Nintendo has been actively taking down YouTube videos that feature its games being emulated or modded, which has sparked significant discussion and concern within the gaming community.

  • GustavoM@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Imagine being a long time Nintendo fan to end up being sued because playing their games (and sharing your experience with others) is now considered the same as stealing.

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    So you’re saying I should never buy anything from Nintendo?

    Cool cool cool, cool, cool.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    So the switch itself emulates older consoles… I could have swore I remember reading something like the anniversary bundle that they put out for a limited edition had a emulator that someone made.

  • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I wouldn’t be surprised if this backfires a bit. The reason most publishers/IP holders don’t go after videos on youtube and twitch is because it’s basically free advertisement for your game.

    If this behavior leads to people holding back on making nintendo based content, it could fuck them over in the long run. If you were a streamer or youtuber, would you feel particularly comfortable making videos and streaming nintendo games?

    I know I wouldn’t. There is no guarantee that nintendo actually puts effort into determining whether you are using an emulator or not. And even for the people who do use emulators, they may not be looking to continue making nintendo content.

    • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Nintendo is going after a lot of their biggest fans. It’s so obviously stupid, but they just keep doing it.

    • SSJMarx@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      They’ve been doing this for a long time, and it definitely has a depressive effect. Even a big gaming youtubers like Videogamedunkey has commented on how every single time he does a video about a Nintendo game it gets demonetized, and while he can afford to take the financial hit every now and then there are plenty of mid-tier creators who can’t.

  • GeneralInterest@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    If someone has bought a Switch game legally, then it’s legal to dump that game to a PC and play it on a Switch emulator, right?

    Sure you could say that very few people dump their own games, but those that do are doing everything legally I think?

    • dan@upvote.au
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      1 day ago

      it’s legal to dump that game to a PC and play it on a Switch emulator, right?

      Depends on where you live. Copyright law varies significantly from country to country.

      In the USA, section 117 of the copyright act lets you create a copy for archival/backup purposes only. What I’m unsure about (and don’t know if there’s any relevant caselaw) is whether bypassing copy protection to create the copy violates the DMCA.

      The equivalent Australian copyright law explicitly states that you can use the backup copy instead of the original one. The US law doesn’t (all it says is that you can make an archival copy, not how you can use the archival copy), so it’s a grey area.

      Both laws are for “computer software”, but you could easily argue that a video game is computer software.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        23 hours ago

        I don’t see any way you could argue a video game isn’t computer software. It literally just is.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          21 hours ago

          Nintendo could try make up something like “it’s not computer software since the Switch is a console, not a computer” or something like that. Not a great argument, but they have good lawyers and could probably convince a court that it’s true.

          • phx@lemmy.ca
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            21 hours ago

            But the game is running on a computer with the emulator which still strongly lends to it being software

            • helpmyusernamewontfi@lemmy.today
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              20 hours ago

              I think I somewhat recall during the peak Wii U disaster era, during shareholder meetings Nintendo would call the games for the system “Software”. So, that’d definitely backfire on them I’m sure

    • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Nah. From Nintendo’s position, you don’t “own” the game. They do. All you bought is a license to play the game on a Nintendo approved console. By ripping the game from the switch dump, you are violating the license you bought by copying their software without permission.

      From a practical perspective, fuckem. Your paid money to play the game and if you decide to play it on something else you own, go nuts.

    • SSJMarx@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      IIRC this is what is currently protected in American law, but the problem is that in the time between now and the Sony/Bleem lawsuit Congress passed the DMCA, which has a provision making it illegal to bypass copyright protection. When emulating any modern console, you are naturally required to bypass the copyright protection on the game, which Nintendo would argue makes it illegal to do.

      Maybe you could get around this with some kind of emulation scheme that requires the console to be plugged into your PC, like the emulator uses the console’s official hardware for the copyright check and then just takes over rendering the game.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Nintendo is doing everything in it’s power to screw over gamers, yet people will still consistently be like “omg pokemon, hiiiiii 🥺” and buy their slop even when the games get worse every time.

    Like could you imagine if Microsoft did shit like this, the backlash would be huge.

  • yamanii@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    They just killed Ryujinx too, proving it wasn’t the fact that Yuzu was making money.

  • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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    2 days ago

    “So, those guys generate positive advertisement for our games. How do we stop it, and make sure that public opinion shifts to «Nintendo is cringe and you’re a loser if you play this shit»?”

