Turns Out That Leaked Nintendo Switch Was Stolen And Illegally Resold

hiphoptherobot: "But but but I bought it from a friend who didn't know it was stolen!!"

Well, it was way too early for this to be legal. It smelled like a rotten deal.

/)_-)

shrugs Maybe Nintendo announced Switch so late because they knew this would happen and everyone would play Zelda on that one stolen system before release and then nobody would buy it >:3

also under law the person who bought the illegal switch won't get back any of the money spent to buy it.

Tbh I really don't care how it was obtained. If Nintendo was unwilling to show us key aspects of the console before launch they should have expected (and possibly, deserved) this to happen to them.

The fact he said originally it was shipped early from the retailer he pre-ordered from proves he's lying. I'm pretty sure his package won't have had a receipt or return address. And it would be an incredible coincidence for a Neogaffer with a pre-order already in to just receive a random Switch in the post. He might not have been in on the actual theft but he knew fine well what he was buying. Not condemning the guy but what an attention seeking tool.

He was an idiot buying stolen goods and even a bigger idiot posting it online.

@Untempered-Link

Are you serious? "I think stealing is ok beause two weeks is too long time AND I WANT EVERYTHING NOW"

What a...

Yeah. You know what you are.

He should've kept quiet.

To much hippotery bottery

@Untempered-Link
Nintendo should have expected people to steal from their employers?

The hip hop whoever guy was a bloody idiot. If I was Nintendo, I'd sue him for endangering my company's assets.

@Untempered-Link not logical

@shaneoh umm yeah. They have a sought after product that they are telling is very little about. Of course somebody was going to steal it and leak the info at some point.
If Nintendo weren't expecting this then they'd be very incompetent.

Yeah... This wasn't a surprise at all. Especially since it was an isolated incident. If they really got it early and it was a fault of the distributor, why were there no other cases of it's kind? This person obviously wasn't very smart.

@Finntendo No I think stealing and leaking this information out is justified because myself and around 2 million other people are spending £300 for a system that we still dont know everything about.
I put down the money in January having faith that Nintendo would release more information. Nintendo has failed to do such a thing and so I have no qualms about somebody taking it into their own hands to provide us with such information.

The Entitled Generation!

@Untempered-Link
Yeah, no. By that logic it would be the courts fault if someone murdered their spouse because the divorce proceedings were taking too long. They broke the law, it's on them, there is no excuse for this. It's not Nintendo's fault, not the employers fault, it's on the individual.

@Untempered-Link Wait-what? How in the world does a lack of communication justify breaking the law?

If you weren't happy with the lack of information, all you have to do is withdraw your preorder and wait a few days after it's launch for people to make the exact same kinds of videos.

fell off the back of a truck, it did.

@Untempered-Link
Also, you don't have to buy it on release, you can wait for more info.

edit: Ninja'd by @ThatNyteDaez

Rightly or wrongly he may have received financial gains from the YouTube channel that ran the ubboxing and UI videos posted that were a higher figure than what he paid for the illicit unit ...

That hiphoptherobot put himself on blast. He was so stupid.

@shaneoh Im not saying that the entire blame of the theft falls on Nintendo, amd I feel that comparing it to a murder really is a false equivalence. What Im saying is that Nintendo, given the fact they are not being forward with Switch information, should have expected someone to steal a Switch to release the information to people.
I also believe that Nintendo deserved this to happen to them. They are currently selling a product which we know very little about and the public deserve to know about some very key aspects of what they are buying. If this means a console had to be stolen for the information to come to light, well Im certainly not crying tears for Nintendo. The end justified the means.

Two wrongs don't make a right

@ThatNyteDaez But alas somebody has to make that £300 plunge to find out, especially if Nintendo aren't showing it off. If everybody was going to hold back and wait then nobody would be buying a Switch at all.

@Untempered-Link
Your moral compass needs adjusting. Theft is never acceptable under any circumstance. There is simply no more to say on the matter.

If I had bought it, I would of kept quite. Who knows, maybe he didn't know he purchased stolen goods. All I know is He had the system with no games and no accessories. What could you do with that console? Use it as a paper weight.

