How is retropie still able to operate? Seems like 9 out of 10 people who buy a raspberry pi are using it with retropie to play retro games. Seems like something that holds that much of the emulator industry share would be targeted by Nintendo.
Subsequently, if I know someone who knows someone who has a retropie for gaming, what’s the worst case scenario that could come from Nintendo shutting down retropie’s ability to provide the means to emulate? Will it be fine as long as the OS isn’t updated any further? Just run the emulators and roms already installed on it as long as no new emulators or roms are added after the possible crack down?
Nintendo can't control anyone else's hardware, they can't stop you from doing what you want on a Raspberry Pi. They're trying to crack down on Switch modding, but even that's just a cat-and-mouse game.
You will not get in trouble for emulating at home. Emulation itself is legal, it's only illegal to download games you don't own. But it's nearly impossible for anyone to get caught doing that, and very obviously not worth any lawyer's time to pursue individual end users for pennies in damages. You are safe.
What Nintendo wants to do is attack piracy at the source. They can go after sites that distribute ROMs, but those are like a hydra, kill one and three more take its place. Then there's the likes of Yuzu and Ryujinx, where Nintendo claims to have found some technicality about these emulators having something they shouldn't. But the forks are still being distributed, and you the end user will not get in trouble for downloading the fork at home.
Note that for the most part, they're really only concerned with protecting their current hardware. They've never gone after Dolphin, Snes9x, mGBA, etc, because they know those are battles they can't win. Considering how aggressive Nintendo is on the battles they do fight, it's clear that anything Nintendo doesn't go after is something they can't go after.
I mean it’s still important to walk an emulators for current Hardware while we still have modern working examples and can capture Network packets and whatnot but I’m not totally against the idea of Simply holding your insights from public consumption for a while out of practicality alone
I agree, it's important to preserve things today because it may be too late tomorrow. Some Switch titles have already been delisted, so it's good that we backed them up early.
But I'm just explaining it from Nintendo's perspective. If the tools we use to restore Super Mario Bros. 35 can also be used to crack Tears of the Kingdom, they don't want those tools in our hands.
The more important point though is that it is all cat-and-mouse, and the mouse is winning. We have those tools, and they can't fully stop it.
I'd never thought of it in these specific terms before, but the essentially educational and fear-ameliorating nature of your post led me to realize that it's likely that a lot of what Nintendo's doing with all of this legal barnstorming is essentially PR, and that's all it's meant to be.
They have little hope of actually winning cases or of doing anything more than cutting off one head of the hydra if they do, and all of their safeguards can be and will be worked around, repeatedly if necessary, so from a practical standpoint, they're fighting a losing battle. But all of their noise and aggressive posturing likely serves to scare a lot of less-informed gamers into not emulating in the first place, so it furthers their goals anyway.
Fuck me 10/10 response. Thank you that answered so many of my questions.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that because I switched to Lemmy almost 2 years ago I started seeing more IT related news and thats why im seeing so many more articles about Nintendo shutting down as much pirated material as they can. Or is it that they only recently started this crusade? If so, do you have any more information as to why they started making this a priority in the past couple years?
And there are a few points why they are so active, first and foremost the IP law in Japan, which says (paraphrased) that IP that is not defended is fair game for everyone; then there is the technological fact that emulation of their systems is pretty easy performancewise nowadays in comparison to the naughts; and then there is the thing that if the few titles that are exclusives to nintendos system can easily played on other platforms (where they don’t see a dime), they will not be able to sell their hardware and therefore no games that are available on other platforms. Also, they have always stepped up their game when a new hardware generation comes out - can’t have people emulating the old platform when there’s new stuff to buy, ya see?
I await the day when someone at nintendo starts using his calculator and recognizes that selling their back catalogue games at 7,99 per game on pc and 10 bucks on all the other platforms would ensure a steady flow of income for much needed innovation; the switch is nice, but i can’t see where the switch 2 is a product that shows enough difference to the switch1 for massive sales.
You can say 9 out of 10 buying a raspberry pie are setring up retro pie for emulating, but 98 out of 100 people emulating aren’t using a raspberry pie to do it.
I mean the statement was heavily implied to be anecdotal to my experience but I’ll add to it by also saying I haven’t met a single person who runs an emulator console using anything but raspberry pi hardware.
What are the 98 out 100 people that you know using? Mini desktops?
You’re just speaking of dedicated emulator systems? I’d agree with those numbers of yours then. I was just speaking of what people use to emulate old games in general. Almost everyone just uses a pc, laptop, or cell phone. The numbers for dedicated systems that look like retro Gameboys and stuff like that are outnumbered by like 100 to 1.
All my joycons have drift, and I have several sets. I’m not touching a switch 2 because of that, and the insane cost of games. Nintendo needs to make better hardware.
What a surprise… 🙄 The only way Nintendo has worked hard to ‘mitigate the issue’ and still hasn’t landed on Hall Effect as the answer is if they’re purposefully keeping shit components but want them to be just good enough for them to not get sued.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this disinterested in a Nintendo console and I bought the WiiU. So far we have:
Insane price tags: 80$ to buy games digitally? And 90$ for physical? This isn’t how you stop piracy, it’s how you start it.
The tech demo costs money. Why? Sure, they explained why. Just not very well.
That Nintendo-Denuvo deal from 2023 is still a thing. Thankfully, no games on the Switch have implemented Denuvo. With the Switch 2 coming out, I’m not certain this will remain the case.
