“Prolific” usually has a positive connotation, but I guess going by the literal definition, it is accurate here. They couldn’t really come out and say “shovelware factory”.
Remember when we got full physical video games for rewards? Those were the days.
They really should give us free shipping on stuff like this that we earned. $7 is too steep. You would expect to be able to buy something like this outright for less than $7. I tried looking around their site for other stuff I could buy so I could meet the $50 free shipping threshold, but the variety of offerings is so minimal that there wasn’t one single item I wanted.
@KillerBOB spending $30 at a card table in most cases means spending $30 at a card table, not making a profit. There is a reason I have no state taxes here in Nevada. The casinos are making money, not losing it. You could win… but mostly you will lose. That is why it’s gambling. Same with NFTs. You could come out ahead, sure. But most likely you will not. Its a financial investment as much as putting money on a horse is…. Which is to say… no investment at all.
Sadly the whole thing is more crooked than casinos too.
@KillerBOB You’re basically saying going to a casino is a better investment than going to a barcade. There is no objectivity at all. In one place you are gambling your money, in the other there is no gamble, you are purchasing entertainment. Which one you prefer is totally preference. I live in Las Vegas and I prefer the latter. I find no value in spending money on high risk gambles. But I do value the memories and entertainment I get from arcade games, so that is by far the better investment to me.
@BloodNinja hopefully you are confused with another studio? Chucklefish is a legendary publisher that brought us WarGroove, Starbound, Risk of Rain, Stardew Valley, Eastward, etc
@hypercoyote Yeah this happens all the time on NintendoLife. They don’t really research what the best option for us is, they just post the sites where they can make referral link money.
@sanderev you seem to be confused on the difference between what is actual laws and what Nintendo and YouTube actually do. Nintendo tries to shut down everything it can whether it has the legal right to or not. YouTube is a platform owned by Alphabet. They have the right to host or not host any video they want. YouTube has been a in a war for years now between its own content creators, copyright law, and big businesses. It is still struggling to find the right methods and balance to resolve these issues. The problem is that it relies on automation to resolve these issues. Automation is not good in processes that involve fine details.
Whats happening is that any IP holder can ask for a video to be removed, and YouTube in many cases obliges. That is their legal right, because it is their platform. However the act of creating a video of a fan game is not illegal. The creator of the video has every legal right to host the video themselves or find another host.
Now believe it or not, you have certain rights to use Nintendo’s IPs. In some cases you may even use those IPs to make a profit. Most news television programs are for profit programs, and they have the right to say… post pictures of Mario and Pikachu on their program without consent from Nintendo. This is called fair use. Could they broadcast an episode of the Pokemon cartoon without permission? No. Could they cover a local Pokemon tournament without Nintendo’s permission? Yes. Their coverage of the event is considered their own artistic expression under copyright law. YouTubers are no different. They have the same rights to cover and review Pokemon games or fan made games.
Can that game be sold as is? Most likely not. However if say the game alters the sprites some, then they can qualify for fair use parody defense and have the legal right to distribute the game. Get this… for it to qualify under the parody defense… the general public has to recognize it as Pokemon. Meaning its only legal if it is close enough to being Pokemon to be noticeable.
@Dirty0814 Hori has the reputation of being the only third party manufacturer with 1st party quality. And I fully agree with that reputation. They are also endeared by the FGC which is arguably hardest on controllers.
@SwitchForce oh here you go… actual legal cases where EULAs dont hold up in the court of law… and would you look at that… for the very same reasons I said above. Because the contract is not disclosed until after the sale is completed and the item is non returnable…. You know… video games you buy from Target… they dont do returns on open video games… do you have some actual court cases documented that you would like to share that proves the opposite of what I am saying? Or are you just going by hearsay on the internet?
