something like "What is the pi's role in talking to the switch?"
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u/_Imposter_ 21h ago
TLDR when installed with the right software, and soldered to specific points on the switches motherboard it forces the console to enter "RCM" mode or in other words "recovery" mode.
When in this state you can send the console a "payload" to boot any software you want, this is intended for repairing damaged consoles at the factory but can be used to boot anything so if course we use it for booting custom firmware.
The pico's role here is to both trigger the recovery mode, and send the payload when it detects that recovery mode was successfully triggered.
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u/timeandmemory 21h ago
My god so the switch has just been fully cracked open at this point. Thank you very much for dropping me that info.
Any view to progress on the switch 2 or is that walled garden in tact still?
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u/_Imposter_ 21h ago
Switch has been fully cracked open for a while now, loads of awesome homebrew to mess around with. Here's a great video that goes over it.
As for Switch 2, no progress yet, there's been some minor exploits but nothing substantial.
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u/timeandmemory 21h ago
Well you've given me a reason to dust off the old janky gen 1 switch. I updated it past a certain firmware revision and locked myself out of the crack at the time. Hell, got a fun week ahead of me. Thanks!
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u/Available-Can-5878 22h ago
MIG Switch was causing genuine problems because it copies the license itself and then the owners would return or resell their Switch cartridges, leading to multiple copies of the same license being detected online at once. Not only is copying license illegal, this can cause innocent people to be flagged if they bought a ripped cartridge
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u/FoxyGoddessX 1d ago
Not according to nintendo
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u/froid_san 23h ago
My router and PC looks more like a piracy device than a microcontroller. For god's sake Nintendo.
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u/rvreqTheSheepo PC 23h ago
Oh no. Where I can avoid such devices
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u/BokChoyBaka 23h ago
I guess they are talking about the RCM jig, which is just a 3D printed doo-dad with a paperclip in it that will short the switch into jailbreakable recovery mode. It only makes the process slightly easier, since you can just... Jam a paperclip in your switch.
They are available widely on Amazon due to ease of production
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u/anthonyjr2 16h ago
This isn’t the RCM jig, this was something you could connect to the switch to play and dump ROMs from cartridges. RCM was only for the original launch switch with the fusee-gelee exploit.
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u/WrenReverie 23h ago
Have a switch 2 now. Just bought one off amazon for 4$.
Going to turn my old switch into an classic gaming device.
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u/OtherAlan 23h ago
That's not a MIG. A MIG is about 50 USD. 4 dollars is maybe an RCM, which only works on a certain Switch 1.
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u/WrenReverie 22h ago
Well I may have wasted 4 dollars. LOL
Which switch 1 does it work on? I have a day1 launch model.
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u/OtherAlan 22h ago
Rcm works on day 1 switches. You'll need a huge micro SD card though. There are guides to look up on how to use rcm. Use that as your guide.
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u/WrenReverie 22h ago
I have a massive SD hard. That's good. Will be looking into guides after work.
Thank you!
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u/wildcarde815 14h ago
It's a fun project I dumped all my carts and upgrades. It let me play tears of the kingdom with cheat engine on PC so I could give myself tons of arrows and light seeds (wanted to fully explore the underworld...)
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u/sketchymidnight 12h ago
Why huge? I just set one up today with 128GB. I guess if you want 10+ games at a time that would make sense. SD cards are expensive af now
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u/jardex22 22h ago
Pretty sure it's the launch day model. The whole reason they released the revised model with a better battery was to correct the hardware defect that allowed you to load other programs onto it.
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u/Andrevus2 22h ago
You can check if your switch is hackable based on the serial number (either in system settings or the little label on the bottom of the console if it hasn't rotted away yet) online.
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u/Ashne405 22h ago
Dont know if its what they mentioned, but afaik the ones before the v2 revision are really easy to hack, so there is a high chance you can with a day 1 model.
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u/ComradeJohnS 23h ago
oh no, my dm is open and I would hate it if any advice on that process was suddenly in there
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u/ultrainstict 22h ago
Mig switch and mig switch dump tool.
Cartriage requires full cartridge dumps,
Dump tool requires a nintendo switch.
