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FSF Says Nintendo's New DRM Allows Them to Remotely Render User Devices 'Permanently Unusable' (fsf.org) 61

Posted by EditorDavid from the pulling-a-Switch dept.
"In the lead up to its Switch 2 console release, Nintendo updated its user agreement," writes the Free Software Foundation, warning that Nintendo now claims "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...."

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...


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.
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FSF Says Nintendo's New DRM Allows Them to Remotely Render User Devices 'Permanently Unusable' More

FSF Says Nintendo's New DRM Allows Them to Remotely Render User Devices 'Permanently Unusable'

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  • Offline games (Score:5, Insightful)

    by allo ( 1728082 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @12:40PM (#65872949)

    Games should work without internet connection again.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Without sufficient demand, it just won't happen. People have to stop buying things that require a connection. The choice is theirs, not Nintendo's. Remember, the whole basis of our economic system is to do whatever abuse that the "market will bear". So, if there is no economic penalty for applying DRM, then DRM spreads like cancer

      • Are you saying the engineers who write the subscription software should take money for designing things they themselves realize are stupid? Is this a perverse capitalist incentives problem, and why isn't a basic income one way of changing the current power dynamic?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Are you saying the engineers who write the subscription software should take money for designing things they themselves realize are stupid? Is this a perverse capitalist incentives problem, and why isn't a basic income one way of changing the current power dynamic?

          God you're an idiot. You do a job and you get paid. If you don't want to do the job then don't, and don't get paid. That is the way the world works. Quit being lazy and wanting to live off of the labor of others.

          • Why do the people paying you not understand that selling subscriptions to enclosed abundance produces crap, and why shouldn't you live off a Fed-funded, generous, inflation-adjusted basic income and design free software for devices that won't brick themselves on remote command?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      They do and they will. Just buy old hardware and enjoy the tons of games available for the earlier systems. After a lightning bolt hit the power pole outside my house, it fried my PS4. Instead of replacing it, I just went back to my PS3. I recently bought another one used on eBay that plays PS2 and PS1 games via hardware as well. I haven't had these kinds of issues since. An additional advantage is you can find loads of reviews about playing the games from people who played them long-term, not reviews from

  • just install Windows on it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Yeah... forget gaming. Asking Copilot to generate dumb memes for you is the best source of entertainment in 2025!

  • an wave of CC change backs will show them how bad this can be

    • It does seem to be blown a bit out of proportion though, "it has already been wielded against many users" seems to mean two users, and in both cases it appears to have been due to actions by previous owners so it wasn't actually used against the users.

      OTOH I will have to remember that either zero or two means "many" for the next time my wife asks me how many jobs I've done around the house this weekend.

  • Going for gold (Score:3)

    by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @12:58PM (#65872983)

    ...in the olympics of worst company ever

    • Re:Going for gold (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @03:09PM (#65873209) Homepage Journal

      Apple is pretty bad about this, as per the recently-reported story of Apple revoking a user's access to literally all of his apple hardware and email account because he bought a gift card that someone else had compromised. That's quite a lot worse since people depend on their apple devices much more than on a simple game console.

      Google is bad about this too. They will disable your email accounts based on their automated policy violation detection and even though they, in theory, give you a way to get human review, reported cases show that they are notorious for showing no mercy even when you did was innocent and legal (but just has the appearance of risk). They feel justified in this since their services are free to you, but people get very dependent on their emails and a ban can be very life-wrecking.

      In the case of apple and Nintendo, they very deliberately protect themselves from criminal harm by deflecting victimization on to their own users instead. Like in the apple case: if you are the victim of fraud (buying a compromised gift card), Apple shuts YOU down, rather than eating the financial loss themselves. And with Nintendo, if you innocently bought a legit used game, but it turns out the previous owner illegally duplicated it, Nintendo shuts YOU down, rather than eating the cost of copyright infringement.

