Nintendo Revises User Agreement, And If You Break It, Nintendo Reserves The Right to Brick Your Switch

Nintendo has tightened its user agreement, revising the terms and conditions with a tougher stance on players who hack their Switch console, run emulators, or any other such "unauthorized use."

As spotted by Game File, emails have gone out to players confirming the company has "updated the Nintendo Account Agreement and the Nintendo Account Privacy Policy," the new rules now superseding all previous versions and applying to all existing and new Nintendo Account users as of May 7. According to Game File's report, there's been around 100 changes between the existing agreement and the revised one.

Until May 6, players agreed that they "are 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."

Now, however, that section has been significantly lengthened in the U.S., and now reads:

"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."

As pointed out by Nintendo Life, this is different again in the UK, with players agreeing 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 unauthorised use of a Digital Product may result in the Digital Product becoming unusable."

While Nintendo hasn't clarified what "unusable" means, exactly, the wording suggests Nintendo now reserves the right to "brick" your console if it thinks you've broken its rules. Changes to the privacy policy now also stress that Nintendo may listen to 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."

The changes likely reflect some of Nintendo's recent frustrations, such as its high-profile piracy cases, as well as next month's launch of the highly-anticipated Nintendo Switch 2, which is set to debut on June 5.

Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders went live on April 24, with the price still fixed at $449.99 — and they went about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, Nintendo has issued a warning to U.S. customers who applied for a Switch 2 pre-order from the My Nintendo Store, saying release date delivery is not guaranteed due to very high demand. Check out IGN's Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order guide for more.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.