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Inside the Messy, Dark Side of Nintendo Switch Piracy (vice.com)
Doxing rivals, stealing each other's files, and poking around Nintendo's servers are all a normal part of the ballooning Nintendo Switch hacking and piracy scenes. Joseph Cox, reports for Motherboard: The Switch piracy community -- much of which operates on the gamer-focused chat app Discord -- is full of ingenuity, technical breakthroughs, and evolving cat-and-mouse games between the multi-billion dollar Nintendo and the passionate hackers who love the company but nonetheless illegally steal its games. Pirates deploy malware to steal each other's files so they can download more games themselves. Groups deliberately plant code into others' Switches so they no longer work. And some people in the scene have been doxed, meaning they've had their personal information published online.
Pirating games for the Switch is not technically straightforward. Instead, there's a complex supply chain constantly grinding away that helps people source and play unreleased games. There are reverse engineers who figure out how Nintendo's own tools work, so hackers can then use them for their own advantage. There are coders who make programs to streamline the process of downloading or running games. Reviewers, developers, or YouTubers with access to games before general Switch users often leak unlock codes or other information to small groups, which then may trickle out to the wider community.
[...] To release a game, pirates may dump a copy from the physical cartridge; they can do this before the game releases in the United States by sourcing the cartridge from an Australian store, which releases earlier because of the time difference. But this only gets a game out one or two days before official release. For the more sought-after and early dumps, pirates often manage to grab a copy from Nintendo's eShop, the company's digital download game store that is built into the Switch. Here, pirates will likely use a piece of hacker-made software on their computers to talk to Nintendo's servers, one pirate who uploads large archives of games explained to Motherboard in an online chat. The files can sometimes be downloaded early by anyone (by design), and are encrypted and need a so-called "titlekey" to unlock them and make the game playable. Further reading: Nintendo 'Wins' $12 Million From Pirate ROM Site Operators.
Pirating games for the Switch is not technically straightforward. Instead, there's a complex supply chain constantly grinding away that helps people source and play unreleased games. There are reverse engineers who figure out how Nintendo's own tools work, so hackers can then use them for their own advantage. There are coders who make programs to streamline the process of downloading or running games. Reviewers, developers, or YouTubers with access to games before general Switch users often leak unlock codes or other information to small groups, which then may trickle out to the wider community.
[...] To release a game, pirates may dump a copy from the physical cartridge; they can do this before the game releases in the United States by sourcing the cartridge from an Australian store, which releases earlier because of the time difference. But this only gets a game out one or two days before official release. For the more sought-after and early dumps, pirates often manage to grab a copy from Nintendo's eShop, the company's digital download game store that is built into the Switch. Here, pirates will likely use a piece of hacker-made software on their computers to talk to Nintendo's servers, one pirate who uploads large archives of games explained to Motherboard in an online chat. The files can sometimes be downloaded early by anyone (by design), and are encrypted and need a so-called "titlekey" to unlock them and make the game playable. Further reading: Nintendo 'Wins' $12 Million From Pirate ROM Site Operators.
You want them to develop smash titles like Super Mario and give them for free?
They're protecting their IP. It may seem scummy to you, but you wouldn't like it either if you tried to make a living off your games you made at your expense, then have people break your platform just so they can have it for free.
There's nothing wrong with paying for entertainment. Every company has done dick moves of course, and I don't necessarily agree with everything Nintendo does; but at some point people are just acting like the self-entitled pricks that they have shown themselves to be.
I have nothing against people hacking these systems and doing what they're doing. There's something to be said about the ingenuity of some of these work-arounds and just the knowledge some of these folks have. But I have no sympathy for them when Nintendo turns around and does something about it either. Heck, I'm sure the hackers don't either! Keeps the game interesting :)
The only people who truly complain are the kids who want everything for free.
I tend to rant.
your rant was a non-sequitur.
Read what I said again.
"You want them to develop smash titles like Super Mario and give them for free?"
Letting me play it at no "direct" cost to myself does not make it "free" in the way that you imply. Nintendo recoups that cost through advertising and data collection. I am just saying that if I give them my own money that I do not want them to also monetize me in other ways.
"There's nothing wrong with paying for entertainment."
Point out where I stated that paying for entertainment was wrong?
"Every company has done dick moves of course, and I don't necessarily agree with everything Nintendo does; but at some point people are just acting like the self-entitled pricks that they have shown themselves to be."
Name calling, many consider this to mean that you have already lost the argument. It is simple, if you do business with a company that makes these "dick moves" then what does that say about you? Asking a company to stop being "dicks" or making "dick moves" is hardly enough to accuse people of being self entitled pricks, but you seem to be unable to figure this out.
"I have nothing against people hacking these systems and doing what they're doing."
Seems to me that you apparently do have something against these people according to what you are saying.
"There's something to be said about the ingenuity of some of these work-arounds and just the knowledge some of these folks have"
Agree...
"But I have no sympathy for them when Nintendo turns around and does something about it either. "
even when what they do about it is more negative than positive? Why are you even commenting? If all is fair then what do you seek to gain by even bothering a comment?
"The only people who truly complain are the kids who want everything for free."
Ah, the old "no true Scotsman" fallacy combined with a provably wrong "lie" and "gate-keeping". Nice "triple-play" there fellow human.