      In the very specific case of hardware mods, I can see a justification of denying online use in order to protect players from OTHER players who cheat. Especially in PVP games, people obviously hate cheaters because they ruin the game for everyone, so they are happy to accept control measures that can detect cheaters and shut them down. HOWEVER, even in this case, a permanent account ban is WAY too heavy handed. The obvious reasonable balance is that you are banned so long as your device remains detectably compromised. Once you clean the device up, you should be allowed to play again. MAYBE a perma-ban from online games would be justified for repeat offenders, but only after they have received and acknowledged several warnings to this effect.

      Shutting a player down the instant a copied key is detected is outright egregious, as it punishes the victim without proof of guilt (not to mention bypasses any pretension of legal due process). Nintendo doesn't care, of course, because their products are desirable enough (and there is too little competition in the industry realistically), that they can just get away with this. People will put up with this abuse to play Nintendo exclusives. Same for Apple.

      The wealthy abuse us because we tolerate it and keep giving them our money. And also because there are too few big-tech companies, creating an effective cartel, leaving us with no-where else to turn (realistically, even if there are theoretical alternatives that come with unwanted sacrifice, cost, or risk, above-and-beyond).

      • I forgot to add: Nintendo hates the fact that we can legally sell a game cartridge to someone else once we have played a game. They want everyone to have to buy their own copy from Nintendo, without there ever being any kind of used game market. Obviously, they make more money that way!

        So if their abusive access-denial policies have the side-effect of scaring people away from the used game market, that is a total win!

        We need better consumer protection laws to shut down abuse like this. But getting them i

      • Only that the hardware wasn't bricked, he just couldn't use it's cloud functions without setting up a new account.

  • Microsoft will sue (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @01:06PM (#65872999)

    They own the exclusive rights to software updates that brick systems.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      You are allowed, by law, to make modifications to the hardware. It was a lawsuit over early versions of the Playstation series. I can't recall the case, but again that is the law.

  • each game cart has a unique serial number, so someone can copy a game then sell the original as a used game and continue playing the copy. sneaky plan to promote digital games.

  • Whoa (Score:3)

    by ScooterBill ( 599835 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @01:14PM (#65873019)

    Wait until some hacker figures out how to exploit this. That'll be fun!

  • Consumer protections should make these practices illegal.

  • And so do all the clones.

  • Any software update or installation mechanism that has root permissions can do this. The real question is, why is it not a crime for them to do it?
      "Computer sabotage" or a variant thereof seems to apply.

  • This needs to be stopped ASAP or it will become SOP with every vehicle and device maker.

  • This ought to be illegal to even ask for. that it isn't is an indication of how useless our legal system has become

  • I mean, it was a betanews post rather than from the FSF, but it's pretty much the same story [slashdot.org].

  • Let's see them brick my emulator.

  • US vs EU consumer rights (Score:5, Informative)

    by Flu ( 16236 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @03:55PM (#65873285)
    As EU citizen, it amazes me that USA still - in the 21st century - doesn't provide basic consumer rights such as 3 year warranty in addition to manufacturers voluntary warranty, or even basic rights such as right to be reimbursed.

    From the European eula:

    "NCL IS liable for damages arising as a foreseeable result of NCL's negligence or NCL's breach of this Agreement. We do NOT in any way exclude or limit our liability for: [...] fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; [...] description, satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose of products [...] ; and product liability."

    That statement is in the US version replaced by "NINTENDO SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY THAT THE NINTENDO ACCOUNT SERVICES OR ANY CONTENT YOU MAY STORE OR ACCESS THROUGH THE NINTENDO ACCOUNT SERVICES WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO DISRUPTION, DAMAGE, CORRUPTION, LOSS, REMOVAL, OR DISCONTINUATION (A âoeSERVICE INTERRUPTION"). NINTENDO SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE SHOULD ANY SUCH SERVICE INTERRUPTION OCCUR, AND YOU AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT WILL YOU BE ENTITLED TO OR RECEIVE A REFUND, CREDIT OR ANY OTHER COMPENSATION FOR ANY CONTENT OR PORTION OF THE NINTENDO ACCOUNT SERVICES THAT YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO USE OR HAVE DIFFICULTY USING, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DUE TO ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTION."

    https://accounts.nintendo.com/... [nintendo.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Yep. Happens when the voter is as dumb as bread and easy to manipulate. Praying to the Great God Mammon also has something to do with it.

