We don’t usually discuss video game consoles on Privacy Guides, but a recent EULA update by Nintendo demonstrates the dangers behind proprietary ecosystems.
Nintendo’s May 2025 EULA update adds new language concerning the specific ways users are allowed to use “Nintendo Account Services” on the console, a term defined here to encompass the use of “video games and add-on content.” Under the new EULA, any unlicensed use of the system not authorized by Nintendo could lead the company to "render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part." (Emphasis added.)
Of course, it is unclear what actually counts as a piracy or hacking. By modifying your own device, Nintendo may even brick your device if it detects any form of modification.
So what kind of Switch usage counts as a “violation” here? Unsurprisingly, playing pirated games is high on the list; the EULA now specifically calls out “obtain[ing], install[ing] or us[ing] any unauthorized copies of Nintendo Account Services.” That language would likely apply to users with hacked console hardware and those who use any number of third-party flash carts to play pirated games.
But the EULA also restricts a wide array of largely synonymous verbs associated with hacking your own console for potential non-piracy uses. That includes restricting the right to “modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble all or any portion of the Nintendo Account Services…” as well as the ability to “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.”
Jokes on them - I am the sort of extreme person where if something is made this difficult and whatnot - I simply refuse to spend and use the thing in question in the first place.
Now, these companies will only change their tunes if everyone or the vast majority chooses to be this way. A hit on their bottom line is the only language they understand. But alas, this is not the society in which we live.
I believe in all that @louis_rossmann and SomeOrdinaryGamers advocate for - I am for getting it done in alternative ways because sometimes that’s the only choice you have left given the extreme levels and types of lock ins by these companies when “purchase” is not “ownership” in full based on the TOS of the things you buy from the platforms they operate.
Screw that - for years I paid a small fortune for digital goods, only to be fucked later. I gave the companies an honest chance but no more. Their enshifficiation will be their own demise.
I don’t think we talk enough about this “lack of control” over our own purchased devices.
Everything from ripping DVDs to modifying a computer brings some risk. At first, it was just violate a warranty but now it can lead to permanent damage for a lot of devices.
This isn’t a situation affecting video game consoles, but also phones and laptops. I hoped that this wouldn’t be a normalized trend in consumer devices, but I feel nevertheless skeptical about that.