It's not your hardware anymore...

Well, Nintendo has taken the next step.

You know how we none of us really own our software anymore? We're just
privileged to 'license' it, and -for the most part- can only play our
video-games should the publisher continue to allow it? That if they
pull the servers, all of a sudden we can't download, authenticate or
run the game anymore, leaving the gamer with little recourse?

Nintendo wants to do that with your hardware too.

A just-noticed clause in the Nintendo EULA* grants them the right to
"render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo
device permanently unusable in whole or in part". The applicable
device being your Nintendo Switch. E.g., if Nintendo -for whatever
reason- doesn't like what you are doing with your Switch, they can
flip a switch and permanently brick it. Nominally a response to
cheating or piracy, it could be used for any purpose... including
sunsetting support for the Switch, if Nintendo decided it was time for
you to upgrade.

Nintendo isn't the first computer manufacturer to take such a
proprietary line with their hardware, but it may be the first in the
consumer-electronics sector to do so. Other console manufacturers have
banned devices from their online services (which, in some cases, makes
the device functionally broken) but none have so far claimed the right
to outright BREAK your property if they don't like the way you're
using it.

Whether Nintendo would actually do that is uncertain, but doubtful.
Nonetheless, the company is something of a trendsetter (see how the
other big names in the industry cheerfully followed Nintendo's lead
when it upped the prices of its games to $80USD!) and there are a lot
of companies less scrupulous.

I wonder how long before we'll have a need for a "Good Old Devices"
storefront that will start selling us /hardware/ stripped of DRM.
Because it may not be as far away as you think.







* I'm sure you read the EULA fully before clicking "OKAY" but just in
case you missed it, here it is:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/eula-update/