“ The term shrink-wrap license refers colloquially to any software license agreement which is enclosed within a software package and is inaccessible to the customer until after purchase. Typically, the license agreement is printed on paper included inside the boxed software. It may also be presented to the user on-screen during installation, in which case the license is sometimes referred to as a click-wrap license. The inability of the customer to review the license agreement before purchasing the software has caused such licenses to run afoul of legal challenges in some cases.
Whether shrink-wrap licenses are legally binding differs between jurisdictions, though a majority of jurisdictions hold such licenses to be enforceable. At particular issue is the difference in opinion between two US courts in Klocek v. Gateway and Brower v. Gateway. Both cases involved a shrink-wrapped license document provided by the online vendor of a computer system. The terms of the shrink-wrapped license were not provided at the time of purchase, but were rather included with the shipped product as a printed document. The license required the customer to return the product within a limited time frame if the license was not agreed to. In Brower, New York's state appeals court ruled that the terms of the shrink-wrapped license document were enforceable because the customer's assent was evident by its failure to return the merchandise within the 30 days specified by the document. The U.S. District Court of Kansas in Klocek ruled that the contract of sale was complete at the time of the transaction, and the additional shipped terms contained in a document similar to that in Brower did not constitute a contract, because the customer never agreed to them when the contract of sale was completed.”
@SwitchForce Video games have warranties, thats how they relate. Under the act a warranty cannot be voided because a user or third party uses a modification. Therefore if said item has a warranty, the company granting the warranty is granting you the right to modify the product… otherwise their warranty would be in violation of the act… illegal. This is a law. Its not that hard to put two and two together.
@Dr_Lugae In my country (USA) we have the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, which gives you the legal right to modify any item, and to make your own modifications to distribute and sell.
Of course you can't sell the base game, but you can certainly sell the mod add on you built. That is why you will see many websites who would never dare host a game ROM, hosting the mod patch for the game. You can download the patch from them, but have to dump your own ROM or search on shady websites or torrents to get the ROM.
It was actually just 3 and a half years ago the Nintendo was sent a warning letter by the FTC, because because they were up to shady practices like this in relation to video game consoles. Stuff like putting warning labels on their system saying that your warranty is void if you open or modify the system. Yeah that thing that game companies having been doing for years, was totally illegal under American law. But these big companies will try to bully people into doing their will, wether they have the right to or not. (See Sony losing all their lawsuits against "Bleem!", but effectively shutting Bleem! down, as they went bankrupt from legal fees.)
@SwitchForce Except those EULAs dont hold in the court of law for physical games. The reason is, the EULAs are not disclosed until after the purchase of the game (you have to boot the game up to read the EULA), and video games are non returnable items to retailers. It is not legal to sell someone a product and then force a contract on them after the sale is complete. This is documented on many legal resources that cover the specific subject at hand.
@Savage_Joe It goes by where the videos are served. Youtube would just have to not host the videos to its Japanese audiences and it could remain live everywhere else. They already do this with many videos to comply with local laws. Youtube wouldn’t exist if it had to follow each countries individual laws globally. That’s obvious
@N64-ROX I mean that would be cool if it was just a misleading headline, and the text in the story saved it, but that isn't the case either. This game looks nothing like Final Fantasy Tactics art style. I mean they are both using sprites I guess? But that's like saying Street Fighter 2 has Super Mario inspired art.
The game itself looks really cool. I have Ring Fit, but I'm bored of the ring exercises to fight monsters. Id rather be throwing fists in real time. But Im not buying a new device for this game. I have Oculus and Switch. Port it please.
@Jokerwolf but we aren’t talking digital vs physical. We are talking digital vs digital. What company and what shareholders believe in giving consumers control over their distribution? How do they think that will benefit them? Whos going to convince them that getting a percentage of a consumers resale, is better than just taking 100% of the sale for themselves and setting the price themselves? This isnt a finite resource. A new copy is exactly the same as a used copy. On one hand a company gets 100% profit and on the other hand a company gets to share profit with a random consumer? Which do you think they will choose? Nintendo can sell their 4 year old games all day long at $60 a pop, and lower it to $40 for holiday sales. And they sell well, because of the fact that they maintain control and dont let their ip value get diminished with overly aggressive sales. Do you think they are just going to hand that over to consumers and say “Hey lets see where this goes” for giggles? They have no incentive to do so. Makes no sense at all. Only makes sense for us the buyers. These companies have fought regulators over refund policies. They arent in business to be be friendsies with consumers.