Neogaf user didn't know it was stolen? Hahahaha that would never stand up in court.

@TbobB ahh now that is where we fundamentally disagree, and I would say the same about your moral compass.

@Untempered-Link So in your mind. it's okay to steal if someone isn't willing to enclose some info for us to read?

Your what's wrong with the world.

@Untempered-Link
"I feel that comparing it to a murder really is a false equivalence"
It's really not, neither the court or Nintendo are to blame. It's the perpetrator.

"should have expected someone to steal a Switch to release the information to people"
I'm not the most law abiding citizen, but even I don't think like that. You don't expect people to break the law, you expect them NOT to.

"If this means a console had to be stolen for the information to come to light, well Im certainly not crying tears for Nintendo"
Or you could just wait a couple of weeks for the information to arrive from people who LEGALLY obtained it. Like a NORMAL person would.

"The end justified the means."
We know a bit more about the UIfor the home screen, how is anyone the better for it? We've seen it playing games (some of us have even experienced it), so we don't need to be enlightened there. We've learned nothing of VC, nothing of the eShop, nothing of the online service. We've learned nothing that would sway a person either way on purchasing this console.

"somebody has to make that £300 plunge to find out"
You spoke of faith in one of your previous posts, if you don't have it, someone else will.

@liljmoore
People, that's what's wrong.

While I don't agree with the logic of @Untempered-Link, I would also disagree with part of @TbobB's statement. Simply put, theft is okay when you're on the street, starving, and you see a loaf of bread for the takin'. Some countries even exempt you from consequences as food is and always should be a basic human right... But to steal goods such as gaming consoles? Nah. Anyone who argues such a stance needs their own material goods stolen from them time after time.

@liljmoore Oh brother, It is not that serious. There are many other things wrong with this world than that. Try Global warming or terrorism.

@Untempered-Link So stealing is cool, provided you really really want to know something? I guess identity theft isn't so bad afterall, someone just really wants to know more about you.

@FuzzyYellowBalls
Yup, having been the victim of theft and burglary, it's certainly swung my outlook. If only I'd told the burglar more about my car, he wouldn't have needed to break into my house to steal the keys!

@FuzzyYellowBalls
What if a starving man steals food from another starving man? (To be clear, I'm not say that stealing food because you're life-threateningly starved is wrong.)

@FuzzyYellowBalls material goods like food?
Stealing is stealing. You can't just say something is only wrong until it's inconvenient. If that's the case than morals are pointless. Everyone is inconvenienced at some point. Who exactly is deciding what is a basic human right?

@Kalmaro
"You can't just saying something is only wrong until it's inconvenient."

Welcome to the human race.

@shaneoh Hypocrisy, hypocrisy everywhere!

I have a hypothetical question: would the situation be any different if he had walked into a Walmart and just bought it legally from an unknowing employee 2 weeks early? The answer would be no, Nintendo would be just as voracious to reclaim that stock.

Not trying to condone theft, but if the consequence for ANY early birds is the swift hammer of Nintendo, it sort of decriminalizes the worse offense (stealing). THIS is how I fault Nintendo

@Kalmaro
The biggest hypocrisy would be calling out hypocrisy, wouldn't you agree?

I guess when it comes down to it, we really are no better than animals...

Gosh...
Dear, Lord. Please protect and watch over Nintendo from those dangers. Thank you.

What if you walked out of a grocery store with a case of water and didn't pay for it because it was on the bottom of the cart? You didn't realize it until you were at your car and then you drove off with a free case of water. Does that make you a crook?

@shaneoh Only if it is being called out in a hypocritical fashion... Now my head hurts.

@Kalmaro "If the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
Mill, Bentham and Spock.
I feel in this case stealing from a giant corporation is justified by the knowledge gained to the consumer.

@River3636
"Crook" is probably too loose a term, but you've certainly stolen that water, intentionally or not. You can easily rectify the situation by returning and paying for it.

@FatAlbert1 I worked at Walmart for almost 10 years. I can tell you from experience that Nintendo probably would have fussed at Walmart but the customer would have been fine because they did purchase it legally.

The case in the story does not suggest anyone bought anything legally. Even if Walmart did go after the customer, they would be reimbursed...

