One might wonder about the ratio of Nintendo’s legal budget to actual piracy losses.
Having been a college student back in the days of Napster (and ignoring the complete dearth at the time in physical stores of the sorts of music I was getting into), $20 CDs with one good track were not a value proposition. So when I downloaded a track, there was zero actual financial hit to whatever label or the RIAA … it’s a sale that never would have happened. You didn’t lose money; you gained exposure.
My last console was an SNES, so I have no horse in this race. But being actively hostile to your customers generally ends poorly.
As a grown-ass adult, I’ve spent more than $2,000 on music on Beatport, mostly $1.29 at a time replacing the stuff I pirated for better-quality versions.
When you have to take away rights that used to be guaranteed by the first-sale doctrine, it’s likely a sign there’s something wrong with your business model moreso than users causing so much chaos (and profit loss) that you have no choice.
This isn’t some fly-by-night AI toaster company that’ll shut down services in a year and leave you fucked. It’s Nintendo. They’re going to survive just fine.
We should make noise about it and enforce regulations that ban practises that do not allow people to own the things they own. We don’t want to end up like america.
If you hack your console and put it on the internet, don’t be surprised that you’re bricked. Do I think it’s a little extreme to brick a Switch that hasn’t even joined an online game? Yes, that does suck, but realistically any game company is not going to knowingly let you use a device that is hacked. Once again, if it’s just an account brick, then who cares, make a new one (why would you hack with your main account?). Hardware bricks are pretty shitty, but there’s no way you could fight that in court (I deserve the right to hack my console and get free games?).
Once they stop making updates, you’ll own the switch anyway, as then they don’t give a fuck/can’t do shit about hackers. I’ve hacked my WiiU and several 3DS because there are no more new updates to ever brick them, they’re obsolete/abandoned consoles.