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u/MegaManZer0 1d ago
And thus no one could ever pirate anything ever again. /s
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u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 22h ago
The Switch 2 is currently un-pirate-able.
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u/pocketMagician 23h ago
If they're gonna sunset my switch1 then im gonna do whatever I want with it.
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u/ErgoProxy0 22h ago
Did I miss something? What are they doing to Switch 1?
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u/xjoe666 22h ago
nothing. he’s just lying for karma and attention lol
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u/Squirrelking666 17h ago
They're stopping selling it in Europe, I presume that's what they were referring to.
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u/WholesomeDucky 11h ago
They are not selling it in europe anymore because in order to continue selling it, they are legally required to redesign parts of it to make battery replacement easier, and they just aren't gonna do that for a previous gen product, even if they are still supporting it with games/updates.
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u/Remarkable-Onion3726 1d ago
This seems to directly conflict with the EU's legal struggles with Apple to assert the rights people have over the devices in their physical possession.
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u/ComboBreakerMLP 22h ago
In this case it was more the “piracy devices” were cloning licenses and that is a super big deal cus you could clone a game and its license, return the game, and someone else buys it and uses it, and now the server sees two identical licenses online and that’s a big problem
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u/Kwantuum 19h ago
The illegal bit in this story is not the cloning, it's the bit where you keep using a game you don't have a licence for use after returning it.
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u/BossiWriter 14h ago
Wait, they won a court order to make something illegal that was already illegal in the first place?
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u/ManicMakerStudios 1h ago
They won a court order acknowledging that the devices are a violation of Nintendo's property rights. That now opens the door for Nintendo to take legal action.
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u/empathetical 23h ago
What In the hell is this gonna achieve? Ppl will mod and pirate still no matter what. It's like the war on drugs.
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u/balllzak 22h ago
There are some people who will only mod their switch if it is incredibly easy and risk free. If you only have to plug in a cartridge that you buy off of Amazon more people will be willing to try than if you have to make your own tool or open the switch up and solder something inside.
Making it less convenient will deter some people.
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u/garf02 21h ago
You dont understand how lazy some people are.
To the ones dedicated, they will hardware mod themselves.
But what is modernly see as “piracy” thrive solely ln how easy is to implement.
The moment you need to start reading guides, do hardware mods, copy firmwares. Etc, the most steps it requires it drastically reduces the amount of people willing to do it.
You will never get a net zero but they can certainly thin down the numbers.11
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u/AmbitiousVast9451 21h ago
I mean it makes sense? obviously piracy is illegal so selling a tool to pirate being illegal makes sense. will not stop piracy whatsoever
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u/ManicMakerStudios 49m ago
It's pretty simple. Having a court order confirming the devices are a violation of Nintendo's rights means Nintendo doesn't have to prove their rights every time they take legal action against people making devices for piracy. It's called "precedent".
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u/ERedfieldh 19h ago
meanwhile they've zero issue using a rom someone ripped in the late 90s because they never backed up their own game's source code.
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u/El_Barto_227 17h ago edited 16h ago
Well yeah, they actually have the right to use their own game. When you download a ROM without permission from the copyright holder, you're violating copyright law. They got permission from the copyright holder (themselves) to do it.
It's also not the only time games have been recovered in weird ways, like devs secretly keeping copies of source code and it later being lost, and then recovered because said dev kept a copy they shouldn't have. Happened with the OG Fallout games iirc.
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u/Einarr-Spear777 linux 23h ago
They never stopped emulation nor wil they ever. Many forks of switch emulator still exist.
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u/Extranocate 21h ago
Yes, but they can stop people who are profiting from emulation.
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u/XtremeD86 23h ago
Court orders are ignored by people making these devices in countries that don't care about laws.
Completely pointless when these will still be sold elsewhere by others, possibly even by the sale people on other platforms under different names.
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u/polishfiringsquad 19h ago
Oh no! People might make fun mods or preserve games! The horror. Seriously, how does Nintendo have the best game designers and shittiest legal team simultaneously. Surely Miyamoto must have noticed the ghouls working for him
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u/Babaooiey 23h ago
Ok. Rebrand them to decorative pieces. It just so happens you can mod a switch with it or whatever, my wife just bought it because she thought it was pretty.