This is assuming the register would even allow them to ring it up. Most items like that are blocked at the register so the cashier will know.

@ottospooky doubt it,nintendo copyright stuff like that.

@Untempered-Link Last I checked, reality was not being run by Mill, Bentham and Spock.

You seem very confused about how the world works. Using your logic anything is permissible if enough people need it. I know a few dictators you'd get along with.

@Kalmaro
Nintendolife, a font of philosophical discussion.

@River3636
They were at their car when they realised, there was opportunity to make matters right, but instead they drove off.

@ThatNyteDaez
We are not, be at one with your inner beast. I never begrudge a shark for having a go at a surfer. Sharks gotta eat.

@Kalmaro. Perhaps you need a definition of Material Goods. A somewhat derogatory term for goods and services, especially those considered unnecessary luxuries.... Now, would you classify food in that category? Unnecessary luxuries?
@shaneoh A starving man stealing from another starving man? Phew, that's a tough debate. One could also ponder why women and children didn't come up in your equation. Ha! J/k.
A man, woman or child would never have to steal food from me. I'll feed anyone in need. But if you try to take my material goods, well, that's a different story...
@Untempered-Link I think with each reply you make you're digging your hole deeper. You truly have a sense of entitlement. This is not knowledge that furthers the human race in any way. It is merely a gaming console, a machine for entertainment and nothing more. It's not like Nintendo is curing cancer and withholding how they did it.

@shaneoh Point made, why am I even discussing this stuff here? I should be asleep.

@TbobB and what if the lines were unbearably long and you just wanted to get out of that grocery store? My point is I didn't mean to nab that case of Dasani. Maybe I was being tested by a higher power who freaking knows. My point is did this dude know he was buying stolen goods?

@FuzzyYellowBalls "especially" but not "exclusively" . That's not the only definition of material goods either. Trying to twist word meanings will not help you avoid the fact that that you are approving of people stealing food from others who worked to grow it. You are perfectly fine with theft when it is inconvenient not to steal.

@River3636
Ha ha! Damn those queues! It's possible he did or didn't know he was handling stolen goods, but as that's a crime in itself and he's not being prosecuted, he's probably ok.

Don't wanna judge and I don't wish anybody troubles but what were they thinking?posting stolen goods on the Internet. Even if he did not know he should have been smart enough to know it was fishy. If you have a switch already, just keep it to yourself. This is beyond stupid

@Untempered-Link What is wrong with you?

@Kalmaro Cool, didn't know that. Just making a point though, if there ever is a Switch that gets out in the wild legally, I really hope to see a positive attitude from Nintendo. Instead of becoming immediately defensive, how about some confidence? "How do you like it?" "Pretty light, isn't it?" "What do you think of the Joy-Cons?" Immediately striking makes it feel like they're trying to hide something

@Kalmaro Mill and Bentham were the greatest ethical writers of their time, and I wouldn't say the nature of humanity has changed much in 400 years. But yes I am very much a situational ethicist. So yes if it would somehow help enough people I could even justify putting a newborn baby in a blender.
It seems that we disagree on ethics at a fundamental level so I can't see this going much further.
have a nice day tho

@Untempered-Link you mean, "Have a nice day... Until the majority needs you to be miserable".

@FatAlbert1 So in short what your saying is that Nintendo should be cool with thieves and relax with them?

@FuzzyYellowBalls Maybe I feel entitled to this knowledge because I've put £300 towards it?
As for digging a deeper hole, honey I could dig to Australia and back again and it wouldn't change what Im saying 😂

@Untempered-Link I am very much interested in hearing the scenario that would possibly come up that putting a baby in a blender would help the human race. And how many people would you justify the life of an innocent newborn baby for?

@Kalmaro Touché 😂

@FuzzyYellowBalls
Women and children do factor in somewhere, as the issue isn't limited to gender. There has to be several very fine lines that make the difference as to whether stealing to eat is okay or not. Aren't you curious as to what those minor lines are?

@Kalmaro
I wasn't making a point, just laughing about how out of place our remarks are on a site like this.

