Hacking Why can't Nintendo realize that the BEST thing about their consoles is moddability?

[The Real Jdbye]

I still remember big brain academy for modding Wii U lol I wonder how many of that game sold.

It was free here in Europe

 

[linkenski]

You need to get a clue dude

I'm surprised to see this sentiment in here, unless you're against the fact that I pirated DS games.
Like, what do you even do on GBATemp if you're not talking about modding consoles???

Or maybe you're mad that I'm the reason why CiNG went bankrupt, because Hotel Dusk is my favorite game but I played it 5 years before ever buying a physical copy of it, and by then the company already went into the ground?

Post automatically merged: Jul 14, 2025

"why doesnt the company concede that the best thing about their devices is when there's no security and people don't have to pay for games anymore" are you hearing yourself

In the first 2 years of having the Nintendo DS I cared very little for it, because I only played the most advertized first party games. I also dislike the GBA because I never paid for, or played any of the really deep and awesome games it had. So I went from GBA to DS back in the day thinking "what a waste of time the GBA was. The Mario games weren't that good."

The R4 made me discover a shit-ton of games I would've never paid for. GamePass actually has had a similar kind of effect, but that too isn't sustainable. So yeah, I am hearing myself. "The best thing about Nintendo was not paying for any of the 35 games I downloaded on Nintendo DS", but I still think there's a good argument to make for easier access to games, or maybe more extensive demos, so people can actually get a taste for more than just the most premium AAAA titles NIntendo wants you to buy.

My favorite games on the DS were the ones the fewest people actually bought, and I don't blame them because I didn't either. You had to play them to "get" why they had a certain quality, and that's a barrier that plagues the industry and almost complete lack of diversity of game genres at this point.

It's more that vein I'm arguing towards. I don't condone piracy anymore, and even though I found a way to do it on my Switch 1 I gave up because I prefer the connectivity of Nintendo Online, and I actually enjoy Switch 1 first party plenty at full price.

But I do think a lot of Nintendo DS fans missed out on great stuff because it's sealed behind high price barriers that ends up creating a kind of entropy of game design/concepts, as developers and publishers solely base what projects to invest in based on what proves to sell the most. And that's why we have these obnoxious genre-blends where every game these days is some kind of hybrid that's an Action RPG Platforming Survival Sim Crafting Game, that only gets narrower the more the demand rises and more it costs.

Nintendo should realize that the best thing about the Nintendo DS was the R4, because it's the only reason why there's word-of-mouth enough to talk former CiNG developers into actually making new Another Code games and Hotel Dusk spiritual successors due to fans begging them constantly on BlueSky.

 

[xkrazykidx]

@linkenski I think your original post and follow up post sort of contradict one another hence the rash responses to your OP. I think your follow up post leans more towards what you originally intended. Smaller studios received more recognition due to piracy as it helped promote their works via word of mouth, message boards etc. In turn these same studios will shutter due to the pricing barrier and not offering a better "try before you buy" system locking potential fans from accessing these gems; further decreasing the third party pool of games/studios available for the system - reducing the amount of potential Switch 2 owners due to lack of games restarting the cycle of destruction. The snake eating its own tale.

Understandably so, but Nintendo will always be a company chasing profits and Nintendo, specifically, is a game company where their first party games & mascots drive the demand for the console. If you widen your scope from these smaller titles and look at just the sales numbers you'll see Nintendo has its shtick and always did what works for them. Also, just because you didn't believe the GBA Mario's were good does not mean they didn't sell. Keep in mind there are 10 Fast & the Furious movies.

My favorite games on the DS were the ones the fewest people actually bought, and I don't blame them because I didn't either. You had to play them to "get" why they had a certain quality, and that's a barrier that plagues the industry and almost complete lack of diversity of game genres at this point.

The quote above is pretty self defining/explanatory, how could Nintendo be solely held accountable for something that plagues the industry as a whole. I think the bigger problem is the giant game studios gobbling up smaller successful studios strictly for their IP's just to shutter them afterwards; cough cough Microsoft.

 

[linkenski]

@linkenski I think your original post and follow up post sort of contradict one another hence the rash responses to your OP. I think your follow up post leans more towards what you originally intended. Smaller studios received more recognition due to piracy as it helped promote their works via word of mouth, message boards etc. In turn these same studios will shutter due to the pricing barrier and not offering a better "try before you buy" system locking potential fans from accessing these gems; further decreasing the third party pool of games/studios available for the system - reducing the amount of potential Switch 2 owners due to lack of games restarting the cycle of destruction. The snake eating its own tale.

