These days you can load up almost the entire history of gaming on a dozen different PC handhelds, choose from a thriving Android ecosystem of less-powerful but cheaper handhelds, and run emulators on iPhones and Android phones. Their walled garden is on the brink of ruin, unencumbered hardware and software have surpassed what they offer. I don't think it's existential yet but if they don't have a digital buffet ready for PC/Mac/iOS/Android then they are in real trouble IMHO.
Related:
Ryujinx (Nintendo Switch emulator) has been removed from GitHub
I got a C&D from them 20+ years ago for hosting a ROM site. That's fair enough. I complied. But this seems ridiculous. What if they're plugging an 8-BIT NES to an adapter and into a capture card?
The whole thing seems silly as I don't see it's costing them money. But it's their product they can do what they want.
Do they really get to do whatever they like forever with e.g. games and consoles they neither sell nor maintain anymore?
The NES was discontinued in 95, that was nearly 3 decades ago. I don't think they should have the right to prevent hackers to emulate it and share their findings.
Current consoles, yeah maybe, but even then the question would be why they should get a monopoly on the games developed for their platform..
> I don't think they should have the right to prevent hackers to emulate it and share their findings
They do not. Emulation is legal. However it is worth considering that:
0) NES Classic was sold as recently as 2018
1) Nintendo currently rent out NES games as part of Switch online
2) Copyright law ("lifetime" + 70 years) is on Nintendo's side for games themselves
3) Fair use can be a defense against infringement in some cases
4) Although it might or might not be fair use, I feel no guilt downloading Super Mario Bros 3 for an emulator since I've purchased it at least ten times by now, own multiple copies of the game on physical media, and am currently renting it through Switch online.
On the Sony/PlayStation side, I own a PS Classic, which actually runs a version of an open source PS1 emulator PCSX, amusingly enough. (I'm a bit disappointed that it's not a descendant of Connectix's emulator though.[1])
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment,_I....
> Nintendo currently rent out NES games as part of Switch online
If Nintendo really cared about this they should create their own version of Spotify for legacy video games and charge a monthly subscription fee for the entire library that’s cross platform and mobile friendly. The strength of Nintendo really is their games, not the hardware. I don’t understand why Nintendo is so attached to their hardware in 2024, especially in the age of the Steam Deck.
> I don’t understand why Nintendo is so attached to their hardware in 2024,
Yes, you do not.
Nintendo makes a lot of money selling hardware. Switch is the third most successful game console of all time, behind the PS2 and Nintendo's own DS. Switch was always profitable vs. component and manufacturing cost, and this has largely gotten better over time with the exception of covid-related supply chain disruptions. Nintendo has no need or desire to follow in Sega's footsteps.
Switch consoles mean Nintendo can sell physical game cards. Physical media are important in Japan, and important elsewhere since they allow fully offline operation.
Moreover, Nintendo doesn't want to sacrifice its platform fees to the likes of Valve, Apple, or Google.
> But it's their product they can do what they want.
To the extent that we let them. There's no natural rights going on here, so theoretically (if you believe in democracy) we still get to decide how much power foreign companies have.
The US belongs to various international copyright conventions. The assumption is that countries will respect each others' copyrights.
And the US currently has an extremely long copyright period, life of the author + 70 years. Some (Larry Lessig and others) have argued that this violates the constitution's establishment clause for copyright, but so far the supreme court disagrees, and copyright reform also seems dead in the legislative branch. (And on the executive side, the copyright office is not sympathetic, and international treaties also impede copyright reform.)
But your thought experiment is interesting - suppose the US decides that Nintendo's copyrights no longer hold, and suppose that Japan decides that Microsoft's copyrights no longer hold? If it were only for old games and obsolete software, perhaps little would change. If it were for recent games/software, then I think it might change the incentives to localize games/software for other markets.
A large part of the US economy depends on IP law, including copyright; they're not going to suddenly abandon it.