@liljmoore @FatAlbert1 I think He's saying that Nintendo should be nice to people who bought it legally by mistake ahead of schedule. I can't see that being too bad.

@shaneoh Nono it's cool. Your comment kinda helped me remember that this is a gaming site, not the debate section of Reddit.

@shaneoh Curious? Pfft. I only paint in black and white, and use very broad strokes. o_O Ha!
@Kalmaro those debates over there at Reddit are never-ending, to say the least.

@FuzzyYellowBalls ahh now that is where it becomes drastically more subjective and vastly more hypothetical.
In the extreme example of utilitarianism I could lay down the following situation:
A madman has taken 10 hostages and tells you that he will kill them all unless you sacrifice a baby into a blender.
Do you do it?
Would the amount of people make a difference?
What if one of the hostages was the Pope?
Whilst I readily accept that this situation will never occur it does a good job of explaining how I view situational ethics.

@FuzzyYellowBalls yeah they are amusing but I get burnt out fast. I'm not here to talk about morals anyway, I just want it to be March 3rd.
And I want to sleep zzzzzzz

@Untempered-Link it's funny you bring up this scenario because that's exactly what happened to my father... and now I don't have a sister.

I betcha the five other guys who got them early consoles are laying low for now until launch day. They know not to share when they already pay good money for the device.

@Kalmaro perhaps you should visit r/trees and doze off until the haze clears and you wake up in March

@FuzzyYellowBalls yeah its more common than people think

@Kalmaro Yeah I caught on to that moment after I posted my comment.

@Untempered-Link people's wariness about buying a console they [believe they] don't know enough about may be a price to pay for that, and I suspect Nintendo accounts for the risks. But finding your units stolen and sold illegally isn't.

Sounds like the first case for Detective Pikachu.

hiphoptherobot clearly knew the console was stolen... no-one would have received a console from a 'friend' two weeks early without questioning how they got it, unless they were aware that it was most likely stolen.

@Untempered-Link I agree to a poin,nintendo should of had a durect.But when you get your Switch it's nice to find things out for yourself,it's not as thou it's going to prevent you from playing on it.More importantly there's Noooo excuse for Stealing.END OF.

@Untempered-Link "if it would somehow help enough people I could even justify putting a newborn baby in a blender. "

I'm sure Hiphoptherobot was using the same reasoning.

Hope they get caught them. I thought it was funny how the one guy seemed to be purposefully hiding anythint ither than his hands from the camera, then you see him in the reflection if the Switch screen.

@Untempered-Link "Maybe I feel entitled to this knowledge because I've put £300 towards it?"

There is no greater good ethical crisis here, only a selfish want for personal validation of a consumer good that you've clearly decided to purchase regardless of the information available. Saying the theft is justified is consumer vigilantism: They're not marketing the system properly, so we're forced to break the law to do it for them? Even if such information would inform the decisions of other consumers, the only thing at stake are sales for Nintendo, who has the right to control the marketing strategy for their product. The theft is not justified.

Edit: Let's entertain your greater good argument momentarily. What is the greater good? Theft of merchandise often leads to retailers raising prices to mitigate losses. On a large scale, this could affect the system pricing, already considered too high by some, which in turn can affect install base, third party support, access by lower income populations, etc. Or, perhaps retailers raise prices on other goods to mitigate the cost of stolen video game systems, affecting populations outside the gaming sphere. One theft won't bring about these changes, but condoning theft encourages thieves. Can theft be morally right? Perhaps, but in this case it isn't, and no amount of strawmen examples can make it so.

The retailer who shipped out these hot units should have "switched" their minds about the whole process! Was it really worth it to steal the console, sell it and ship it out early?

Justice is SERVED suckas! Nintendo cleanin' up these streets for a better gaming future!
Seriously though...
"and wasn't aware that it had been stolen"
RIGHT. C'mon man.

Hahaha. NooB. Game over.

"Nintendo Switch will launch worldwide on March 3, 2017, and we look forward to everyone being able to discover the wonders of the new system for themselves at that time."

Sorry... What?

I guess that's one way of doing it. Another way would be to tell us key details themselves. At this point I'm still not certain I'll even be able to buy one, though that video has filled me with hope.

