3DS Bricking Rumor

1. It's illegal in the US/UK.
   If you are found to be using a flash cart or third-party accessory, Nintendo has the right to stop you from using their online services, because that is a service. However they do not have the right to brick your device, as it is a good. The law recognizes the clear difference between goods and services. While some may argue that the software on the device is still Nintendo's property that you're licensing, there's two counters.
   
   
   
   • The hardware will not function as advertised without the software, so if Nintendo did purposely cripple the software or brick the device they could get sued in a heartbeat. For an easy example, check out the lawsuits Sony is under for removing a major function of their PS3 system software. This can be found under US court documents 3:10-cv-01975-RS and 3:10-cv-01811-EMC, though later some of the suits merged. In the UK people could skip the suit and were able to request a partial refund for their machine once OtherOS was removed, thanks to UK's consumer protection laws.
   • If Nintendo has the right to do this because you're just licensing the OS of the machine, then Microsoft has the right to brick your computer if you install something they don't like. Obviously this is not true and would never fly in a court of law.
   
   
   
2. Other systems also warn against third-party modifications.
   Checking out Nintendo's manuals (the PDFs for recent systems are available on their site), you'll notice that the GBA SP, GBA Micro, Gamecube, DS, DS Lite, and DSi/XL all warn against unauthorized third-party modifications.
   Warning! Spoiler inside. 

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   You'll also note that the warning gets more severe as time goes on, up to where the DSi/XL actually has three warnings on one page, and even says that if you mod it people could collect your personal information! This just SCREAMS "fear mongering".
   
   Checking games, we see that Minish Cap (an older GBA game) warns that third-party devices may damage the system.
   Kirby's Epic Yarn (a recent Wii game) flat-out tells you that if you have unauthorized stuff, an update may render your machine inoperable.
   Warning! Spoiler inside. 

   
   
   
   Again we can see it's just fear-mongering that gets stronger over time as Nintendo faces more pressure from developers and publishers.
   
   
   
3. The 3DS has been out since March (February for Japan) and no such brickings have occurred, even though some of the most popular flash carts are being used on 3DS systems daily.
   Don't even need an explanation here...
   
   
   
4. Third-party modifications do not include just flash carts, and cannot be detected perfectly.
   
   
   • When reading this warning everybody immediately thinks "flash carts for piracy", but what about fake carts from ebay and such? Those also fail the header checks the 3/DS/i do, and would be picked up as a pirated cart as well, even though somebody may buy one from ebay thinking it's a legit used game. It happens all the time, especially with pokemon carts. If these warnings were true then your system could be bricked if you bought a game from ebay and it turned out to be a bootleg copy. That's not something Nintendo will risk.
     QUOTE(RandomRedMage @ Apr 3 2011, 04:44 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
     This being said, for the billionth time, take into account when you insert a game cart into the console and it does not make a proper connection, the console reads garbage incomplete data. In the account of a real game cart this can result in a blank cart icon to appear in the DSi screen, or no icon at all, and when attempted to run, it throws an error.
     
     If they were to really log everything at this level, and a cart were to be improperly read, such that the header data seemed to be garbage, the console would likely mark that as unauthorized, unlicensed hardware, and then, with whatever method of bricking they use, kill the console. And in that case would be killing a legitimate console because of a simple software media error?
     
     I think not. They couldn't risk the backlash that something like that would cause.
   • I've seen many people saying they're going to buy a third-party battery pack for the 3DS. Well, if these warnings mean what people think they mean, that would mean Nintendo has the right to brick your device for using one of those! It's unauthorized third-party hardware, too...
   
   
   
5. Nintendo does not profit in any way by killing your system.
   
   QUOTE(Oceanborn712 @ Mar 23 2011, 06:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
   In addition to everything that's been said: Nintendo don't want you to stop using your console, they want you to stop using pirated software. If they completely shut down your device you wouldn't be able to buy any legit games anymore either and who would buy a 2nd console after the first one had been destroyed by Nintendo?
   
   
   
6. Updates will not be done without your consent.
   There's warnings that they will be, but again the Wii also has the warnings, but doesn't do it.
   http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/w...ivacyPolicy.jsp
   QUOTE
   We may without notifying you, download updates, patches, upgrades and similar software to your Wii Console and may disable unauthorized or illegal software placed on your Wii Console to ensure that your Wii Console is operating properly and efficiently, comply with applicable laws, assist law enforcement, protect us and our customers, or prevent the use and distribution of software obtained through improper channels.

Edited by Rydian, 12 May 2011 - 08:19 PM.

Edited by dib, 23 March 2011 - 02:19 AM.