Nintendo has revised its Account Agreement and Account Privacy Policy to tighten the rules on emulation and piracy.
As first reported by Game File, the new guidelines, which reflect over 100 changes between the last version and this update, went into force on May 7.
Before the changes, US players had to agree 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.”
This section has been greatly extended in the new US terms, however, stating:
“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, these changes weren’t quite as drastic, with the renewed agreement stating: “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.”
As the Switch 2 introduces new communication capabilities, including the ability to link a camera and communicate via voice chat, Nintendo has also firmed up its privacy agreement so that it can “support a safe and family-friendly online environment” by investigating calls and videos.
While, at first, it was thought Nintendo could review player communications at any time, Nintendo later reached out to Game File with a statement, confirming: “All recording is otherwise privately stored on the device, and no recording is sent to Nintendo until a report is submitted.”
The changes reflect Nintendo’s tougher stance on piracy. Last month, a Japanese modder was sentenced to two years in prison for selling modified Nintendo Switch consoles, setting a new legal precedent in Japan.