    Also, what the fuck is with Japanese law, criminalising modding?

    • x4740N@lemm.ee
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      20 hours ago

      You sure is Nintendo of Japan and not Nintendo of america that’s doing it because the american office would use american jurisdiction

      Also, what the fuck is with Japanese law, criminalising modding?

      You state that this is Japanese law but what is clearly happeing here is nintendo abusing laws, please correct that statement of yours because your unfairly criticising the Japanese government for the actions of nintendo

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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        8 hours ago

        It is the result of Japanese law. Further info here (in English) and here (in Japanese).

        As such, yes, the Japanese government is also to blame. Plus any other government playing along with this crap, be it from USA or Brazil or whatever.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      I would assume a company such as sony or nintendo lobbied for that law.

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Also, what the fuck is with Japanese law, criminalising modding?

      My best guess would be that they’re trying to get ahead of the recompiler scene before it catches a bigger foothold. But also, that lumps in the entire rom hacking and fan translation community, which I’m sure they view as perpetuating the piracy of their games.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        My best guess would be that they’re trying to get ahead of the recompiler scene before it catches a bigger foothold.

        If AI-generating images from copyrighted training material is legal, then generating source code from copyrighted binary code is as well.

      • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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        2 days ago

        It’s probably not about that but rather to destroy the secondary market of modchips and save-file editors in Japan.

      • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Nonetheless, the best thing would be to let those kinds of fans do what they do, because it is free advertising. But no, they’d rather be right than pragmatic, so they shoot themselves in the foot. Meanwhile, if they’re so worried that these guys have that kind of serious reach and influence - aren’t those the people they shouldn’t piss on??

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I don’t care what bullshit justification they try to come up with for it; the bottom line is that it violates computer owners’ property rights.

        It is absolutely unconscionable, ass-backwards, Bizarro-world bullshit to privilege temporary fake Imaginary Property (IP) over and above actual property!

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Typical Japanese bullshittery. I watch sumo, and even when there was no official way to watch outside Japan the sumo association would get youtube accounts showing matches taken down. Tons of industries are still run by technological dinosaurs.

      • Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Japan was already living in the 2000’s back in the 80’s. The problem is that 40 years later, they’re still living and thinking in the exact same way.

        • papalonian@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          “Japan has had the best 2000s tech since the 80s” I think is the succinct phrase you were looking for

      • mPony@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        the current U.S. Supreme Court wouldn’t give you democracy, even though the American military has killed tens of thousands of people around the world in its name.

        • ivanafterall@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Could I at least get a barrel of oil? No need to beat around the bush (heh), I’ll take what I can get.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    They’re clearing out the scene before the switch 2 releases because they perceive the current emulators as a major threat somehow.

    Which I assume means that the new switch is similar enough in architecture that it would be relatively trivial to ship a fully functional emulator on hardware release.

    Pretty insane because at least in the USA, emulation is protected by law, except if someone can successfully argue that you are bypassing DRM which is illegal.

    In a working system, this wouldn’t be an issue but I imagine neither Yuzu nor Ryjunix would want to deal with Nintendo’s insane law team that could wreck them financially in a matter of days before even entering a court room.

    I hope someone either makes an anonymous dev team for a future project, or gets assistance from a consumer justice firm/group to properly argue in court to shut Nintendo down. They really should not be able to do this because it was already a thing 24 years ago:

    Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix Corporation, 203 F.3d 596 (2000), commonly referred to as simply Sony v. Connectix, is a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled that the copying of a copyrighted BIOS software during the development of an emulator software does not constitute copyright infringement, but is covered by fair use. The court also ruled that Sony’s PlayStation trademark had not been tarnished by Connectix Corp.'s sale of its emulator software, the Virtual Game Station.

  • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Wow! Way to tell the world to never buy your products because you’re petty sniveling greedy and absolutely hate your fans.

  • Hudomi@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    With all these news recently, you could think Nintendo wants to be hated. It’s truly shameful how the company has fallen since Iwata is gone.

    • Microw@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Nintendo has gone after youtubers and content creators for 15+ years. They are infamous for it.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      They still did this stuff under Iwata. It’s actually more of a Japanese thing than a Nintendo thing. Although the quality of stuff was better under Iwata

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      On the plus side, it makes me feel extra good when I load their games onto my hacked Switch! Echoes of Wisdom was fun, but felt really short. I would have felt cheated if I’d spent $60 on it.

