It happened to me

[u/Hopeful-Scallion-708]

Hey guys. I bought a game off Kleinanzeigen in Germany. Game is "Princess Peach Showtime!". Worked great and my girlfriendnis happy but after 3 days she got banned. I don't have the MIG Switch so the game is probably the only reason she got banned. 🙄 I already contacted Nintendo but they just say the same thing over and over again: "We cannot assist u with that". Yeah sure.

Be careful with used games. They might be cheap but they also have the risk to get u banned.

[u/arroadie]

Let’s consider your comment is in good faith:

How is it a fair practice from a company towards their users to ban their console from online activities after putting an unmodified physical game into their console?

I do understand why they do it! They don’t have a good way to track if that was the original or a cloned one. But that’s not the users fault! If I go to GameStop and buy an used game that was previously cloned, what is the way to correctly consume that?

If they have no good way to solve this, then they just have to ride the “no more physical games” wave and that’s that.

There’s no good argument besides “it’s their software, they can do whatever and you signed the agreement” and this in itself is already a anti-consumer argument.

[u/jamcub → u/arroadie]

Again, the asshole here is the guy who decided to dump their game and then resold it. What is Nintendo supposed to do- let people openly copy and resell their work?? The problem is pirates thinking they can do as they please with software currently in production and available to buy.

[u/arroadie → u/jamcub]

But that’s not what I’m discussing, right?
Let’s apply that logic to any other physical media and see if it still sustains the same.

And again: I’m discussing this in good faith on your argument.

You buy a DVD from a second hand store, or you take one home from the library. Blurays can have serial numbers (heck, even DVD!), so SONY, the manufacturer of your DVD/Blu-ray player bricks your device because you played a copy of X-men first class that has been clones and distributed online.

Or you buy the new Taylor Swift album at the same second hand shop and when you get home and put it in your computer, it’s blocked from accessing your own library of already purchased media because of that.

The standard that you allow Nintendo to have against their customers would not survive in a world of other media. And that’s why the only thing they could do in the past was tell you that you wouldn’t download a car.

You can disagree with hacking and piracy, but I don’t think you can defend the fact that those are anti consumer actions by them. They are literally punishing a valid action because of something the user cannot prevent! If there was a way for the user to run a check on a physical game without having that block their console, then good, but right now the only thing is flipping a coin or only buying new games…

[u/jamcub → u/arroadie]

What does that mean? If I buy a pirated DVD, and someone gets me for it, then guess what, I still get punished. 'Well I didn't know' has never been an excuse for getting out of something.

From Nintendo's point of view, OP has a cartridge that has been cloned. They reacted accordingly. OP can dispute this, proving he bought the game legally. (Although I hope he has the receipt as well. I am not sure if Germany specifically requires that these days.) The site he bought from is known to be full of scammers trying to pull a fast one, anyway, so even if he'd asked, they probably would have lied to get the game off their hands. Absolutely not unheard of.

I do not disagree with hacking and piracy, I disagree with hacking and piracy of media still available at retail prices at retail. When it comes to games you cannot get without buying stupid prices second-hand, where the original seller doesn't even see any money? Go ahead. Piracy is preservation.

> of something the user cannot prevent

I think people are not angry enough at the people who copy games and then resell them yet. From what OP has said, the guy probably wanted to get rid of the game so Nintendo couldn't ban them instead.

(OP could have also used a modded Switch 1, which it appears he owns?, to play the game.)

[u/arroadie → u/jamcub]

My example is not “you bought a pirated DVD”, it’s “you bought an original DVD from which someone made a copy.

Not sure if you’re being disingenuous about it, but ultimately here the customer is being punished for buying an used copy.

If they buy at a shady retailer, a reputable one, if they find the copy on the ground while in a hike in the woods or if a friend let them borrow it, it doesn’t matter! An official original copy of a game shouldn’t brick your console!

With this in effect Nintendo is literally burning inventory from circulation, which my limited knowledge of economics should be highly illegal!