They could, however, shorten the terms to much more reasonable lengths. It wouldn't hurt the US economy to shorten copyright terms to 50 years, for instance. If they shortened them to 30 years, it would have no real effect on the software industry, though Nintendo would be pissed. I don't think Microsoft would care much about people passing around copies of MS-DOS 3.3.
> If they shortened them to 30 years, it would have no real effect on the software industry, though Nintendo would be pissed. I don't think Microsoft would care much about people passing around copies of MS-DOS 3.3.
Well Windows '95 is coming up soon on its 30th...
I'm sure MS Word and Excel must have improved slightly in 30 years, but by how much? They don't seem much more responsive than they were 10 years ago, and most of the shiny new Windows/Office features seem to be things I hate like annoying autocorrect, pointless UI redesigns, and worthless and intrusive AI nonsense. And incompatible save formats.
Office's largest enhancement seems to be Office 365, which offers an inferior, low-performance imitation of the desktop apps running in a web browser. This is only good for people stuck with crappy Chromebooks, ARM-based tablets/phones, or Linux.
Nintendo is getting YouTube to take down videos that feature footage generated from emulators.
Better source: Comment last week on /r/SBCGaming: https://safereddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1frjcaa/hey_ever...
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It appears that my suspicions are true, and that I am being specifically targeted by Nintendo. My recent Wii U video was taken down and I received a second copyright strike, even though this showcase video was no different than all of the tech demos and reviews I have made on this channel previously. I am still considering a counter claim under fair use, as the video was for educational use, transformative in nature, and had no effect on the market -- it was a demonstration of a console no longer for sale (even the Wii U eShop is closed, so the company itself has no means of earning revenue from Wii U sales). However, I am reluctant to open that can of worms with a multi-billion dollar corporation, as their next step would be to file legal action.
At the very least this means I am going to change how I approach future videos. I will no longer show any Nintendo games on-screen, which is a shame because I love using those games for my hardware demonstrations. I don't know how that will play out when it comes to showing things like ESDE frontend themes that contain Nintendo characters, but for now I am going to focus on actual gameplay. I am also going through the videos I am working on and blurring out any Nintendo game content as a precaution, even innocuous content like NES games. Unfortunately this is going to delay some video releases -- my latest video should be up right now, but instead I have to re-edit and re-upload the video first.
I know this is disappointing news, but with now two strikes on my channel, I don't really have any other choice except to adjust accordingly. Thanks for your understanding.
Here's the proper link: https://old.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1frjcaa/hey_ever...
I don't know what the fuck "safereddit.com" is, but it is an unnecessary layer of obfuscation when the literal source is right there.
Safereddit looks like a website that implemented a private front end called redlib:
https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib
Agree that we don’t need to add a layer of obfuscation but this seems to be a way to reduce telemetry captured by Reddit.
Standard Nintendo behavior.
I think they’re trying to prevent people from developing hardware alternatives to Nintendo Switch, next logical step after stable emulators.
Which basically proves Nintendo has little to no moat apart from laws preventing their executables from being run elsewhere.
I'm probably the only person on HN who sympathizes with Nintendo. I think the law should be stronger against internet piracy without hurting other freedom.
Let's be real. I'm guessing only 1% will rip the ROM off their purchased cartridge and play on an emulator. The 99% will pirate games they never purchased.
Either way your so called "piracy" helps preserve the games and keep them playable for much longer.
The interesting question to me is how piracy (or unlicensed downloads) affects the company. In many cases, it seems like it has little effect at all.
Are people really going to stop subscribing to Switch Online because NES ROMs are readily available for emulators?
What I think might (?) have some impact on Nintendo is downloading Switch games for execution on competing handhelds like the Steam Deck.
Yuzu and Ryujinx are the real threats to its business as a number of highly anticipated game titles have been leaked and pirated several days (if not weeks) before their releases. This is not acceptable for both the developers and legit purchasers. I actually suspect that the recent Zelda title leak (2 weeks before its release) was the main motivation of recent takedown of Ryujinx.