    • Re:US vs EU consumer rights (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday December 21, 2025 @05:20PM (#65873427)

      A certain group of people make out the government doing ANYTHING beneficial to be some sort of communism or socialism. So much so that they want to dismantle consumer protections. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10... [npr.org]

    • s EU citizen, it amazes me that USA still - in the 21st century - doesn't provide basic consumer rights such as 3 year warranty in addition to manufacturers voluntary warranty, or even basic rights such as right to be reimbursed.

      In the EU, you take pride and comfort in creating legislation that prevents companies from giving you a non-consensual dick in the ass. In the US, we take pride and comfort in having the freedom to choose the dick that will fuck us in the ass.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      As EU citizen, it amazes me that USA still - in the 21st century - doesn't provide basic consumer rights such as 3 year warranty in addition to manufacturers voluntary warranty, or even basic rights such as right to be reimbursed.

      You do realize the 3 year warranty is because you say yes to "do you want the extended warranty"?

      The US gives consumers the option of paying extra for it. The EU, the prices have that option already built in. It's why something that's $500 USD is €500 (or around $585 USD) - t

      • The US gives consumers the option of paying extra for it.

        The US does not. Private companies looking to make a buck by screwing consumers through a typically American over profitised insurance scheme give those options.

      • No 3 years warranty is mandatory by law. Any optional warranty such as "extended" warranty, the US 30 day warranty, "optional" warranty or any other warranty stated in ads, packaging and what not kicks in AFTER the first 3 years.

        But on the contrary, the drifference is due to Europe adds 20-25% state VAT to the customer prices.

        . Without the VAT, the prices in the US would actually be higher than those in Europe. But I guess, VAT is a small price to pay for having universal healthcare and not having a con

  • Your guilt will be determined solely by the company. You are guilty until proven innocent, *IF* they feel like looking at your evidence at all. If you ARE proven innocent they will either graciously allow you to use what you already paid for again or they will alter the deal until you are no longer innocent, depending on mood and if the representative's corn flakes got soggy that morning.

    Wanna complain about it? The hold time is approximately 45 minutes. The person who answers MIGHT sound sympathetic or not

  • "You'll own nothing, and you'll love it!"

    Why aren't you loving it? Your overlords specifically requested it!
  • Looking forward to plenty of lawsuits. Can their DRM find out which person tried to breac DRM? Or can any idiot effectively destroy my console by trying to play a game they shouldnâ(TM)t?

  • I would never knowingly buy a device that could be bricked remotely. The idea is nuts to me.

    Like, I'll buy this thing and maybe one day it'll just stop working because someone somewhere on the other side of the world pushed a button?

    Hell no, I will not buy anything that has a kill switch.

  • While the FSF's principles are generally laudable, there are far more basic ones which should be appealed to here. If you go into a shop and buy a spade, say, you can use that spade to dig until it physically falls apart, the manufacturer can do nothing to stop you. It must be written in law that this is how all purchases work. If you buy an item, (rather than renting it,) you get the right to use that item as advertised in perpetuity, limited only by inevitable constraints such as physical durability. If t

  • We have to accelerate into this. Nintendo needs to ban so many consoles that it becomes a PR disaster and causes them to lose trust with consumers. Paddling its bottom line is the only way to teach a corporation manners.

  • I want a personal DRM for digital currency that allows me to render any money I exchanged for services or goods "permanently unusable" for whatever reason I see fit. Lets see if they like their own shit served to them.

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