Remember when you could buy a console or a PC and just have it work with no strings attached? Well Nintendo is working to kill that time honored tradition of things you bought with your money working, as they have since revealed that they have the ability to allegedly remotely kill (‘brick’ is the term everyone uses) any Nintendo Switch 2 that has been deemed to have broken their terms of service.
As reported from Dexerto, these permanent bans come as result of players pirating or even modding their games, though there have been some cases of Nintendo banning people who have usernames they deem inappropriate, such as “Twink Link”, as reported by CBR. The act of “bricking” these Switches essentially makes it so that the Switches can’t connect online, which means they can’t update the software or download anything including games. The obvious problem here is that, as Dexerto reports, second-hand sales of these consoles have a high likelihood to be selling Switches that don’t work and even established retailers like Wal-Mart have allegedly sold bricked Switch 2s.
This has gotten so out of hand that regulators in Brazil are saying that this is allegedly abusive under Brazilian law and are formally requesting a response from Nintendo themselves. As outlined by Gamerant, Nintendo’s remote detonations goes against Brazil’s Consumer Protection and Defense Program, which looks out for consumer interests and relations, something Nintendo has been flaunting for quite a while.
It’s all well and good to dump on Nintendo, nobody is a fan of how they conduct themselves in the court, but this isn’t anything new to consoles. Getting yourself banned from, say, a PlayStation 4 also prohibits you from connecting online and downloading updated software or games. The kicker here is for a lot of players will be the modding restrictions. Nintendo games tend to be exclusive, at least for several years, so if you want to mod your game and Nintendo doesn’t like that they have digital snipers ready and willing to shoot down your system at will, and yeah “Twink Link” is a corny username but it’s not overly offensive. Is “Twink Link” really an offense so egregious that they can remotely destroy your $500 console? Brazil is looking to find an answer to that question.
Of course, many people will argue that companies shouldn’t have the ability to do this regardless of whether it’s Nintendo or not; we’ll just have to wait and see how Nintendo responds to this callout from an entire country and their entire userbase. Until then, be cautious of buying Nintendo Switch 2s secondhand, be sure to test them to make sure they work, and keep your receipts from big retail stores in case those Switches have been bricked too.