@Moonsorrow999 yeah I dont get it. This site is usually pretty good on the stuff it covers and there is rarely any shovelware. But for some reason they love posting Kemco shovelware. Either they arent reading the comments section to get a feel for their readers expectations, or these are paid sponsored articles. Because every single Kemco article they post has the comment section bombed by anti Kemco comments.
Theyd be better off posting articles for 99 cent calculator apps. Theyd get less reader remorse.
@Jokerwolf Yeah that would be awesome indeed. However consumers do not own the IP, the developers do. So its pretty pointless to speculate what would be the consumers preferred method of distribution, when the developer controls the distribution, and this is a disadvantage for them.
Unless some government agencies come in and force it, developers and publishers aren’t going to hand over their dollars and go against their share holders, just because its consumer friendly.
@burninmylight It would make sense from the consumers perspective. The seller could get rid of games they no longer want and make some money back. The buyer would get the game at a cheaper price than full retail that a new digital copy would cost.
However this doesn’t make sense from the perspective of the rights holder of the game, so this is unlikely to become reality. Sure they could take a cut of the resale… but that would put the resale price out of their control, and also result in less profit for them as apposed to just selling a new digital copy.
@EVIL-C Yep that's the problem. Everyone says not to manufacture in China. But the reality is, if this controller launches at $150, no one is going to buy one, and the company will fold. So basically manufacturing domestically is a pointless dead end.
@Fath as Spider said, this is not original hardware. Game Genie is a non licensed hack device that manipulates a games hex code. The game cant do this on its own.
Just a heads up, this one doesn’t say its made for OLED Switch. The new Pokemon one does. I have an OLED Switch and a Hori Split Pro, and it doesn’t dock right. It will dock, but if you dont drop it in exactly right, you wont get a charge, because it doesnr fit right. One time it even rebooted my Switch.
Hori released a statement when the OLED debuted, sayin their Split Pads are not 100% compatible with the OLED.
So go with the new Pokemon one if you have or plan to have an OLED
@nessisonett the article doesnt say you have to put any real money into the game. So you arent gambling.
The article doesnt try to explain much actually, but what I came away with is that while getting the coin that would be temporarily live, you can lose some of it. But I assume you would be able to transfer that coin later to a regular account where it would be safe.
Either way, if you dont have to pay to start playing, then you arent losing money. At the worst you would play a free game and walk away with nothing. I would assume there would be optional in app purchases where you could end up losing money, but yeah thats the case with a lot of modern games and it’s optional.
@Dragonite89 Or maybe he's just some dude who went to college, worked his way up through a crappy company for 23 years, and now enjoys his job at Nintendo where he can make enough money to leave an inheritance for his family after he passes, and in the mean time set a good example for his kids.
@thiz- Your Diablo 2 memories are safe. That was done by Blizzard North. That was a separate location and office, and it was a separate company that Blizzard bought. They only kept in touch over the phone. When Blizzard tried to absorb North into Blizzard, all the employees walked out.
@Friendly honestly I dont think anyone at Blizzard has ever worked on the game unless you count marketing. The port was developed by Vicarious Visions. The original game was developed by Blizzard North, which despite the name, was never really Blizzard. They came up with Diablo 1 while they were a different company all together. Blizzard offered to fund Diablo 1 if it was developed for Blizzard, so the company accepted and changed their name to Blizzard North. They had a different office in a different city. They only kept in touch with Blizzard over the phone. When Diablo 1 was a success, Blizzard North again completely developed Diablo 2 alone only keeping in touch over the phone with Blizzard. When Diablo 2 was a success, Blizzard North again began developing Diablo 3 on their own. Partway through the development of Diablo 3, Blizzard called Blizzard North and told them they were going to completely absorb them into Blizzard. Blizzard North said hell no you aint and everyone noteworthy walked off the job and went off to start their own company because they didnt want to be a part of Blizzard.
