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Nintendo's new user agreement includes power to brick your Switch
Nintendo's new user agreement includes power to brick your Switch
www.pocket-lint.com
Nintendo's new user agreement includes power to brick your Switch
14 comments
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Nintendo doesn't explicitly state what it means by making your device "unusable." However, there's a strong chance this is merely Nintendo's polite way of indicating that if a user breaches its user agreement policy, their Switch console could potentially be bricked (rendered inoperable) by Nintendo.
I like how the author's speculation is used as the headline, as if it were confirmed fact. That's super cool and useful and definitely not misleading at all.
Realistically, this sort of verbiage has existed on several consoles' ToS in the past, and I'm pretty sure nothing has ever come of it before. Here's the full term in question, which the author of this article couldn't be bothered to include for the reader to easily scrutinize for themselves:
- License
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, Nintendo grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Nintendo Account Services solely for your personal and non-commercial use. For clarity, the Nintendo Account Services are licensed, not sold, to you, and you may not make use of the Nintendo Account Services except as expressly authorized by this Agreement.
Without limitation, you agree that you may not (a) publish, copy, modify, reverse engineer, lease, rent, decompile, disassemble, distribute, offer for sale, or create derivative works of any portion of the Nintendo Account Services; (b) bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services, including through the use of any hardware or software that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use; (c) obtain, install or use any unauthorized copies of Nintendo Account Services; or (d) exploit the Nintendo Account Services in any manner other than to use them in accordance with the applicable documentation and intended use, in each case, without Nintendo’s written consent or express authorization, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the foregoing restrictions Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.
As it's written, it seems that the actions Nintendo would take are flexible, and would depend on what, specifically, you hacked. And I say "hacked", because this is referring specifically to unauthorized access of Nintendo's online services. This isn't even talking about hacking your actual console, itself.
There's really nothing out of the ordinary here, and I'm almost positive that the same terms existed on previous Nintendo consoles, just in different words.
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The title doesn't say what Nintendo will do. It says what they state can do.
Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.
That very much sounds like they have the power to brick the device. I'll believe it existed on prior consoles, but it should've been called out back then too.
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To me this reads as 'We might push an update that bricks your console should you have hacked your device." Which has been a risk when modding consoles for at least 20 years now. I don't think it refers to there being an actual kill switch. Just more legalese to further scare people from doing to and to reduce the chance of getting sued should it happen.
That said, with so many games being digital or gamekey only, and later games probably requiring system updates anyway, just being blacklisted from the Nintendo servers alone would already gut a console's functionality to the point it might as well be seen as one.
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They've had that same power for the Switch 1 though
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From the comment you replied to:
I'll believe it existed on prior consoles, but it should've been called out back then too.
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So why does anyone expect the Switch 2 not to have the same exact restrictions?
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I mean, they say they can make your device unusable permanently, aka bricked, so where's the discrepancy? It says exactly what the article says it does.
Does it matter that they haven't used it yet?
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I mean, they say they can make your device unusable permanently, aka bricked, so where's the discrepancy?
The issue I take is with the implication that they will brick your device. It's a small, but distinct difference from "they might brick your device".
Does it matter that they haven't used it yet?
Kinda, because the potential for them to do this has been there for several generations of console now. They've had the capability for this, and haven't pulled the trigger, even though I'm sure they'd be legally justified in doing so (or can hire good enough lawyers to make it legally justified).
They haven't done it because they know that even they, Nintendo, who can spin even the dumbest bullshit into something convincing for your everyday John Consumerman, can't manage to beat the bad optics of bricking somebody's expensive and in-short-supply device. There are very few things that are truly bad publicity, but "destroying the product you sold to a customer and keeping their money" is one of them.
There are so many actual problems with the things Nintendo is doing these days like the needlessly convoluted DRM system they're trying to introduce, but this ToS update seems like a real nothing burger.
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