I don't understand why people want all of the magic spoiled before the big day... I know nothing about Switch until I collect it from the store at midnight. It will be magical.

@Wolfenstein83 I thought the exact same thing. I just figured it was something they were not allowed to show in the video. But it did strike me as odd. It is just a serial number. Well now we know why! We only have 11 days to go!

This comment section has been interesting.

The NeoGaf user is lucky if they don't charge him as an accessory. I'm not well-versed in law so I don't know if that's possible, but if he paid for the stolen device he certainly doesn't get his money back (as someone else pointed out).

The interesting part was the comments section, though. Justifying the theft? Heh.

I'm not gonna even read the comments. But I will bet someone had to gall to say its big bad Nintendo's fault for not giving the thing away to consumers for free

If he didn't know it was stolen and they can't investigate up enough evidence he did he'll be out his money and that's it. The fact he contacted Nintendo depending on their attitude towards it anything could happen. They may reward him for coming forward on his own with another system (or that one), they may see to it if something popped up no charges are brought since it was their property, or he's just out all his time and money to be a real life version of the loser in comment threads who rushes in to type 'FIRST!' before anyone else can do something useful.

@NoxAeturnus And you're dead on the nose correct with that. There's no justification of property theft, just as there isn't for data theft, private information theft, any of it. People can make up all the whiny bs arguments they like but it's stealing and there's no justification for it as it's doing no good. It's not Nintendo's job to put a tech specs sheet online, or just unlock their private website devs can hit to download the tech docs either. You get what they tell you and show you, and you as a consumer pony up or back off. Nothing more or less, just the same with any merchandise.

Really old news. I pointed it out the day the video came out, in the comments section.

@Untempered-Link (in reply to not knowing details of the system when you say the $300 price tag) you know these are details that we will have at launch day and if you're skeptical of how powerful the system is, don't preorder and wait until more details come out. No one has to steal a system early just so a few people are happy (or sad if they don't like the power)

@Untempered-Link Except, by limiting yourself to simply those two options, you're playing right into the madman's hands. Either way, he/she directly or indirectly kills someone. The best option is to instead think of a third option, for instance, attempting to take the madman by surprise and apprehending them. In that case, there is at least a small chance that no one will die.

This has no relevance to the article. I just wanted to give my two cents on this situation.

It was illegally gotten, whether the guy who received it knew or not. Since it was stolen, it should be confiscated, no matter the circumstances.

So the guy buys a console 2 weeks before launch date from a "friend" who "knows a guy", the first thing he does is runs to the internet to tell the world about it, but decides that "I got my preorder from the retailer early" sounds better than "I got it from a friend who knows a guy", gets caught, and then proclaims he had no idea it was hot.

Suuure.....

@FuzzyYellowBalls I don't know if you realized it, but you just stumbled upon the Pro-Life argument.

"No amount of women's lives are worth saving, if it means aborting an innocent newborn baby! No amount of stem cells for potentially life saving research are worth having to sacrifice a fetus that the doctor says cannot be carried to term, or the parent cannot afford to care for since Planned Parenthood etc is going out the window!"

Occasionally, there are times when putting a newborn baby (or a fetus) "into a blender" (killing them in some fashion) is part of saving a woman's life during complications (economic, birthing, etc.) Ah, not such an easy choice now, is it? (Assuming the law allows you to make that choice, which it doesn't in certain parts of the USA.)

The end of his youtube career, I guess?

@Untempered-Link I get that you're trying to take a sort of "Robin Hood" stance here. (Most people thought Robin Hood's logic was pure evil during his time, too. "Take from the rich to give to the poor? You can't do that, it would upset the Divine Decree! You're going to burn in hell!" "Take information from Nintendo to replicate the function they once controlled and exercised? You can't do that, it would upset the system of modern laws which are partially written by corporations to primarily benefit them! You should rot in a prison cell!")

