How Nintendo drives people to video game piracy

March 27 marks the end of service for Nintendo’s 3DS and WiiU online stores, meaning people will no longer be able to purchase new games for these systems. And there’s no news as to whether these games will be available via Nintendo Switch Online or any other official method, which leaves people interested in these games other options.

The other option for players who don’t manage to download these games, for whatever reason, is piracy — an option Nintedo itself clearly doesn’t like.

[TheEnigma313]

Nintendo has very anti consumer practices, but they have too many apologist that defend them for them to change their ways. They are the most coddled gaming company of the big 3. They get away with pure f***ery a lot of times.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Which is why I usually post torrent links of roms right on their twitter page just to piss them off, and knowing they are helpless when it comes to that.

[sadraiden]

You do you, homie.

[VariantAEC]

That lets them know who to file takedown orders against...

Thank you for helping Nintendo sue them.

[sadraiden]

I agree, but also disagree.

In what way are they being anti-consumer? What fuckery are they committing? Is it anti-consumer that you can't buy NES games at Toys R Us anymore? Is it anti-consumer to take down an online store that isn't worth the server space to keep up? As the IP holders, they aren't obligated to allow you access to anything. They sold games for systems, and when people tired of those systems, they stopped making the games for them in favor of newer hardware. If they stopped printing new copies of The Da Vinci Code, would you say that Dan Brown or his publisher are being anti-consumer? If Nintendo removed games from their online services that also removed them from your library, then you'd have an argument that they're being anti-consumer.

That being said, I truly don't think there's much interest in the current Nintendo Switch Online service as far as the NES/SNES/Genesis/64/GB/GBC/GBA games are concerned. It's a nice little perk, but people aren't getting NSO for it exclusively. I don't think that Nintendo would see any profit even if they started printing repros of their old classics. So do with that information what you will ;)

But pirating switch games is lame as fuck. Don't be a broke bitch.

[Chard]

I don't like how they handle old games; I wouldn't want to have to perpetually rent Super Mario World for example, I'd like to be able to just buy it once and know that it will be tied to an account that will work on the next Nintendo console and the one after that.

[Pyrofire95]

It's more than backwards compatibility or availability that make them Anti-comsumer. Though they are the only ones to shutdown old storefronts and from such recent machines at that.
They are also anti-fan. There are plenty of situations where Big N has gone out of their way to screw over their biggest fans. They had an official Splatoon tournament, most competetive games will have a big prize pool, however, This one had a grand prize of $25 in Nintedo Online credit which they didn't even hand out.
Nintendo Online Expansion was called the Worst Deal in gaming at launch. (similar to Game pass being called the Best deal in gaming) It is marginally better now but at the time they had a not even half baked service and still asked way more than the base cost of Nonline but almost nothing to offer.
Switch/Animal Crossing is designed in a way to pressure families or even indeviduals to buy multiple consoles. You want your own island or to start a new one? No, buy another $200 during an economic crisis.
They ever let Pokemon release in the state it's in. (N only partially owns Pokemon but they do have the ability to do better) Now you can see in their commercials how much they try to hid the poor visuals and performance with it quick cuts.
They don't care about people and care less about fans. They give the impression that they don't care if you play their games, maybe prefer if you didn't, they just want you to buy them.

[TheEnigma313]

Proving my point; you're an apologist.

[Pyrofire95]

It's the same effect that Disney has. They are so family friendly and mainstream that people can't see them as a bad company.

[TheEnigma313]

Perfect example.

[Inverno]

Them shutting down their online services is the reason why I refuse to buy digital games on the switch, apart from the few I ended up getting early on. Not just Nintendo though, I stopped buying digital games on PSN as well. I would argue that this is more a problem with consoles in general than just Nintendo though. I can't be sure that backwards compatibility will be a thing or that I'll be able to buy these games on later consoles so that's money I can't commit to giving.
There are many games that are just not possible to play without the need of emulators and piracy. The list will keep on growing.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

What's funny is that Archive.org still has rom sets of Nintendo, PS, Sega, etc that are not taken down.

[SegaSaturn669]

The steam deck plays switch games pretty well. I beat many more games on there than the original switch. Strangely, games like infernax played better on Yuzu than the steam version.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

It does, if you ever watch ETA Prime he has so many handhelds that he reviews. This got me thinking for a pretty good handheld to use for Nintendo's next console, I'm sure it will be like the switch, and it will be cracked as every console has and will be.

[Profchaos]

I've got the oled switch was pretty sure that hasn't been cracked

[sadraiden]

You bought a steam deck, spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 give or take a hundred or so depending on the model, then you use it to play current pirated games. Makes sense.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

You can buy a modded Switch on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/listin... It's a bit expensive but all the work is done for you with over 2500+ Roms + Emulators. I have my New 3DS XL modded, which I did really nice emulation handheld. I have a OLED Switch, but over the years I'm losing all respect for Nintendo. I have thousands of roms, emulators, Raspberry Pi 4, etc. As long as torrents and usenet are around Nintendo can't do shit about them, they can take down websites but that's about it. 😁

[Chocoburger]

It's not just shutting down the online stores. It's the fact that you can't perform local back ups of your own save files that infuriated me. Something that has been available for decades. I hate those anti-consumer practices, and that's a large reason why I went full piracy on the Switch.

With homebrew I can back up and restore my save files as I should be able to without having to pay a fee. They do these BS practices to prevent piracy but all it does it push me towards it in the end. Pure idiocy.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

I agree 100%. I get a disagree for posting a legit site like Etsy, who's sellers have modded Switches to buy, if anything go after them and complain. 😆 I also modded my joycons to, https://www.etsy.com/listin... I still like my Switch

[XxINFERNUSxX]

@Profchaos, they do have on Etsy modded OLED Switches, it has " Modded CFW Atmosphere Hekate Homebrew"
But the price is way too expensive. I would not pay that much. Probably cheaper to by a used OLED Switch and just mail it in to a seller on Etsy to do the service for you.

[MadLad]

Weak hardware.
Expensive games.
Crap online experience.

Games run fantastic on my PC though lol
Hell, they play pretty damn well on my Steam Deck.

[Pyrofire95]

Did for me. I can't justify spending more than necessary on them with how anti-consumer and anti-fan they have been since Regi left.

[Nerdmaster]

I'm still bitter for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King being unavailable since the Wii Shop closed down. It was a unique game, and I can't find a similar experience anywhere else.
Before anyone comes saying "well, you can find the rom on the internet", I already tried to, and although the base game can be found, there's no version with all DLC, which added a lot to the game.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

I own 100 Switch games and none are licensed by Nintendo so this is a fail article, lol. Hell, half can't even be found on store shelves because they're either Import or limited release. I could easily pay off most of my car note if I sold my collection.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I really wish they'd put more effort into BC like they used to via Virtual Console, even Sony/Microsoft has made better attempts at BC (hopefully Sony pumps out more PS Classic games). That and the price of Nintendo games is appalling, 7 year old game? Full price, even with the 3DS on the way out, they haven't had a decent sale for months, just full price on everything.

I know they'll never do it, but I would love Nes/Snes/64 games on Steam.