Nintendo has made changes to the language in the Nintendo Account User Agreement, that seems to be clearly informed with their experience with the Nintendo Switch.
On section 2 of the agreement, under the heading License, it says this:
Without limitation, you agree that you may not
- publish, copy, modify, reverse engineer, lease, rent, decompile, disassemble, distribute, offer for sale, or create derivative works of any portion of the Nintendo Account Services;
- bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services, including through the use of any hardware or software that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use;
- obtain, install or use any unauthorized copies of Nintendo Account Services; or
- exploit the Nintendo Account Services in any manner other than to use them in accordance with the applicable documentation and intended use, in each case, without Nintendo’s written consent or express authorization, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law.
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the foregoing restrictions Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.
As reported by NintendoEverything, this was a broadly expanded version of language that was originally in the Nintendo Account User Agreement. As you may also have noticed, this agreement does not mention any particular device, and that’s because Nintendo Accounts are used on several products and services. Originally launched with mobile app Miitomo, Nintendo Accounts are on the Switch, Alarmo, and the upcoming Switch 2. It’s also used for several mobile games and applications, including Super Mario Run, Pikmin Bloom, Nintendo Music, and Nintendo Today.
Of course, what’s fresh in everyone’s minds is the rampant hacking and piracy of the Nintendo Switch, and the many legal actions Nintendo took because of it. Most famously, Nintendo reached a settlement with the proprietors of LoveROMS, forcing them to shut down their romhost website for good, and for successfully suing Doug Bowser, one of the modders involved in Team X-Ecuter.
But this agreement also protects Nintendo Music from its music files being ripped, from hackers finding security vulnerabilities and opening up leaks in Nintendo Today or Alarmo, etc etc. Truthfully, the language may really only have changed to reflect what actions Nintendo is now prepared to do if you don’t play nice and break their rules on how to use their products and services. They assuredly reserved their right to enforce their copyrights by pursuing legal actions against modders, even if said modders aren’t pirating or distributing games.
It certainly opens up a new can of worms on how far Nintendo should be allowed to go to block users from taking specific actions on the consoles and games they own. But that’s also the reason Nintendo added the proviso that they will allow whatever actions the law will allow for consumers. It makes one wonder if someone was brave enough to take legal action or get legislation to protect user rights to mod video game consoles like those made by Nintendo and Sony, if they could actually pull it off. But as of right now, this language would serve to discourage Switch and Switch 2 owners from doing that now.