      • hakase@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        I mean, its predecessor was a basic-ass remake of a ten hour, thirty year old Game Boy game that also cost $60.

        • SSJMarx@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          I love that game, but I fucking hate the remake’s artstyle. Its completely put me off from trying Echoes even though the premise and gameplay of that one seem right up my alley.

          • samus12345@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I don’t mind the art style, other than the ugly-ass blur filter applied to the bottom of the screen. Fortunately, you can remove it if you’re playing it emulated or on a hacked Switch.

    • sus@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      to be honest, 80% of their customers probably don’t even know what an emulator is and don’t follow news about nintendo

    • demizerone@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      All they have is their IP, they must protect it at all costs. Nintendo doesn’t even let Shingeru Myamoto wipe is own ass out of fear he will get hurt.

    • Xanis@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Sounds like someone got promoted to a high position. If I’m right it’s the typical “New Manager Must Make Waves To Prove They Belong” level of stupid unique to corporate.

      • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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        21 hours ago

        Or they simply are soon to launch the next console and want the happiest investors for the event.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The Switch was my last console purchase; I’m never buying another console from anyone ever again. I haven’t touched it in years cause every time I new game comes out that I want to play, I just pirate it instead. Why bother playing new releases on an underpowered, outdated handheld that struggles to render in 1080p, when I can play them in 4K on my PC at 60-120 FPS instead? Seriously, fuck Nintendo. Between their crappy hardware and crusade against gamers, I have zero reason to give them another cent of my hard-earned cash.

      • GeneralInterest@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The Steam Deck seems like a decent console, if that counts, because you’re free to do what you want with it

        But perhaps you consider that to just be a handheld PC instead of a console, which I suppose is true

      • lunarul@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I grew up as a PC gamer (if you can call 8-bit computers PCs too) and never had a console as a kid. I got an Xbox One when it came out, just because of the Kinect, and never played anything on it other than Just Dance. Playing on my PC is more convenient. I got a Switch and played some Pokémon, but couldn’t get in the habit of playing on a device instead of a PC. When I got a Switch emulator on my PC, I played more on that than I did on the actual Switch in all the time I owned it.

      • tfw_no_toiletpaper@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I remember back when I was a teen, emulating GBA games on our family laptop because I had no money. I did not buy one single Nintendo games (for myself), but played 90% of the Zelda series. Great games, annoying ass company.

      • misk@sopuli.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Did you buy Nintendo console for performance or were you just surprised because it was your first one and you didn’t check what you were buying?

        • Psythik@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Of course not; don’t be silly. There were no emulators available when I bought one. Plus it was more of a present for the GF anyway, and she still uses it as a Ring Fit machine.

    • misk@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Keep buying Nintendo products so that we have systems with good games. They’re stuck in the last century but that’s for better AND worse.

    • majestictechie@lemmy.fosshost.com
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      2 days ago

      I would never buy another Nintendo product after I bought the switch, played it for 2 months and never picked it up again.

      Wife uses it, has a bunch of digital games installed, daughter wanted to use it, create an account on same device and she has to buy them again. Another reason to buy physical but other consoles let you play games on different accounts, it’s just Nintendo being c***s

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Eh… They do have family sharing over multiple consoles and if it’s just a different user on the same console then they can play all the same games as you either choose the user before starting the game or your have multiple saves in the game itself…

        • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          There are so many things to hate Nintendo for. Someone tell homie he doesn’t have to lie to kick it

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            Never attribute to malice what can better be attributed to only using it for a couple months and not looking into family sharing yet

            • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              All you have to do is click the game and click your profile. If they had even attempted they would know this

              • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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                2 days ago

                And in your estimation they probably did click the game and click their profile and they came to Lemmy to try to make a Nintendo look worse?

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        No, user accounts on the same console have access to any physical or digital games on that console, just like with PS5 and XBox. Nintendo sucks and all, but not THAT bad…yet.

      • Anas@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That’s definitely not true, I have at least two digital games that we share on multiple accounts.

      • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 days ago

        That’s definitely not the way it works.

        My partner has a switch. We both created as account on it. She buys digital games on it and everything that’s installed appears in the games list.

        Anyone that picks it up can see that game list. If I’m playing then I pick a game from the list and it asks which account is playing and I can choose mine or hers. Then the game starts.