I guess it must be a hot take, because it gets downvoted a lot every time I say this, but…

I think it’s better to boycott Nintendo outright, rather than pirate their games. Piracy is still promotion, it still benefits them, and anyone going out of their way to facilitate Nintendo piracy is clearly putting themselves at great risk. Even video content creators who are doing nothing illegal are at risk of legal battles they often can’t afford.

Nothing that Nintendo comes out is so uniquely great that it’s worth putting up with their awful business practices, fan abuse, and general enshittification. As far as video game platforms go, Steam provides orders of magnitude more value for the same cost, and they are doing genuinely good work advancing the quality and popularity of Linux.

Multiple interesting things in this case.

First that they could even identify the mod, second that he apparently asked for donations as thanks. Getting monetary benefits from something makes it much harder to argue that you just did it out of interest and not to illegally profit from it.

Fuck nintendo, stop giving money to these assholes.

Multiple interesting things in this case.

First that they could even identify the mod, second that he apparently asked for donations as thanks. Getting monetary benefits from something makes it much harder to argue that you just did it out of interest and not to illegally profit from it.

as always shitty journalism from polygon that conveniently leaves out details

1. he was allegedly running rom download sites that had some roms behind a paywall and casually advertised them on the switch pirates subreddit to try and make money

2. he received a cease and decist telling him to stop and completely ignored it

3. the 4.5m Nintendo is asking for is the default judgement, not a specific number

this guy is a dumbass, basically

Your first two points are mentioned in the article:

The filing claims that Williams sent thousands of messages on Reddit to other users directing them to piracy websites, at times offering technical support for issues fans might encounter while attempting to mod their Switch. Williams reportedly asked for “donations” of Nintendo eShop gift cards in exchange for his services. The Japanese company believes that Williams created, operated, supported, and promoted piracy websites that allowed users to download “extensive” libraries of Nintendo Switch games.

In the lawsuit, Nintendo also says that it attempted to work with Williams by sending a cease and desist letter in March 2024. In it, Nintendo urged Williams to “shut down his pirate shops.” While Williams initially seemed receptive, Nintendo alleges that progress came to a halt as Williams denied involvement with any piracy shop and apparently became “combative.” Eventually, Williams apparently deleted his online posts that could imply culpability.

Ok, but one could also argue that Nintendo was never going to release what this content creator made, it attracted more business to the official IP, the artist was expressing themselves through painstaking love for the content, and only asked for tips to support further creative adventures.

Dropped my Switch for a Steam Deck and never looked back.

Fuck Nintendo and Games Workshop. Just say it’s not cannon and fucking move on you controlling pricks.

When did I say game mod? But yeah! Fuck Nintendo and Games Workshop.

I guess it must be a hot take, because it gets downvoted a lot every time I say this, but…

I think it’s better to boycott Nintendo outright, rather than pirate their games. Piracy is still promotion, it still benefits them, and anyone going out of their way to facilitate Nintendo piracy is clearly putting themselves at great risk. Even video content creators who are doing nothing illegal are at risk of legal battles they often can’t afford.

Nothing that Nintendo comes out is so uniquely great that it’s worth putting up with their awful business practices, fan abuse, and general enshittification. As far as video game platforms go, Steam provides orders of magnitude more value for the same cost, and they are doing genuinely good work advancing the quality and popularity of Linux.

This would never be downvoted on Lemmy, so you’ve asked to be distrusted. And no, piracy is not promotion. No one is going home and buying a switch 2 if they play an emulator of an SNES game at my house.

People play Nintendo games because they are fun. Pretending otherwise is kind of stupid. I’m hard pressed to give them any more money, but some weird campaign to pretend they don’t exist isn’t going to change a damned thing.

Edit: notice how I’m downvoted but the person saying a popular opinion while claiming they’ll be downvoted gets upvoted. Imagine that.

You’re basically saying boycotts are ineffective. That’s bullshit. Sure I know Nintendo isn’t going away, but now I’m putting my time, effort, and money towards the goods and services from a more deserving company. And Nintendo is gone from my life.

It’s about what you want to grow, not what you want to die.

Yup, and when the official ICE Twitter page utilizes their intellectual property in a video showcasing them also ruining peoples lives, we get crickets from Nintendo.

I used to feel bad that they struggle for profit, with what they set out to do back in the day with their influence in the video game industry and all; now I wholeheartedly believe they should fucking sink.

as always shitty journalism from polygon that conveniently leaves out details

1. he was allegedly running rom download sites that had some roms behind a paywall and casually advertised them on the switch pirates subreddit to try and make money

2. he received a cease and decist telling him to stop and completely ignored it

3. the 4.5m Nintendo is asking for is the default judgement, not a specific number

this guy is a dumbass, basically

You’re basically saying boycotts are ineffective. That’s bullshit. Sure I know Nintendo isn’t going away, but now I’m putting my time, effort, and money towards the goods and services from a more deserving company. And Nintendo is gone from my life.

It’s about what you want to grow, not what you want to die.