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u/princewinter 22h ago
This won't change anything. The little slidey joycon clips you use to hack a Switch will just be called something else. They'll be "Console enhancer slides" rather than branded as Nintendo specific.
Places like Ali express are full of replacement parts for things that are just called slightly different names to avoid legal issues. It's not an apple ipad screen it's a fruit tablet screen.
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u/Bendythenightfury Android 20h ago
Yes pirates famously know for following court orders will totally listen to order. It's not like they haven't been listening since Blackbeard
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u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker 24m ago
I agree! You shouldn’t be selling piracy devices. You should be giving them out for free lmao
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u/WayneTuesday 20h ago
This is why i dont fuck with nintendo anymore. Ill go back to my n64 and SNES.
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u/Evecherryxoxo 23h ago
Nintendo really does not play around with this stuff lol
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u/DickValentine66 21h ago
No one does. Atari did it in the 80s and since then Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all actively taken legal action against people profiting from piracy of their products.
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u/dekuweku 1d ago
Switch is still an active supported platform. The pirates acting entitled to piracy really are overreaching here.
With Dolphin it makes sense and the devs of that emulator were very careful not to gloat about playing commercial games before release. So much of the Switch emulation scene was gloating about playing the next release a week early on PC. They were just asking for it that that point and not being subtle about the piracy. It's not even about backups or game preservation.
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u/Little_Ad2062 1d ago
You are confusing emulation devs (the people getting hit) with annoying YouTubers and TikTokers who will show thst "YOU CAN PLAY TOTK A WEEK BEFORE RELEASE FOR FREE" to get views and suffer no consequences
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u/Pathian 23h ago edited 23h ago
The yuzu devs folded so quickly when nintendo went after them in part because the yuzu devs discord logs were out in the open where they're discussing all the piracy they were into doing, including their server of pirated games incl unreleased titles.. The devs weren't exactly altruistic saints.
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u/Syrairc 1d ago
Conversely, fuck Nintendo.
If I pay for a piece of hardware, it should be mine to do with as I wish.
There are countless examples of things sold for legitimate reasons that are also used for illegitimate reasons - knives, guns, pharmaceuticals, recording devices, printing devices, etc.
We need to stop prioritizing corporate "rights" over individual rights.
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u/WorldlyDear 23h ago
let's not pretend that the mig switch wasn't made to load a bunch of pirated games onto it and playing them
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u/Snitzel20701 15h ago
what about the people who buy second hand games then? don't they have the right to play their game without their console getting banned?
it is the pirates who buy games, copy the game and their copyright license then returns the game to the store that are fucking over the consumers here. Nintendo see that two exact same copies are online and can't tell which is real so they ban both.
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u/Duneking1 23h ago
Like Nintendo has a right to protect their IP. I don’t really have an issue with people hacking their Switch or Switch 2 and making it play windows games or anything like that. The problem is that when its also capable of allowing to circumvent protections to play current games it rubs me the wrong way. I know I’m not right here either because I know on a long enough time frame I don’t care anymore. If you want to hack your Wii and play Luigi‘s Mansion I’m fine with that. I know its not legal but I’m okay with that. I feel at that point if they aren’t printing the discs anymore and the digital store is closed than its free game.
I don’t have a leg to stand on in this argument but I don’t really take issue with Nintendo protecting their current generation consoles and IPs. It’s not like they can say ’Sure allow the MiG to play fan games on the switch but nothing else.’
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u/RecentMatter3790 22h ago
why do you say that, if the terms and conditions of the devices say not to modify the devices?
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u/International-Fun-86 23h ago
Eh, i don’t think the netherlands have anything to say on whats law and not law in the rest of Europe.
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u/Outrageous-Machine-5 1d ago
Nintendo can't stop me from going out and buying a cutlass. It's my 2nd amendment right
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u/Key_Amazed 23h ago
This will make entitled redditors very angry
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u/FoxyGoddessX 23h ago
I mean using the logic of the judge, a printer is a piracy device that needs to be banned.
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u/Zer0_Digits 23h ago
Pirates, historically famous for obeying court orders.