Nintendo Switch: Thread 06

[Neon Ignition]

Once you've used SX OS there's little in the way of avoiding an eventual ban and it's important to know it's the unit itself that is banned, not just your account, important for reselling the console if you wish. Even if you remove the OS Nintendo can still detect its previous presence several ways so it's more a case of when rather than if.

If you take that on the chin though (easy given the low impact of not being able to play online) a ban just stops online play and eStore access. eStore's the bigger one but there are other ways of playing eStore titles I won't go into for obvious reasons. You can rip, store and play all your games via it, it can run homebrew and is still getting fortnightly updates which seem to have been good so far. It's frankly, an awesome bit of kit that's set up for very, very easy use. The moral question is the big one for many though given its abilities have little limit so most buyers won't be using it to run games they own themselves.

Still, it's by far the best tool for opening the Switch up to being the system Nintendo stupidly refuses to let it be.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Apparently, there will be a "Nindies Direct" edition of Nintendo Direct this lunchtime (UK time) to announce new indie titles coming to Switch.

5am PDT / 8am EDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/08/rumour_new_nintendo_direct_airing_later_today

[Brad]

Once you've used SX OS there's little in the way of avoiding an eventual ban and it's important to know it's the unit itself that is banned, not just your account, important for reselling the console if you wish. Even if you remove the OS Nintendo can still detect its previous presence several ways so it's more a case of when rather than if.

If you take that on the chin though (easy given the low impact of not being able to play online) a ban just stops online play and eStore access. eStore's the bigger one but there are other ways of playing eStore titles I won't go into for obvious reasons. You can rip, store and play all your games via it, it can run homebrew and is still getting fortnightly updates which seem to have been good so far. It's frankly, an awesome bit of kit that's set up for very, very easy use. The moral question is the big one for many though given its abilities have little limit so most buyers won't be using it to run games they own themselves.

Still, it's by far the best tool for opening the Switch up to being the system Nintendo stupidly refuses to let it be.

I'll be using it to back up my game saves, which I consider to be a fundamental feature (without paying Nintendo a subscription fee) and run emulators to play games that cannot be bought from the license holders anymore. I consider myself to be on the moral high ground vs Nintendo.

[Neon Ignition]

When it comes to Nintendo it feels like most of their past content is off sale, then they act surprised people emulate them. The mere fact so many hound them about past games availability on Switch and that routes like SX attract attention is eye watering when you look at how much Nintendo doesn't understand it

[fishbowlhead]

When it comes to Nintendo it feels like most of their past content is off sale, then they act surprised people emulate them. The mere fact so many hound them about past games availability on Switch and that routes like SX attract attention is eye watering when you look at how much Nintendo doesn't understand it

Nintendo haven't even noticed Sony made a PlayStation console without them and are 4 gens in, let alone what their customers want from them as far a a full retro online purchasable back catalogue store.

[Dogg Thang]

There is a fine line between emulating something old that is simply not available and never will be and pirating a bunch of stuff and many just do the latter. Actually it's not a fine line - there's a pretty big gulf between them but some will use the former to justify the latter. If Nintendo don't sell stuff cheap enough for you or haven't made something available on a new console (while also taking flak for selling old stuff on the new console) by all means don't get it on the new system or just play the older systems. If you're pirating something they have made available in some form then you're demonstrating the demand and have zero moral high ground no matter what you tell yourself. Better to have the integrity and barest minimum of self-restraint it takes to just not play them.

Stuff that has vanished into the ether of the past and is just not available and won't be, fair enough. But it feels like this thread is in danger of turning into a piracy thread. At the very least can we move that into a separate discussion if it's going to remain?

[Neon Ignition]

You'd think a company that put together and sold SNES Mini and NES Mini would totally understand the demand for their older content. Instead, fans even hack those too to play the wealth of games not available

In all honesty, the underlying point is they could really do with making more effort with the online sub.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I wouldn't dispute that at all. I still feel like the sub is a mistake, even if they added much more to it as a service. It puts up a barrier to play where they had none before and, with Nintendo being a great family choice, I think that will have a negative effect. Also I have just had a horrifying thought: what if having experimented with Pocket Camp, they change tactic and approach a new Animal Crossing like a MMORPG and have an extra sub for that too or start to try adding more costs to things as they go?

The fact that, up to now, you can just buy a game on a Nintendo system and play it has been a huge plus and they're about to lose it.

[Neon Ignition]

That's it, it's hard to imagine people will go out of their way to pay for the sub as even though it's low cost the content doesn't exist for it to feel essential to many. Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8's playerbases will take a hit and if games ever reach the system that are built for it then its another barrier likely to harm a games sales as much as boost sub numbers.

I'd like a Switch Animal Crossing but have no interest in signing up to a subscription service to use some of the functions meaning a definite purchase is instantly a maybe dependent on how heavily the game leans on it. Sony's third parties drive the PSN subs more than anything, Nintendo doesn't have that support base needed or investment in the service to justify it as anything other than a lazy cash grab. The delays feel more like waiting for the most opportunistic launch window than anything else.

[Brad]

There is a fine line between emulating something old that is simply not available and never will be and pirating a bunch of stuff and many just do the latter. Actually it's not a fine line - there's a pretty big gulf between them but some will use the former to justify the latter. If Nintendo don't sell stuff cheap enough for you or haven't made something available on a new console (while also taking flak for selling old stuff on the new console) by all means don't get it on the new system or just play the older systems. If you're pirating something they have made available in some form then you're demonstrating the demand and have zero moral high ground no matter what you tell yourself. Better to have the integrity and barest minimum of self-restraint it takes to just not play them.

Stuff that has vanished into the ether of the past and is just not available and won't be, fair enough. But it feels like this thread is in danger of turning into a piracy thread. At the very least can we move that into a separate discussion if it's going to remain?

You're not wrong :-)

I wouldn't be emulating any Nintendo games personally but there will be those that do, and they'll justify it to themselves, and I won't judge. I won't be emulating anything until an Amiga emulator is up and running on it. Part of me does want to play a bunch of old Nintendo games on there just to stick 2 fingers up at them though. I might make a post in the emulation thread to start some discussion over the morality of emulation.

[importaku]

The thing is, nintendo has never allowed you to totally back up your saves on any system. Even when we started getting memory cards there were still saves like animal forest on gamecube that you couldn't copy oficially, even on wii there's stuff like smash bros that was totally locked down you couldn't back it up. This isn't a new problem at all it's been the same since nintendo started making games, the only way around it was to use 3rd party devices or homebrew/hacks. Will be interesting to see if this time nintendo is actually allowing you to oficially fully back up all your game saves or the same restrictions will be implemented on certain titles.

Will i pay for online? probably not as im pretty much an offline kind of person for the most part, even on DS where there was a hell of a lot of online titles i didn't go online that much at all. Just prefer to play alone.

[Dogg Thang]

Confession: I don't think I have ever backed up a game save on any system ever.

[Brad]

Confession: I don't think I have ever backed up a game save on any system ever.

You monster!

[importaku]

On gamecube i went to extrodinary lengths to keep my animal forest saves safe ended up buyng a 3rd party USB memory card and using the village travel function to move my items and famicom games over to the usb village and then backing it up so if i ever killed my original town i could move copies of all my items and games back to a new village. There was no way in hell i was losing some of those games as some of the famicom games are a pain to find in that game.

[Dogg Thang]

Due to the battery life, I have lost saves on old Pokemon games. Those are the only ones where I now find myself wishing I had some sort of save backup. I was pretty gutted when I found out those saves were gone.