New Nintendo DRM bans consoles, makes users beg for forgiveness

In the lead up to its Switch 2 console release, Nintendo updated its user agreement and asserted broad authority to make consoles owned by its customers permanently unusable. Under Nintendo's most aggressive digital restrictions management (DRM) update to date, game console owners are now required to give Nintendo the unilateral right to revoke access to games, security updates, and the Internet, at its sole discretion. The new agreement states:

"You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with [Nintendo's restrictions], Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part."

These new, wide-sweeping restrictions affect a large number of users for many different reasons. There are probably other reasons that Nintendo has and will justify bricking game consoles, but here are some that we have seen reported:

• "Tampering" with hardware or software in pretty much any way;
• Attempting to play a back-up game;
• Playing a "used" game; or
• Use of a third-party game or accessory.

When Nintendo remotely bricks a perfectly-functional device, the game console becomes effectively useless. Users are blocked from ever accessing the Internet again with the system, which in turn restricts services like eShop (the digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch), online play, using the subscription-based Nintendo Switch Online (which includes access to retro game catalogs and the ability to back up game data), game download (including previously-purchased codes and "game-key" cartridges ), and security patches. As if blocking Internet access alone wasn't enough, a bricked device is no longer able to play downloaded games, either. These restrictions don't just apply to the user who broke the Nintendo's extremely strict user agreements: the block is for the life of the device, no matter who owns it.

No proprietor should have the power to brick your device at its discretion.

Nintendo's promise to block a user from using their game console isn't just an empty threat: it has already been wielded against many users. For example, within a month of the Switch 2's release, one user unknowingly purchased an open-box return that had been bricked, and despite functional hardware, it was unusable for many games. In another case, a user installing updates for game cartridges purchased via a digital marketplace had their console disabled. Though it's unclear exactly why they were banned, it's possible that the cartridge's previous owner made a copy and an online DRM check determined that the current and previous owner's use were both "fraudulent." The user only had their console released through appealing to Nintendo directly and providing evidence of their purchase, a laborious process.

Nintendo's new console banning spree is just one instance of the threat that nonfree software and DRM pose to users. DRM is but one injustice posed by nonfree software, and the target of the FSF's Defective by Design campaign. Like with all software, users ought to be able to freely copy, study, and modify the programs running on their devices. Proprietary software developers actively oppose and antagonize their users. In the case of Nintendo, this means punishing legitimate users and burdening them with proving that their use is "acceptable." Console users shouldn't have to tread so carefully with a console that they own, and should they misstep, beg Nintendo to allow them to use their consoles again.

"Brick." 2010 by Andrew Lister. This image is dedicated to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 No Rights Reserved license.