4 ms·

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

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.

_imnothere 2y ago
Either way your so called "piracy" helps preserve the games and keep them playable for much longer.
- musicale 2y ago
  IIRC NES, SNES, and Game Boy cartridges have a battery for game saves that eventually needs to be replaced. The point is a good one though: can we preserve the games so that they'll be playable hundreds of years (or more?!) from now, much as we can still play tabletop games from antiquity (backgammon, 9 man morris, chess, mancala, go, senet, etc.?) Whether the cyborgs of the 25th century will still want to play Mario Kart is unknown however.
- snowram 2y ago
  It does, and "preserving" Switch games that aren't even out yet doesn't constitute preservation. See Yuzu case where they specifically used leaked copies of Zelda games to make those compatible with the emulator, while accepting financial retribution. Sometimes the hypocrisy is just too blatent for companies not to care.
musicale 2y ago
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.
- summerlight 2y ago
  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.
  - musicale 2y ago
    I have read comments from game developers that copy protection, and anti-piracy tech, does seem to have a significant and positive effect on a game's sales for the first few days after release, which seems to be a hugely important window in a market with a short attention span and a constant flood of new games. I agree that the big deal that Nintendo must be worried about is Switch emulation and piracy/leaks of new games before or close to release. On the other hand (refuting my GP speculation perhaps), are Switch (and Switch game) sales really going to tank because pirates can run Zelda on Steam Decks? Regular Zelda fans who can afford one probably own a Switch already, are planning on buying a Switch 2 (or an OLED Switch after a price drop), and preordered the game.
    - grodriguez100 2y ago
      > Regular Zelda fans who can afford one probably own a Switch already, are planning on buying a Switch 2 (or an OLED Switch after a price drop), and preordered the game. This might be true, but only represents part of the sales — there are many potential buyers who are not “regular Zelda fans” and who may end up not buying the game if they can find a pirated copy.
      - benoau 2y ago
        I think more importantly: anyone who looks at the Switch as another computer they can buy will see it is worse than the Steam Deck by basically any metric including the Switch's own games running much better with higher resolutions and framerates plus all the QoL enhancements emulators add. There's very little reason to buy-into a proprietary handheld that will restrict your usage and repairability and compel you to pay the highest possible prices for games, if you can enjoy those games without that hardware. I don't know how many consumers are savvy enough to make that comparison but Nintendo are in an extraordinary vulnerable position already - and the Switch 2 will have to contend with two future generations of the Steam Deck as well!
pokerface_86 2y ago
i can’t imagine having sympathy for some foreign megacorp hellbent on controlling every way you interact with a game their employees made. fuck nintendo, maybe they shouldn’t release complex software exclusive to an underpowered piece of shit that can’t even run ps4 games at 1080p60 if they don’t want people to prefer a superior experience

_imnothere 2y ago

Either way your so called "piracy" helps preserve the games and keep them playable for much longer.

musicale 2y ago
IIRC NES, SNES, and Game Boy cartridges have a battery for game saves that eventually needs to be replaced. The point is a good one though: can we preserve the games so that they'll be playable hundreds of years (or more?!) from now, much as we can still play tabletop games from antiquity (backgammon, 9 man morris, chess, mancala, go, senet, etc.?) Whether the cyborgs of the 25th century will still want to play Mario Kart is unknown however.
snowram 2y ago
It does, and "preserving" Switch games that aren't even out yet doesn't constitute preservation. See Yuzu case where they specifically used leaked copies of Zelda games to make those compatible with the emulator, while accepting financial retribution. Sometimes the hypocrisy is just too blatent for companies not to care.

musicale 2y ago

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.

summerlight 2y ago
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.
- musicale 2y ago
  I have read comments from game developers that copy protection, and anti-piracy tech, does seem to have a significant and positive effect on a game's sales for the first few days after release, which seems to be a hugely important window in a market with a short attention span and a constant flood of new games. I agree that the big deal that Nintendo must be worried about is Switch emulation and piracy/leaks of new games before or close to release. On the other hand (refuting my GP speculation perhaps), are Switch (and Switch game) sales really going to tank because pirates can run Zelda on Steam Decks? Regular Zelda fans who can afford one probably own a Switch already, are planning on buying a Switch 2 (or an OLED Switch after a price drop), and preordered the game.
  - grodriguez100 2y ago
    > Regular Zelda fans who can afford one probably own a Switch already, are planning on buying a Switch 2 (or an OLED Switch after a price drop), and preordered the game. This might be true, but only represents part of the sales — there are many potential buyers who are not “regular Zelda fans” and who may end up not buying the game if they can find a pirated copy.
    - benoau 2y ago
      I think more importantly: anyone who looks at the Switch as another computer they can buy will see it is worse than the Steam Deck by basically any metric including the Switch's own games running much better with higher resolutions and framerates plus all the QoL enhancements emulators add. There's very little reason to buy-into a proprietary handheld that will restrict your usage and repairability and compel you to pay the highest possible prices for games, if you can enjoy those games without that hardware. I don't know how many consumers are savvy enough to make that comparison but Nintendo are in an extraordinary vulnerable position already - and the Switch 2 will have to contend with two future generations of the Steam Deck as well!

pokerface_86 2y ago

i can’t imagine having sympathy for some foreign megacorp hellbent on controlling every way you interact with a game their employees made. fuck nintendo, maybe they shouldn’t release complex software exclusive to an underpowered piece of shit that can’t even run ps4 games at 1080p60 if they don’t want people to prefer a superior experience