Summary
Nintendoisnotoriously tough on anyone who emulates its games, even if they’redecades-old titles that haven’t seen re-releases. With that in mind, it goes even harder on attempts to pirate its more recent games onNintendo Switch, since these are the ones it’s actually making from.
Now, Nintendo has ramped up its efforts to stop its users from emulating games on the Switch. An update to the Nintendo Account user agreement now states that the company has the right to effectively brick your console if you try to modify it, or break other conditions in the agreement.
Nintendo Can Brick Your Switch If You Try And Moddify The Console
This was spotted byGame File, but anyone with a Nintendo Account should have received an email with these updated terms by now. The new wording goes after anyone modifying their Nintendo games or consoles, since this is also done to pirate and emulate titles.
As per the agreement, users cannot “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”. That’s about as all-encompassing as you can get, and is clearly trying to prevent the entire piracy process.
The agreement continues, forbidding users from doing anything that would make Nintendo products “operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use”. This would also seemingly affect those who modify their console and games, even if they have purchased their games legitimately.
If you breach the agreement, Nintendo states that it reserves the right to “render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.” In other words, make your Switch unplayable, lock you out of games, and your account.
This is all in time for the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch, which is on June 5, so there’s not long to go now. This likely means that we’re going to see Nintendo be even more ruthless in its bid to prevent its games from being pirated.
Last year, Nintendosued the moderator of a subreddit dedicated to Switch piracy, alleging that he was “offering technical advice and encouragement” to those seeking to play pirated games on their consoles. He is also accused of selling pirated Nintendo games himself.
