Nintendo Updates User Agreement: Violation May Result in Switch Being Bricked

Nintendo has recently revised its user agreement, taking a stronger stance against players who hack their Switch consoles, use emulators, or engage in any other "unauthorized use." As reported by Game File, emails were sent to users notifying them of the updates to the Nintendo Account Agreement and the Nintendo Account Privacy Policy, effective as of May 7. These new rules replace all previous versions and apply to both existing and new Nintendo Account users. According to Game File, there are approximately 100 changes from the old agreement to the new one.

Prior to May 6, the agreement stated that users were "not allowed to lease, rent, sublicense, publish, copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble all or any portion of the Nintendo Account Services without Nintendo's written consent, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law." However, the updated terms in the U.S. have significantly expanded this section:

"Without limitation, you agree that you may not (a) publish, copy, modify, reverse engineer, lease, rent, decompile, disassemble, distribute, offer for sale, or create derivative works of any portion of the Nintendo Account Services; (b) bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services, including through the use of any hardware or software that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use; (c) obtain, install or use any unauthorized copies of Nintendo Account Services; or (d) exploit the Nintendo Account Services in any manner other than to use them in accordance with the applicable documentation and intended use, in each case, without Nintendo’s written consent or express authorization, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the foregoing restrictions Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part."

In the UK, the terms differ slightly, as noted by Nintendo Life, where users agree that:

"Any Digital Products registered to your Nintendo Account and any updates of such Digital Products are licensed only for personal and non-commercial use on a User Device. Digital Products must not be used for any other purpose. In particular, without NOE's written consent, you must neither lease nor rent Digital Products nor sublicense, publish, copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of Digital Products other than as expressly permitted by applicable law. Such unauthorized use of a Digital Product may result in the Digital Product becoming unusable."

Although Nintendo has not specified what "unusable" entails, the language implies that the company now reserves the right to "brick" a console if it detects rule violations. Additionally, changes to the privacy policy highlight that Nintendo may monitor Switch users' online chats "in order to support a safe and family-friendly online environment and to detect violations of the Nintendo Account Agreement and other harmful or illegal interactions."

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These updates likely stem from Nintendo's recent challenges with piracy and the upcoming launch of the much-awaited Nintendo Switch 2, scheduled for June 5. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 opened on April 24, maintaining the price at $449.99, and they were met with high demand as expected. Nintendo has also issued a warning to U.S. customers who pre-ordered from the My Nintendo Store, stating that release date delivery is not guaranteed due to overwhelming demand. For further information, refer to IGN's Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order guide.