Far as I can tell, they did next to nothing to fix the joycon drift. The one big problem with the Switch 1.
Also, the launch titles are kind of sparse. Most are rehashes of existing Switch 1 games, with two or three exceptions. Not for me, I guess.
I feel like that with a lot of gaming, though. It feels like a lot of the industry has progressed where AAA gaming isn’t worth it while A and AA games are just as, if not more, entertaining.
It feels more like Nintendo is building the engine for the next decade, but I’m still happy with last decade’s engine.
seems to me like AAA games always were about demonstrating new game technologies, showcasing a new graphics engine or something, not about entertaining/fun games. Like that Crysis franchise from around 2010, everyone wanted to have a pc that could play crysis, but nobody actually wanted to play that game.
Honestly wasn’t expecting them to use Hall Effect in the first place (have any consoles actually had those in recent years?) But let’s be real, this is also the least of the switch 2’s problems. Everything around this console is way too damn expensive. The only thing that’s priced reasonably (imo atleast) is the actual console itself.
I’ve luckily pre-ordered one with Mario kart World bundle for £430 - which I agree (with a inflation) is not ridiculous in itself. I’ve been waiting for 2 years as I never got the original switch and thought I’d wait for the all new model with backward compatibility…
However I am concerned about future game costs and controllers/accessories. Likely will be looking for preowneed/sale/3rd party. The £10 demo is also a big red flag and I hope doesn’t set the tone for a Wiiu like story.
Hey, your language is set to German (Deutsch) so I didn’t see your comment until I selected German in my languages too. Unsure if you intended this as your comment is English
I’m sure a lot of customers don’t go through the hassle of having Nintendo replace their controller or simply don’t know about the policy and just buy a new one.
They did replacement for the original Switch, not sure if it will still be the case for the new one. Besides, there is no way they don’t know about hall effect sticks, yet they went with the older tech. Which means they made a business decision based on what would make them the more money, and not what would be the most resilient parts.
And the process of dealing with it sucks ass. You’re probably more likely to buy at least one second set of joycons while you wait forever for them to replace your own.
I’m really curious how the rumored price increases on games will change the entire market (if any). Currently, I have no plans on getting a switch 2 until either a must-have exclusive pops up or until there’s some price drops. I just don’t see how they can expect the average family to be able to afford the new games.
Then, on top of this, slap tarrifs on for Americans and oof I feel for you all right now. It’s… unprecedented territory we’re in right now. I hope things stabilize soon
If the price never drops and a “must have exclusive” arrives you would purchase one? Why would you let that change your principle on the matter? It’s just a game, probably overly priced too. Vote with your money. Let Nintendo know that it is too expensive for the average family.
If the price on games is actually what people are saying it’s going to be? And it never drops? Nah I wouldn’t buy. I agree it feels…disrespectful to their fans.
It would have to be the best animal crossing or zelda game in the past 20 years. And I would have to ensure I’m getting it for cheaper in some way, shape, or form.
I certainly wouldn’t be buying it directly for full price. Likely used or something. I don’t have the money to justify that kind of purchase. The console price I can kind of understand, but the games seems ridiculous. I have a backlog of titles to play, and I only buy when I can get a sale or a discount. Heck, the rpg’s I haven’t gotten around to on the switch 1 would probably last me 5 years alone lol
If I had to guess, I bet they’ll reduce the cost of the console within a year.
They might decide against charging so much for their games? That might be less likely but they haven’t confirmed the game prices yet
We’ll have to see if the general consumer is willing to pay full price. It seems likely as people generally just go along with things. If so then Nintendo will definitely keep prices high
I can tell you the general consumers are children’s parents and die-hard fans. It’s gonna sell well and end up the new normal. Prices don’t even drop on Nintendo exclusives you have to wait for weird Costco or whatever store deals.
All while they pay for subscriptions too. It’s wild. Not to be so pessimistic but I see piracy getting getting more and more regulated.
My brother-in-law got a Switch for his kid. They tried to play the “free” classic emulated games but then it stopped him and said he had to create some online account which costs money. That’s some scummy tactics to get you to pay a subscription for a “free” game
Yuzu is dead and not getting updates, and it’s forks aren’t really much more active. It will not be able to run switch 2 games.
It’s totally fine to think the steam deck is a better value (though these will also be going up in price) but if you want to play switch 2 games the steam deck will not be the solution
It’s real, and it’s happening, but I wouldn’t count on hearing about it again until the next Microsoft presentation. I’d like to see some Mina the Hollower at this Direct though.
I think Switch 2 is more likely. Which run their sizzle reel in April?
I obviously don’t know their financials, but I am going to assume a month or two isn’t going to change things all that much for Team Cherry.
So they can either launch for Switch 1 (and everything else) and be “just another game”. Or they can launch for Switch 2 (and everything else) and be the ONLY game. Plenty of “nindie” games did exactly that during the, quite frankly disastrous, first year or so of the Switch 1 and it was amazing for their studios.
Launching as part of the XBOX Boy or whatever MS calls their handheld is also an option. But MS is almost definitely going to take advantage of the albatross that was the Series S to have significant cross compatibility.
Last we saw Silksong, it was part of an Xbox marketing deal; that’s all I’m basing my hunch on. I doubt that deal is easily broken, and Silksong can write its own ticket with any marketing partner.
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