Thats why I dont mind buying this. There was a lot of heart put into this game by people that arent Blizzard. Sure Blizzard will make money off my purchase, but if the game sells like crap because of a boycott, Vicarious Visions will take the blame. When they try to take on a big project 10 years down the road, they might get turned down, because itll be on their record that their Diablo 2 port was a financial disaster.
@PhhhCough not really. I put my boxed copy up for sale for $50 shipped and no one bought it. Theres a sealed copy on ebay for $99, boxed copies for $60 and cart only copies for $55
@Sam_TSM Just from zooming the pictures it appears to be micro. Could be wrong, but it looks like micro to me.
If it is micro, I wouldn’t trust the device altogether. Probably means they just got a great deal on some left over parts from a cheap Chinese factory and slapped Sega stuff on it for casing.
@SakuraHaruka Yeah, Nintendo is definitely at fault there. But it doesn’t really matter, because people jump on bandwagons full of pitchforks and torches, without ever looking into things for themselves. Just taking the good word of fellow commenters , and sketchy blogs.
People need to stop pretending like Pokemon is separate from Nintendo, just because they read something on a blog.
Everything Pokemon puts out is licensed by Nintendo. They own the Pokemon trademarks. The games are made and copy-written in a joint venture that always involves Nintendo. Again.. Nintendo owns the Pokemon Trademarks. Game Freak and Creatures INC, are not allowed to release Pokemon products without Nintendo's OK.
Pokemon TCG live is copy-written in part by Nintendo (the Pokemon Company is a company shared with Nintendo and the two others), meaning they are credited with creating parts of this game.
@jsty3105 You said using Nintendo’s characters on a media publication wasnt legal. Nintendo Force replied that they use those characters as they have the same journalistic freedoms as everyone else. So you were wrong there.
You said Nintendo helped create Nintendo Force. If you have no creative control over something, you therefore arent creating it.
Thats like me donating a brush to an art institute and then claiming I helped create a painting.
You can super stretch things. Or just admit you are human like everyone else and sometimes make mistakes or are misinformed.
@jsty3105 I reached out to Nintendo Force on Patreon. This was their response:
“ We work with Nintendo's public relations team from time to time. Nintendo does not have creative control over the magazine. We have the same permissions to use their characters as any other journalistic outlet: in the capacity of presenting previews and reviews of their new titles, etc.”
@Bratwurst35 yep under fair use in a guide. A practice that has legal precedent for decades. Not something new or underground. Business as usual for major publishers.
Go look up thousands of cases where ip rights are involved in conjunction with precedence. The law is very clear.
Ill remind you, you are on a for profit site that uses Nintendo art to make money.
@jsty3105 So they didnt help create the magazine? They just sent them stuff to use in the magazine. Readers send in fan art and it gets published. Readers are supportive. Art submissions arent creating the magazine. Game companies send YouTubers review copies of games. The game publishers didnt create the Youtube channel. This is how the media works in general.
I think it’s important to note the irony of all this in the comments section of an unofficial Nintendo based media website where they constantly use Nintendo art as the cover photo for a story, and where the owner of the site has photos of himself with Nintendo top brass. That doesnt mean this is an approved or licensed Nintendo product. They even criticize Nintendo. They make enough money here to pay a full staff of workers. Im willing to bet Nintendo Life makes more than $300k a year.
But no one can legally take down NintendoLife, because its fair use.
Hand Drawn dude isnt even using Nintendos art. Hes using his own art if Nintendo characters.
