So a few years ago I wanted to play a Japanese version of a rhythm game that isn’t available to purchase in the USA and decided to try my hand at modding my switch for this one game.
After(poorly) doing it, I wasn’t able to play that game AND Nintendo bricked me. All my games on my switch that I purchased were unable to download or play anymore.
So I went and set out to mod my switch correctly.
Now if I actually wanted to give Nintendo money, they won’t allow me to. So my only option from then on is to pirate.
They basically turned a potentially paying customer to a non paying customer.
So, this is a basic security principle. If the system of access is too “secure” or too inconvenient, people will create workarounds.
Need keys for all the doors every second of every day? You’ll find duct tape on all the latches.
Password is 15 characters and changes every 60 days? You’re going to find post-its under keyboards.
Spread all digital content across 8 streaming providers that cost about $180/y? Torrent time.
Nintendo wants to brick users for trying to play an out of region game they paid for? They’ll never pay again and will reverse engineering your shit out of spite.
Same thing we saw with the music industry utterly failing to embrace internet distribution. Limewire and bearshare are their fucking lunch.
When will they learn to just make access easy? People, generally, would rather pay than pirate but when you start making shit difficult, nobody wants to play your games anymore and you see massive losses.
You cannot have your bank account stolen from a Rock. People will never get your personal files or medical info from a Rock. People will never spy on you through the Rock.
I disagree on the premise that a rock cannot be used for much. I mean, the available actions for a rock ARE pretty limited, but it can be used in a variety of ways!
Never tried. I’m a ps guy now, but the point is that there shouldn’t be region codes to begin with.
Anywhere I’ve ever seen a region code to be changeable you only get to change it a certain number of times before you get stuck in a region. This is why you’ll find TBD players that have been firmware flashed to be regionless.
i have an account on my ps4 (and ps5) that i log into and suddenly i’m in a different region. the ps5 says i only get so many region changes, but i can log into the accounts as many times as i want
I didn’t know you could do that. I’m in Taiwan and I know Steam doesn’t let you make a purchase without a local credit card. So I imagine that’s the case for Japan.
Ah okay, thanks. I’m too scared to mess with most hardware so not always up to date on the terminology. My tinkering is exclusively desktop/laptop stuff.
It’s 100% worth the mod OR put that money toward a steam deck/Linux handheld. Im actually looking to sell this switch to put towards another steam deck. Sooo many more options and better support, not locked into Nintendo bullshit. Put whatever you want on it (like 95% of games right now, I’ve had very few issues) but did have to learn a bit. Beats the hell out of a locked down ecosystem 100000%.
Next time just use a Switch emulator. Sudachi is a good one.
You can even download Fitgirl Repacks of Switch titles that include the emulator already set up and ready to go. Literally just a one click install and you’re playing.
So a few years ago I wanted to play a Japanese version of a rhythm game that isn’t available to purchase in the USA and decided to try my hand at modding my switch for this one game.
After(poorly) doing it, I wasn’t able to play that game AND Nintendo bricked me. All my games on my switch that I purchased were unable to download or play anymore.
So I went and set out to mod my switch correctly.
Now if I actually wanted to give Nintendo money, they won’t allow me to. So my only option from then on is to pirate.
They basically turned a potentially paying customer to a non paying customer.
So, this is a basic security principle. If the system of access is too “secure” or too inconvenient, people will create workarounds.
Need keys for all the doors every second of every day? You’ll find duct tape on all the latches.
Password is 15 characters and changes every 60 days? You’re going to find post-its under keyboards.
Spread all digital content across 8 streaming providers that cost about $180/y? Torrent time.
Nintendo wants to brick users for trying to play an out of region game they paid for? They’ll never pay again and will reverse engineering your shit out of spite.
Same thing we saw with the music industry utterly failing to embrace internet distribution. Limewire and bearshare are their fucking lunch.
When will they learn to just make access easy? People, generally, would rather pay than pirate but when you start making shit difficult, nobody wants to play your games anymore and you see massive losses.
Meet your customers where they’re at!
Basically what Gabe said.
The most secure device ever made is a Rock.
You cannot have your bank account stolen from a Rock. People will never get your personal files or medical info from a Rock. People will never spy on you through the Rock.
But you also can’t do much with a Rock.
Uh, we kinda tricked rocks into thinking using lightening and learned to use rocks to make AI…
I disagree on the premise that a rock cannot be used for much. I mean, the available actions for a rock ARE pretty limited, but it can be used in a variety of ways!
Good in a revolution.
Doesn’t Xbox let you change your console’s region in the settings?
Never tried. I’m a ps guy now, but the point is that there shouldn’t be region codes to begin with.
Anywhere I’ve ever seen a region code to be changeable you only get to change it a certain number of times before you get stuck in a region. This is why you’ll find TBD players that have been firmware flashed to be regionless.
i have an account on my ps4 (and ps5) that i log into and suddenly i’m in a different region. the ps5 says i only get so many region changes, but i can log into the accounts as many times as i want
Soooo, just curious but, instead of modding, why didn’t you just set your console region to Japan? That’s what I did. Just seems a lot easier.
I didn’t know you could do that. I’m in Taiwan and I know Steam doesn’t let you make a purchase without a local credit card. So I imagine that’s the case for Japan.
Similar here. Bricked my kids switch, so we modded it. Now we have ALL the games.
How’d you mod it after you bricked it?
It won’t access the Nintendo network, can’t use store, etc. not 100% bricked. Sorry
Ah okay, thanks. I’m too scared to mess with most hardware so not always up to date on the terminology. My tinkering is exclusively desktop/laptop stuff.
It’s 100% worth the mod OR put that money toward a steam deck/Linux handheld. Im actually looking to sell this switch to put towards another steam deck. Sooo many more options and better support, not locked into Nintendo bullshit. Put whatever you want on it (like 95% of games right now, I’ve had very few issues) but did have to learn a bit. Beats the hell out of a locked down ecosystem 100000%.
Next time just use a Switch emulator. Sudachi is a good one.
You can even download Fitgirl Repacks of Switch titles that include the emulator already set up and ready to go. Literally just a one click install and you’re playing.
This was before emulators were a thing. It was super early days of modding.
Fitgirl Repacks my beloved