Nintendo

Nintendo

Basic information
Founded	1889
Type	Public
Industry	Electronics, Entertainment Software
Official website	https://nintendo.com/

Founded in 1889, Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a multi-billion-dollar company established in Kyoto, Japan, and has multiple subdivisions outside of Japan. They are well-known for their massive franchises, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, as well as their consoles such as the Switch, Gameboy, and Wii.

Controversial Practices

History against emulation

Nintendo is well-known for their extensive history of combating emulation, from them suing N64 emulator UltraHLE in 1999, to more modern emulators, such as Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu in 2024. Nintendo has also pressured for restrictions to access emulators, such as Dolphin's non-inclusion as a core for the Steam version of Retroarch.

History against hardware modification

Further Reading: Game Genie lawsuit

Nintendo in the past has sued the creation of hardware modifications, such as the Game Genie and 10NES circumvention which allowed users to enter cheat codes into their games and bypass the security lockout chip to prevent piracy.

On November 18th, 2020, Nintendo of America sued Le Hoang Minh for selling RCM Loaders (plug in USB devices allowing unsigned/homebrew software to run on a Nintendo Switch), accusing him of selling pirate devices.

On April 16th, 2021, Nintendo of America sued Gary Bowser, head of video game modchip development and sales group Team Xecuter for over $150,000, accusing him of selling piracy devices.

On June 28th, 2024, Nintendo sued modded game seller ModdedHardware for selling Nintendo Switch Flashcarts, modded Nintendo Switch consoles, and a mail-in console modding service with the argument raised being that a modded system is capable of running pirated software alongside allegations of ModdedHardware pre-installing pirated games, despite citing no evidence in the legal document.

De-listing/destruction of access to games

Further Reading: Storefront shutdown#Wii U/3DS eShops (2012–2023), Storefront shutdown#Wii Shop Channel (2006–2019)

In late January of 2019, Nintendo shut down their first digital storefront, the Wii Shop Channel, and subsequently on March 27, 2023 shut down the Wii U and 3DS eShops. These shutdowns have caused hundreds of games to become impossible to obtain new copies of and for some, additionally play which include Splatoon 1, Super Mario Maker, Pokémon Picross, and more. As of now, over 1,000 digitally exclusive games can only be obtained through piracy, and a subset requires additional modification to run.

In early 2025, Nintendo Switch Online had a game delisted for the first time, Super Soccer. With earlier events of delisting where the products a consumer owns for their consoles, such as a physical game on disc or a previously downloaded digital title, consumers still had the ability to play these games, and in some instances, even reinstall them. However, with NSO's primary existence as a sort of streaming service meant for games, when a title is delisted, consumers lose complete and total access to the game unless the company who wished for the title to be delisted were to re-list the game on the service. The event in of itself has caused rightful concern among consumers since this may set a dangerous precedent for access to retro gaming in the future.

Nintendo authorized repair

Further Reading: Nintendo authorized repair

A man sent in their Nintendo Switch to Nintendo for repair of a broken charging port and was given an estimate of £132 (161.51 USD) to replace the entire motherboard, which would result in data loss and noted screen damage. This was despite the only damage to the console being to the charging port and a screen protector, and not the screen itself.

Joy-Con and Joystick related Hardware Failures

Joy-Cons are the included controllers (retailing for $80) for the Nintendo Switch, and they are prone to failure via "stick drift" within a few months of purchase. According to the 2022 study by the British consumer protection group Which?, 40% of Nintendo Switch owners experienced Joy-Con drift. This defect is also found in other official Nintendo controllers, like the Pro Controller (Pro-Cons), and the Switch Lite, a version of the Nintendo Switch that has its Joy-Cons built into the handheld system. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for the "inconvenience" and subsequently launched Nintendo's "free repair program."

The way the "free repair program" works is that the user will send the defective Joy-Cons to Nintendo for "repair," which, in most cases, involves replacing the defective Joy-Cons with new ones. The problem arises in cases involving limited edition Joy-Cons, where you have to sign off on consenting to the possibility of your limited edition or "non-standard colored" Joy-Cons being replaced with a standard color Joy-Con if they are sent to Nintendo for "repair." This leaves consumers with these limited edition Joy-Cons without a guaranteed way to get their products repaired if they use Nintendo's official repair service.

Nintendo's lawsuit against Pocket Pair (Palworld)

Nintendo is suing Pocket Pair, the developers of extremely popular video game Palworld, for patent infringement, despite filing the patent after Palworld was already released to the public.

Nintendo Creators Program

In 2013, Nintendo placing advertisements on let's play videos where their games were played, taking 100% of all revenue made by said adverts. In 2015, Nintendo started a YouTube partnership program, which required the removal of all non-Nintendo related videos on the channel, creators being given 60% of revenue per video or 70% of the channels gross revenue. and only allowed games on a internal Nintendo made whitelist which infamously lacked multiple large/popular releases of the time. In 2017, Nintendo announced that live streaming wasn't allowed for creators in their Creator Program. It was ended in 2018, with Nintendo stating they “encourage you to create videos that include your creative input and commentary.” and that “Videos and images that contain mere copies of Nintendo Game Content without creative input or commentary are not permitted.”