Understandably so, but Nintendo will always be a company chasing profits and Nintendo, specifically, is a game company where their first party games & mascots drive the demand for the console. If you widen your scope from these smaller titles and look at just the sales numbers you'll see Nintendo has its shtick and always did what works for them. Also, just because you didn't believe the GBA Mario's were good does not mean they didn't sell. Keep in mind there are 10 Fast & the Furious movies.



The quote above is pretty self defining/explanatory, how could Nintendo be solely held accountable for something that plagues the industry as a whole. I think the bigger problem is the giant game studios gobbling up smaller successful studios strictly for their IP's just to shutter them afterwards; cough cough Microsoft.

But they should still realize that 60% of the Nintendo Goodwill comes from the fact that many people got to play a ton of their games other than just the Marios and Zeldas for absolutely no money, and this is why Nintendo has felt extremely generous and retentive for fans as opposed to Xbox and PlayStation, which as well as they do (or just PlayStation) is not exactly a Nintendo level of momentum.

 

[mss1988]

I recommend Steam Deck, Ayn Odin, Retroid Pocket... I have them all
My nephews on the other hand have PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

 

[BlusterBong]

But they should still realize that 60% of the Nintendo Goodwill comes from the fact that many people got to play a ton of their games other than just the Marios and Zeldas for absolutely no money, and this is why Nintendo has felt extremely generous and retentive for fans as opposed to Xbox and PlayStation, which as well as they do (or just PlayStation) is not exactly a Nintendo level of momentum.

60% of thier good will comes from how consistent their quality is with their games (namely the lack of bugs compared to many of the other game devs) and that they've been around for many, many years now. the rest of it comes down to the fact that the typical consumer doesn't give a shit what the perpetually angry mob says about what them no matter how many headlines they treat as the next thing that will totally bring them to thier knees.

 

[XRed_CubeX]

I recommend Steam Deck, Ayn Odin, Retroid Pocket... I have them all
My nephews on the other hand have PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

You literally have all of Thanos' Infinity Stones.

However, as a Steam Deck owner who recently modded a Nintendo Switch Lite, I can say I've been waiting for a Switch to play exclusives because the deck emulates it 10x better than the original hardware. I think the Switch is a bit more portable and better for playing Nintendo games on.

However, I won't deny that the sheer freedom of the Steam Deck is one of its strongest points and the reason I LOVE it.


Personally, I didn't buy a Switch 2 at launch and I don't think I'll want to do so in the short term, but the situation would change a lot for a hypothetical Steam Deck 2, given the technological evolution, the power, and the fact that it can run everything without modding anything.

 

[ikynx]

You literally have all of Thanos' Infinity Stones.

However, as a Steam Deck owner who recently modded a Nintendo Switch Lite, I can say I've been waiting for a Switch to play exclusives because the deck emulates it 10x better than the original hardware. I think the Switch is a bit more portable and better for playing Nintendo games on.

However, I won't deny that the sheer freedom of the Steam Deck is one of its strongest points and the reason I LOVE it.


Personally, I didn't buy a Switch 2 at launch and I don't think I'll want to do so in the short term, but the situation would change a lot for a hypothetical Steam Deck 2, given the technological evolution, the power, and the fact that it can run everything without modding anything.

If valve ever makes a smaller non-shitty-x86 architecture steamdeck2, the switch2 have dôme serious competition

 

[XRed_CubeX]

If valve ever makes a smaller non-shitty-x86 architecture steamdeck2, the switch2 have dôme serious competition

But Steam Deck as it was designed must be x86, I understand the potential of ARM but imagine trying to make PC titles compatible with ARM, there are already games that give problems being translated to Vulkan and being launched with Proton, imagine on another architecture

 

[linkenski]

@linkenski I think your original post and follow up post sort of contradict one another hence the rash responses to your OP. I think your follow up post leans more towards what you originally intended. Smaller studios received more recognition due to piracy as it helped promote their works via word of mouth, message boards etc. In turn these same studios will shutter due to the pricing barrier and not offering a better "try before you buy" system locking potential fans from accessing these gems; further decreasing the third party pool of games/studios available for the system - reducing the amount of potential Switch 2 owners due to lack of games restarting the cycle of destruction. The snake eating its own tale.

Understandably so, but Nintendo will always be a company chasing profits and Nintendo, specifically, is a game company where their first party games & mascots drive the demand for the console. If you widen your scope from these smaller titles and look at just the sales numbers you'll see Nintendo has its shtick and always did what works for them. Also, just because you didn't believe the GBA Mario's were good does not mean they didn't sell. Keep in mind there are 10 Fast & the Furious movies.



The quote above is pretty self defining/explanatory, how could Nintendo be solely held accountable for something that plagues the industry as a whole. I think the bigger problem is the giant game studios gobbling up smaller successful studios strictly for their IP's just to shutter them afterwards; cough cough Microsoft.