I also think that Nintendo is sorely miscalculating by not providing more information right before release, being secretive right up until then, and maybe even after. I also think that customers/clients ("consumers" is a dehumanizing term) have a right to know what they're buying before paying any money for it; I remember the Nintendo of gaming past, whose executives once realized this and provided all the information anyone could possibly want to know before release. (I've lost count of how many times I've alluded to E3 1995...) I also think that big businesses won't lose any skin just from having one thing taken from them to fulfill a task benefitting the public that otherwise would not be fulfilled. (Anyone who thinks Nintendo isn't a big business, just because they aren't as big as Microsoft etc, are kidding themselves.)

HOWEVER! Nintendo is not Monsanto, Koch Industries, etc. They're not a corrupting influence upon society that exists only to destroy the world for their own benefit. Nintendo is not dangerous like those aforementioned companies. Therefore, Nintendo did not "deserve" this to happen to them. This action was not righteous.

There are times when the law must be bent to do good, despite the protests of others. Law is necessary to uphold order to some degree, but Law is not necessarily synonymous with Good. However, this was not a "Good" action. It was clearly a self serving action. Those who commited it couldn't care less about other people getting valuable information, it was all for their own benefit.

If this had been done to a company which destroys other people's lives and uses the law to indemnify themselves, then I wouldn't care how much is taken from them. Nintendo, however, though they are not innocent, they are not evil either. So no, stealing that NS and playing coy about their intentions was not a good way to respond to Nintendo's radio silence.

A last-minute presentation would help a lot, but if Nintendo don't say anything, at least hiphop did them a favour. People might not have found out if it wasn't for him. And we don't want another Wii U.

We can see hiphop lied though, because I doubted he'd get away in the end. On the Internet, news spreads fast and it was stupid of him to upload the videos to the Internet.

Also, the employees of the distributer were idiots to think they'd get away with stealing several Switches and illegally selling one.

But what distributor was it that the employees came from? That's what crosses my mind. If it was a major one in the business, then they've done a bad job of concealing the Switches. These were just random employees who stole the consoled, not like a master thief. Of course I don't know the full story but otherwise, either it's a bad business, the Switches weren't hidden well enough or these people are just smart. Yet somewhere, a Switch was illegally sold, no problem. If so, if this is able to happen so easily, how are these businesses allowed to keep going? And how has hiphop not gotten into trouble for this yet? He must have bought the Switch himself and he would know where it was from.
Just a thought.

Nintendo could see this as a compliment (not that it was right to steal and not that they will) because of the hype. If people are doing stuff like this, I believe the Switch will sell better than Wii U. Look at the reaction at the Super Bowl for starters.

However, @PlywoodStick, I agree that they still need to show more info on the Switch. This is stuff the consumers should know before they buy it.

@KingOfTheFools Good comment, and I agree with your sentiment! Ultimately, it seems like Nintendo only has to gain from this outcome...

@TbobB "Theft is never acceptable under any circumstance."

I wonder if you think the same thing about compulsory taxation, of which the public is given no right to manage, even when it's used against them...

I mean realistically haven't they already basically broken down much of the tech info anyway other than the big mystery behind the 'customization' update of the Tegra X1 in there? All we got from this theft is that it appears it's like i guess you'd call it the Tegra X1.5 to be cute about it. It's perhaps the upgraded model used in their 2017 consoles that allow for some Pascal stuff, more operations, and on that system 4K support. So it borrows some of the capabilities of the X2 without many of the perks including the better cooling and smaller dye.

I mean does Nintendo really need to put out a full tech sheet breaking down every tech/nerdy isolated piece of memory, board, chip process and the rest just to make people shut up and be happy as that's silly.

@tanookisuit "I mean does Nintendo really need to put out a full tech sheet breaking down every tech/nerdy isolated piece of memory, board, chip process and the rest just to make people shut up and be happy as that's silly."

Basically that's it in a nutshell. How else will they defend arguments of how superior X product is to Y product if they don't have printed numbers to throw at each other?

Besides Sony throws endless completely fictional numbers about theoretical performance. That's really what this internet crowd wants. Who has more (theoretical) Teraflops (that will be hamstrung by memory bandwidth)?

Of course Nintendo loves throwing curve balls that the spec sheet pasters don't understand, like the FCRAM in 3DS.

@PlywoodStick
Ha Ha! Nice try!

@tanookisuit Well... Nintendo kinda did that with the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, GameCube, Game Boy Advance...

