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Comment by xwdv

4 years ago

If we didn’t have profit protection measures like this everything would be much more expensive and that’s not a better alternative for most consumers.

This is doubtful in my opinion, but Nintendo would certainly like us to believe that. I think that Nintendo does this for profiteering purposes, and also because they are irrationally restrictive of unintended usage of their hardware/software/artwork.

  • Do you remember the nintendo ds? Piracy was really awful on this one, especially in Japan. Almost no one bought original games until flash cards were finally banned.

Well that's a whole other debate, but I'd like to know the legality now.

  • Everything is legal until it's not. Unless someone takes it to court they will get away with it. When that happens they will find a slightly more expensive and slightly more legal way to prevent piracy. Rinse and repeat.

  • You agreed to the terms of service. There is little to nothing you can do.

    • You can't write just want you want in an agreement. There are things that are not legally enforceable - even if the other party has agreed to them.

      6 replies →

How is this a profit protection measure? And how does it prevent the Switch from being more expensive?

  • Nintendo makes a profit from game sales, therefore sells the console almost at cost. This hardware measure prevents piracy.

Not my downvote but I believe when you do the math the equation goes like this:

(reduction in functionality) + (fewer options) + (loss of user control) + (handicapped operation) + (hardware underutilization) = higher prices for everyone

This is not including things like (planned obsolescence) which are intended to make things more expensive without raising the sales price.

  • You don't have to game on Nintendo devices. Open platforms are available on the market.