I didn't intend something more in the post just because it's the one part you find acceptable to your own moral persuasions.
I generally and simply mean that part of buying a Nintendo console is also the prospect of modding it after a couple of years. That is part of what makes you BUY a Nintendo console. I liked the Nintendo DS better when I got access to homebrew on it. I went from using it very very little even with great games on it, to using it a shit-ton. That's my point. And Nintendo should recognize that a lot of Switch 1 users ended up gathering dust on their hardware since 2020 and onwards. Of course they can ignore that since their business and momentum is fine, but you also have to remember that Switch 1 did get modded after a while, and piracy aside, it gave a lot of reasons to check out the aging hardware again.

I simply think that being able to eventually jailbreak a Nintendo console is kind of a ritual that made DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch 1 superior to me over the competition. I know you could also jailbreak PS4, but for me there's more of a culture around Nintendo modding and homebrew. They also had some of the best emulators and fan-projects, and I think Nintendo will ultimately face a reckoning some-day that while their business is booming, they've become the new EA in the face of most gamers. Already now with Switch 2 you're getting the sense that some good-will is turning against them over previous lawsuits taking 30% salary against the primary Switch 1 hacker for life, and Switch 2 already threatens you out of the gate with bricking itself if you happen to come into contact with anything unauthorized.

I really do think it leads somewhere eventually where Nintendo will have to face that a huge part of the goodwill their community had was because Nintendo had yes, kickass first party games, but they also had a community of nerds that make Mario say funny things in homemade animation and people making PlayStation games run on their consoles, and also yes, people checking out all the games they didn't buy.

Also, are we really in a place now where it's become immoral to be against monopolization? Are you all just shills in here?

 

[SDA]

Game consoles were invented to play video games on them, not to technically mess around with them in whatever way your mind tells you.

 

[emmauss]

I didn't intend something more in the post just because it's the one part you find acceptable to your own moral persuasions.
I generally and simply mean that part of buying a Nintendo console is also the prospect of modding it after a couple of years. That is part of what makes you BUY a Nintendo console. I liked the Nintendo DS better when I got access to homebrew on it. I went from using it very very little even with great games on it, to using it a shit-ton. That's my point. And Nintendo should recognize that a lot of Switch 1 users ended up gathering dust on their hardware since 2020 and onwards. Of course they can ignore that since their business and momentum is fine, but you also have to remember that Switch 1 did get modded after a while, and piracy aside, it gave a lot of reasons to check out the aging hardware again.

I simply think that being able to eventually jailbreak a Nintendo console is kind of a ritual that made DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch 1 superior to me over the competition. I know you could also jailbreak PS4, but for me there's more of a culture around Nintendo modding and homebrew. They also had some of the best emulators and fan-projects, and I think Nintendo will ultimately face a reckoning some-day that while their business is booming, they've become the new EA in the face of most gamers. Already now with Switch 2 you're getting the sense that some good-will is turning against them over previous lawsuits taking 30% salary against the primary Switch 1 hacker for life, and Switch 2 already threatens you out of the gate with bricking itself if you happen to come into contact with anything unauthorized.

I really do think it leads somewhere eventually where Nintendo will have to face that a huge part of the goodwill their community had was because Nintendo had yes, kickass first party games, but they also had a community of nerds that make Mario say funny things in homemade animation and people making PlayStation games run on their consoles, and also yes, people checking out all the games they didn't buy.

Also, are we really in a place now where it's become immoral to be against monopolization? Are you all just shills in here?

We've come to expect that most nintendo consoles be hacked one way or another, but that expectation wasn't because nintendo systems previously sucked at security(yeah, they sucked). It's because each nintendo console wasn't like other consoles in that they had unique traits. But then most people hacking their consoles also end up pirating the games that draw many to. Those kick ass games that you understandably didn't buy a switch to play on. Gaming has evolved, and the more mainstream appeal to gaming requires more secure systems and more powerful systems. Those little games you loved so much during the gba and ds era, because devs had to be creative in developing their games for a smaller system, are being handled by indie studios. And those games can be played on pc and other consoles. You are going to buy a switch because of the exclusives. Anything that comes after that is simply convenience of not having to play sitting down in front of a pc.
Trust me. If nintendo were not as focused on their exclusives and interesting ways to make games, they would just be another Xbox/PS in the past generations. They were like that in the early generations. Until they realized that in the Gamecube era that chasing power in a not yet mature gaming industry will hurt them in the long run.

If you want freedom in creating and using app, get an Android device.

And the last thing about monopoly. What monopoly are you talking about?

