Nintendo has been seeing a fair bit of controversy in recent months. Since the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, the company has received backlash from fans. It started with talk about a boring console design, which then progressed into fans demanding that Nintendo drop the upcoming system’s price. After this, players complained about the pricing of Switch 2 games as well as the upgrades for original Switch titles. Now, Nintendo is seeing even more controversy as the company is willing to brick the systems of those who break the new EULA.
Nintendo can now brick your Switch system
Spotted by GameFile, Nintendo has officially made changes to the end-user license agreement leading up to the launch of the Switch 2. In typical Nintendo fashion, as of late, the new agreement is not nearly as user-friendly as the previous one. The primary offense of this agreement is that Nintendo now says it holds the right to render your console “permanently unusable.” Of course, this depends on whether Nintendo thinks you violated the new agreement.
The new agreement states, “You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the foregoing restrictions, Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo decide permanently unusable in whole or in part.” In other words, if you break any part of the new EULA, Nintendo can brick your system.
The new restrictions dictate that you may now do any of the following:
- “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.”
- “Bypass, modify, 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.”
- “Obtain, install, or use any unauthorized copies of Nintendo Account Services.”
- “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.”
Previously, this section of the EULA used to read, “You are not allowed to lease, rent, sublicense, publish, copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble all or any portion of the Nintendo Account Services without Nintendo’s written consent, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law.”
As pointed out by PCGamer, the act of modding hardware and extracting ROMs “is a legally protected consumer right.” Again, Nintendo is treading on the rights of the consumer, and, understandably, people are unhappy about it.