I mean, I didn't know what "Z- buffering", "tri-linear mipmapping", "realtime anti-aliasing", and "draw distance" were, yet Nintendo saw fit to inform the public about such things a month prior to the N64's release. To enjoy the N64, I didn't need to know it had a MIPS 400 64-bit RISC CPU @ 93.75 MHz, with 36 Mb of RAMBUS DRAM running @ 4.5k Mb/s, a sound & graphics DSP coprocessor running @ 62.5 MHz, a second dedicated 64-bit DSP sound chip running @ 44 KHz, and resolution ranging from 256x224 to 640x480... (Yes, I still have the August 1996 issue of Next Generation where they printed this.)

But hey, who am I to complain to receive such information from Nintendo through their public data release?

Likewise, I didn't need to know that the GBC had a total color palette of 32,768 colors with 56 accessible at once, a 2.1 MHz CPU, 32KB of RAM, 16KB of VRAM, up to 512Kb/second serial communications rate, up to 64 Mb ROM sizes, and a 160x144 Reflective LCD display made by Sharp... vs the original GB with a total color palette of 4 (lol), a 1.05 MHz CPU, 8KB of RAM, 8KB of VRAM, 8Kb/second serial communications rate, and up to 8Mb ROM sizes... (Yes, I still have the GBC launch issue of Nintendo Power, Volume 114, where they printed this.)

But hey, Nintendo saw fit to inform the public of these details anyways. I mean, why not? How could that possibly hurt them?

@Untempered-Link you are kinda lacking in the thought department......

@Untempered-Link @Finntendo No I think stealing and leaking this information out is justified because myself and around 2 million other people are spending £300 for a system that we still dont know everything about.
I put down the money in January having faith that Nintendo would release more information. Nintendo has failed to do such a thing and so I have no qualms about somebody taking it into their own hands to provide us with such information.

I've heard it all now lol

As far fetched as his story is, it's a lot more common than you think. Speaking from personal experience I worked in retail as a cashier and at break time I would wander to the game section since we got discounts on items in store and while browsing I saw a game on display for purchase that was supposed to come out 2 weeks later. I told the manager and they checked and I was right and was removed then and there.

@PlywoodStick Ahh, the 90's. When Intel had the Megahertz Wars going strong, and spouting off as much technobabble as possible made your product more computer magical than your competitors! In retrospect the use of RAMBUS was probably not something to boast about

Then again the N64 was just a plastic box with a cartridge slot. The magical tech inside that made Mario look 3D was the selling gimmick. The selling gimmick this time is that you can take the whole thing with you portably. Technobabble doesn't convey that any better. And technobabble no longer moves hardware in the "ocean mist is just like pina colada, but with a die shrink. We won't see real improvements until cowboy releases next year, but it might be worth holding out for the rumored refinements and efficiency gains that should come out Q3 with the sky dolphin architecture. caramel sausage won't be hitting the consumer space until some time after that." And Apples "It's A10, A11, A12 is so awesome you don't need to know more! But wait, there's one more thing! A55 is coming out soon! You don't need to know what it is, just know it's way more awesome than any A before it!"

Nerds on websites want piles of numbers. But you don't sell tech with numbers anymore. You sell it with colloquial nonsensical terms that make you feel like you're reading IngSoc engineering documents

@PlywoodStick and what about my case with the water?

@NEStalgia With a recent need to replace my original N64's cart slot, after years of abuse leading to a blood shot red tint on the screen with every game, I can appreciate the terms and numbers more than in the past. Seeing what's under the plastic is an enlightening experience. No, it's not just plastic with a cart slot... No, it's not computational dark magic... It's science in action.

I guess I just feel like refusing to provide the numbers, when there really shouldn't be anything to fear in doing so, means Nintendo is treating their customer base like neanderthals. Not even treated like children- Nintendo also used to release system specs to children, such as in Nintendo Power, with the expectation that inquiring minds would have the option to learn more if they so desired. We're not even being given that option with NS.

As if we're too stupid to learn from the numbers... Even though they aren't everything, they do matter. I still haven't heard anyone give a good reason why Nintendo can't, rather than shouldn't, provide the numbers this time around...