@jsty3105 Also curious as to the source of your comment that Nintendo worked with Nintendo Force to create the magazine. I looked at a bunch of stuff and couldn't find anything to corroborate that. All the origin articles and sources from NF themselves, just say that they were a bunch of writers from different websites that came together to make a magazine because they were sad that Nintendo Power was ending. Apparently the first issue was the best selling magazine ever on MagCloud. Went back and google searched interviews and articles about the magazines launch, and NF staff just say stuff about being fans of Nintendo Power. Nothing about them sitting down with Nintendo to create a magazine.
Also I'm trying to understand your comment that "someone who worked for Nintendo Force, went on to work for Nintendo". What are you trying to say here... it doesn't make any sense in the context of anything discussed here so far. Are you trying to infer some deep hand in hand partnership because an employee went to work somewhere he was a fan of? I mean Xbox employees go to Nintendo and Playstation all the time and vise versa. It literally has nothing to do with anything at all. You know how many Google employees have gone to work for Apple? Rival companies have employees going in between them, what more for a fan magazines employees?
Also I'm a subscriber to Nintendo Force Magazine. I have their most recent issue in front of me. Inside the magazine they still refer to themselves as "Nintendo Force". Their website is Nintendo Force. Their Twitter is Nintendo Force. I'm inclined to believe NF is just an abbreviation.
If Nintendo was helping in the creation of this magazine and using the word "Nintendo" was an issue, then why would the first issue have "Nintendo Force" on the cover? Also to be noted the "NF" logo abbreviation was also present on the first issue. So they haven't really changed anything, that was always their logo, and at times they printed "Nintendo Force" in and on the magazine.
@Vexx234 I didn't say Nintendo Force was a rebel company sticking it to Nintendo. I said they were and unofficial magazine. Sure they work with Nintendo. Thats how you get stories and interviews. But Nintendo doesn't license the magazine or have a legal agreement with them. Nintendo Force uses Nintendo art on their covers all the time.
@jsty3105 Legally you dont have to work with the company at all. And legally speaking you cant just wait 40 years until you pick on project you think its “getting too big”. You are clearly not familiar with how the law works in this area. Precedent is a huge part of how rights work in these cases. You cant just cherry pick your claims, you have to show a history of claiming your rights.
Thats aside from the fact that you keep putting up the straw man of “this one is big and some others have been small” yeah some others, but not even close to all others. This is by no means the biggest sale of an unofficial Nintendo guide. Its not even close. Major publishers have released these things for decades.
As I type this im at my bookshelf holding an unofficial Nintendo guide from 1990 with pictures of Nintendo owned characters. This was published by Prima Games and was on retail shelves across the world at $10 a pop. You dont think it sold 30k copies? Or the hundreds of other unofficial guides this company put out, or other companies like Brady Games. Were you around in the 90s when there was like 50 different gaming magazines all using Nintendo characters?
Like I said before this is not some little thing hidden in the corner of the internet. This was big business for years, but you gonna try to straw man some randoms on Amazon.
@jsty3105 $300k is small potatoes. Its not enough to go against Nintendos lawyers and Nintendo knows this. The guides on Amazon are not selling enough for Nintendo to pay someone to write a cease and desist. If one does sell enough, Nintendo will go after them. Nintendo just wont go after anyone that can defend themselves. Thats the point. That is the exact definition of a bully.
@jsty3105 Nintendo Force Magazine has over 4000 subscribers plus an online shop. Safe to say they are probably pulling in over 10k a month. This isnt something new or just a little secret in the dark part of the internet. Major corporations have been printing unlicensed guides for over 40 years. Nintendo didnt go after them, they went after an individual with no legal team. $300k would easily be eaten up in years of court appeals by Nintendo, and Nintendo knows this. Fair Use is a legal defense, meaning you have to defend it in court. The Hand Drawn guide guy would almost 100% win a court case, because guides would definitely fall under fair use, and because theres 40 years of legal precedent, which judges always look at when deciding these things. But financially the dude would lose.