 

[Reploid]

Same can be said about any overlimited device, consoles too

 

[emmauss]

Do you want more proof that just being able to mod and install your own apps is not what draws people to the switch, its the exclusive games? Check out the xbox one/series dev mode. Anyone can make homebrew for the xbox consoles, but how many xbox homebrew are there? I look through the xbox homebrew reddit, and the top posts are people asking how to install emulators. Emulators of mostly nintendo consoles. Barely any other homebrew.

 

[xkrazykidx]

@linkenski the Switch 1 was pretty much hack ready at launch thanks to RCM being easily accessible. No shill, I agree with you as in if I purchase a product I should be able to do with it as I please. I also agree that Nintendo has made it fashionable to sue the everyday man in their pursuit for IP protection which I am also against. But we have to accept the unfortunately reality that what they add to their EULAs is enforceable by law and I think the sudden panic of Nintendo's EULA is a bit too little too late. Sony had phrasing of being able to brick a users console since the PS3, possibly even the PS2 and no one batted an eye.

What I was initially trying to convey in my message was that I think you're projecting your frustration as if its what Nintendo players are feeling globally. If that were the case sales would be down and Nintendo would be discussing next steps to remedy their failures (à la 3DS, WiiU). The internet can become a bit echo chamber-y depending on where we voice our opinions and since this is a forum that can, at times, focus heavily on the modifying aspects of particular devices opposing arguments can feel a bit foreign. In summary all I am stating is I agree the prospect of the Switch 2 being fully open to modification sounds amazing but at the end of the day it invites privacy (PS3 & Other Os). The wack-a-mole of hackers/developers attempting to remove security and organizations attempting to protect their IP is a tale as old as time. I think the outrage following the launch of the Switch 2 is a bit odd as it feels like people were sort of expecting the Switch 2 to be as easily hack-able as the launch Switch 1 was and that Nintendo was not going to learn from their mistakes and improve security as they have done with every iteration of any device they've released.

 

[fst312]

My realistic predictions are 2-3 years for a modchip and over a decade for a softmod.

2-3 years can also be a softmod, you know if someone notices something, they need to try not to show it off till a couple of firmware updates occur and see if it never gets blocked.

 

[ChibiMofo]

Regarding the ageing three year old Steam Deck, it already can't run AAA PC games like Indy Jones, and thus is already becoming obsolete, and of course it nor any mythical Steam Deck2 will ever be able to run Switch 2 emulation, so it will not help you run the latest Nintendo games and the experience of updated Switch 1 games on Switch 2 is superior to running them on a no-longer-developed Switch 1 emulator on Steam Deck. And the Switch 2 updates for certain games include additional levels or features that obviously won't be coming to Steam Deck Switch emulation.

Steam Deck 1 was no competition for the Switch and whatever comes after will be even less of a threat to Switch 2.

As to the OP, well literally every else here has set the youngster straight, but I'll just add that if you actually want to mod, get a PC. We are able to have incredible mods to games that no console owner has ever had, and all for free and sometimes with the blessing of the developer! We also don't have to purchase illegal hardware mods from organized criminals to fly the flag of freedom above our game machines:

 

[BigFunnyBird]

The Nintendo DS was kind of boring to me, until the Datel, MaxConsole something chip released. I inserted the bulky shit in the GBA slot and played games with minor glitches using my cartridge's save types as donor carts. Later we got the R4, and I became a Nintendo DS fanboy.

Seriously, I can't stress how much more I liked my Nintendo consoles after I got to brew them. Switch 1 hasn't been the same, and I blame 2 things for it.

1. It became infested with "Gamer Pirates" bragging about playing XCIs on emulator before they even came out.
2. Smart devices and Deck have removed a lot of the novelty of having an underpowered handheld that can run custom software.

Back in 2010 it was still useful to be able to use MoonShine Player on DS to listen to music or read manga on it. The form factor, a touch screen and the Dual Screens also made homebrew software genuinely creative and fun to check out. Ditto with 3DS and the 3D effect.

But a Switch? Not so much. At the end of the day it is just an underpowered tablet with a bitchy hardware architecture. It's conventional and boring to design for.

And for that matter I'm also a bit eh on the Switch 2. But based on how good the scene used to be it is definitely depressing to see Nintendo treat pirates and brewers like first rate criminals.

1. You sound lame that you let other people influence how you feel about games. That's all.

 

[Ettino]

You sound lame

Said the guy who made an account just to posted this.

 

[Zkajavier]

I partially agree with the OP. I would say between 25-35% or their console sales were due to the fact people knew they could hack it. Or because they got excited about playing a game they emulated but didn't run that well, or because they saw a video someone with a modded console made to promote a game they liked.

Broad availability of "free" games promote console AND game sales. Especially if they have an enticing online mode.

The switch 2 won't be as successful if there's no exploit found sooner rather than later.