Man,what with people in this thread? Condoning theft?

@River3636 Personally, I think water should be freely accessible... Although I am willing to pay about 25¢ per gallon for the service of reverse osmosis distillation or deionization. The profitable sale of bottled water without refills are one of the biggest "lawfully accepted crimes" in human history.

So yeah, unless there's a crisis going on and remaining clean water needs to be distributed evenly because some stupid hydraulic fracturing companies poisoned the local supplies, they can go ahead. Water is life. I wouldn't deny someone water if I can help it.

@PlywoodStick Yes, well, you're a nerd. You're here with the rest of us, after all

To everyone ELSE it's computational dark science. And on the outside it's plastic with a cart slot.

Mostly I think it comes down to marketing approach and industry trends. Industry trends right now are not to print a bunch of numeric tech data. Look at Apple products, Samsung products etc to see how the leading mass market tech is shown to the public. I don't disagree with you that I'd rather have the numbers myself, but I can't point any fingers of accusation at Nintendo, either, for once they're not doing their own thing and are doing exactly what the industry leaders have been doing for a decade. Their spec chart actually looks MORE detailed than what I usually see from Samsung let alone Apple and is more on par with the incomplete spec lists on Newegg.

Nintendo Power...that was marketing too of course. Back to "put a bunch of high tech sounding big numbers and it sounds so impressive to the clueless! But that was 90's marketing about making all tech seem so much more sophisticated than you. '10's marketing is about minimalism and simplification so all tech seems like an evolution of a ball point pen.

I don't think there's a reason Nintendo can't. I think since that's now the industry standard (heck even for Windows laptops more often than not) in showcasing tech, they'd need a good argument to actually do so.

@PlywoodStick Yes that is all fair and good, but is what I did theft? I didn't go in that grocery store looking to not buy the water.

@NEStalgia You definitely make good points, and I think you're right. However, I still feel that providing specs, even to those who don't understand them, is still the right thing to do.

I work for an organization that provides computers to people who... by and large have no clue what the numbers mean. Some have never even owned their own computer before, so how could they know? Nevertheless, we consider it standard practice to list the basic specs of every computer, and answer any questions of what they mean.

Since a large number of our clientele includes families, this can potentially also be a good learning opportunity for the children... Of whom will either grow up with the same ignorance their parents had (through no fault of their own), or grow up with at least an awareness, if not understanding, of the numbers. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) treatment, and all that...

I hope the people who were fired got new jobs...

@River3636 Depends on who you ask. Some might say something along the lines of what I said, even though theft is generally wrong. (Although I do think returning it willingly is the "right" thing to do, in the context of a store.) Others would say if they don't do that, they're a dirty thief and should be locked up. (But then again, what's a gallon of water taken from a store versus millions of gallons of water poisoned by an energy company, or billions of gallons of water taken from another country for crop irrigation? How often are energy companies and nations punished for doing that to others? Why are they exempt from the laws applying to the individual?)

I guess what it... boils down to ( ) is that I prefer to pick my battles when it comes to water in particular.

@G-Boy Pressing license plates, most likely.

@PlywoodStick Well the PC world is a little different in that regard. Just the nature of it tends to lend itself to the specs more. Laptops have moved away from that almost entirely but desktops certainly cater to that more. The real shift happened in the "consumer electronics" and "luxury electronics" space (which tablets and consoles fit into), more than PCs where are, these days, primarily business products.

@NEStalgia What of the nipple self-massaging PC master race growing the PC gaming economy!?

The ad revenue from the bajillions of views is gonna pay for another Switch several times over. Cheeky move.

@PlywoodStick Evidently they're playing Milk.

Sure pal, first it was a delivery mistake, now a friend sold it you... as guilty as the theives!

Cheaters never prosper...
There is never any joy from anything stolen either.

So many comments are ignoring the fact that he freaking returned it.

Would you have returned it?

@BaffleBlend Yes. But then again... if I had it at this point, it could only be through illicit means. Someone who has the mindset to accept that probably wouldn't have returned it, unless they thought they would get into trouble otherwise...

@NandN3ds Person. I found the comments rather encouraging because of all the people who disagreed with that stance.