Nintendo warns that it can brick Switch consoles if it detects hacking, piracy

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/05/nintendo-threatens-to-brick-switch-consoles-for-hacking-piracy/

31•voxadam•9mo ago

Comments

mystified5016•9mo ago

Sure, Nintendo definitely has the right to unilaterally and with no appeal or recourse, destroy a several hundred dollar device that you bought with your own money.

Nintendo claims the right to steal hundreds of dollars from you, permanently, with no notice or any hope of recovery.

Make sure to preorder switch 2!

kotaKat•9mo ago

As the public has proven, time and time again: “It’s OK when Nintendo does it.”

wormius•8mo ago

Yep - never buying from them again. They've always been hostile to emulation but the past couple years have been even more ridiculous than normal from them. I don't need another Mario game while forking over yet more money that are user-hostile.

I know it won't place a dent in their profits, even if many of us who feel this way, since there are so many more people who just "wanna play the game" and don't know any of the politics of it. But this is still my personal stance, I just don't want to give a company like this money. Likewise, it's why I hopped off Windows, even though I really really thought they turned a new leaf with WSL, but Win11 Rolls around and ads & AI shoved in that I don't want.

I'm tired of giving corps what they want just because they're "the default". I'll live a cheaper life, with less FOMO. No skin off my back. Maybe this is just me getting old and dressing it up in a guise of moral superiority.

1123581321•9mo ago

They were already breaking modded hardware with firmware updates and banning accounts. The previous EULA covered it, just less explicitly. Just sharing what I learned researching this last week. My personal preference would be for the Switch to be flashable with any OS.

staticman2•9mo ago

Nintendo Switch had an efuse system to prevent downgrading to earlier less secure versions of the OS but I don't remembering hearing that Nintendo was actively bricking anyone's Switch.

They would ban online use but I believe it would still work offline.

1123581321•8mo ago

That's what I'd read: you would have a modded Switch, the firmware might break it (intentionally or not) and then you couldn't roll back. It didn't sound common.

Funes-•9mo ago

They're probably bluffing to an extent, but just picture the dystopian scenario we're all heading towards: you're watching anything that's not {MegaCorporation or Government}-Approved Content™ on your TV and all of a sudden the screen goes dark and displays an ominous message, "This device has been permanently disabled due to non-approved usage. It will be retrieved by authorized personnel in the following days. Failing to comply will carry a serious fine. Thank you." Then you say "McDonald's! I'm lovin' it!" out loud so you can unlock your phone and proceed to complain on X before you're swatted by the police for doing so.

mindcrash•9mo ago

They already did that with the 3DS onwards.

For example, if you had a flash card in your 3DS and a new firmware update detected it Nintendo would happily brick the 3DS:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/nintendo-3ds-can-be-rem...

soulofmischief•8mo ago

That article seemed pretty inconclusive.

mock-possum•8mo ago

Generally a fan of Nintendo’s game design sensibilities - generally not a fan of Nintendo’s business practices.

Still haven’t forgiven them for shitcanning AM2R

Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter

Reverse-Engineering Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600

Show HN: Deterministic NDJSON audit logs – v1.2 update (structural gaps)

The Greater Copenhagen Region could be your friend's next career move

Do Not Confirm – Fiction by OpenClaw

The Analytical Profile of Peas

Hallucinations in GPT5 – Can models say "I don't know" (June 2025)

What AI is good for, according to developers

OpenAI might pivot to the "most addictive digital friend" or face extinction

Show HN: Know how your SaaS is doing in 30 seconds

ClawdBot Ordered Me Lunch

What the News media thinks about your Indian stock investments

Running Lua on a tiny console from 2001

Google and Microsoft Paying Creators $500K+ to Promote AI Tools

New filtration technology could be game-changer in removal of PFAS

Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

Kinda Surprised by Seadance2's Moderation

I Write Games in C (yes, C)

Django scales. Stop blaming the framework (part 1 of 3)

Malwarebytes Is Now in ChatGPT

Thoughts on the job market in the age of LLMs

Show HN: Stacky – certain block game clone

AIII: A public benchmark for AI narrative and political independence

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes

The API Is a Dead End; Machines Need a Labor Economy

Digital Iris [video]

New wave of GLP-1 drugs is coming–and they're stronger than Wegovy and Zepbound

Convert tempo (BPM) to millisecond durations for musical note subdivisions

Show HN: Tasty A.F. - Use AI to Create Printable Recipe Cards

The Contagious Taste of Cancer