That is a major problem the legal system is grappling with. The victor of the court case is the loser in the real world.
Comments 309
Re: Ambition Record Is The Latest KEMCO RPG Making The Jump To Switch
“Prolific” usually has a positive connotation, but I guess going by the literal definition, it is accurate here. They couldn’t really come out and say “shovelware factory”.
Re: Pokémon Legends: Arceus - Cable Holders Are Now Up For Grabs On My Nintendo
Remember when we got full physical video games for rewards? Those were the days.
They really should give us free shipping on stuff like this that we earned. $7 is too steep. You would expect to be able to buy something like this outright for less than $7. I tried looking around their site for other stuff I could buy so I could meet the $50 free shipping threshold, but the variety of offerings is so minimal that there wasn’t one single item I wanted.
Re: "If It Smells Like Money, Konami's Going To Be There In A Heartbeat" - PlatinumGames Talks NFTs
@KillerBOB spending $30 at a card table in most cases means spending $30 at a card table, not making a profit. There is a reason I have no state taxes here in Nevada. The casinos are making money, not losing it. You could win… but mostly you will lose. That is why it’s gambling. Same with NFTs. You could come out ahead, sure. But most likely you will not. Its a financial investment as much as putting money on a horse is…. Which is to say… no investment at all.
Sadly the whole thing is more crooked than casinos too.
Re: "If It Smells Like Money, Konami's Going To Be There In A Heartbeat" - PlatinumGames Talks NFTs
@KillerBOB You’re basically saying going to a casino is a better investment than going to a barcade. There is no objectivity at all. In one place you are gambling your money, in the other there is no gamble, you are purchasing entertainment. Which one you prefer is totally preference. I live in Las Vegas and I prefer the latter. I find no value in spending money on high risk gambles. But I do value the memories and entertainment I get from arcade games, so that is by far the better investment to me.
Re: 'Swords & Bones' Looks To Resurrect The Spirit Of Classic 16-Bit Adventures On Switch
@BloodNinja hopefully you are confused with another studio? Chucklefish is a legendary publisher that brought us WarGroove, Starbound, Risk of Rain, Stardew Valley, Eastward, etc
Re: Where To Pre-Order Pokémon Legends: Arceus On Switch
@hypercoyote Yeah this happens all the time on NintendoLife. They don’t really research what the best option for us is, they just post the sites where they can make referral link money.
Re: The Pokémon Company Sets Its Sights On YouTube Videos Of The Fan-Made 'Pokémon FPS'
@sanderev you seem to be confused on the difference between what is actual laws and what Nintendo and YouTube actually do. Nintendo tries to shut down everything it can whether it has the legal right to or not. YouTube is a platform owned by Alphabet. They have the right to host or not host any video they want. YouTube has been a in a war for years now between its own content creators, copyright law, and big businesses. It is still struggling to find the right methods and balance to resolve these issues. The problem is that it relies on automation to resolve these issues. Automation is not good in processes that involve fine details.
Whats happening is that any IP holder can ask for a video to be removed, and YouTube in many cases obliges. That is their legal right, because it is their platform. However the act of creating a video of a fan game is not illegal. The creator of the video has every legal right to host the video themselves or find another host.
Now believe it or not, you have certain rights to use Nintendo’s IPs. In some cases you may even use those IPs to make a profit. Most news television programs are for profit programs, and they have the right to say… post pictures of Mario and Pikachu on their program without consent from Nintendo. This is called fair use. Could they broadcast an episode of the Pokemon cartoon without permission? No. Could they cover a local Pokemon tournament without Nintendo’s permission? Yes. Their coverage of the event is considered their own artistic expression under copyright law. YouTubers are no different. They have the same rights to cover and review Pokemon games or fan made games.
Can that game be sold as is? Most likely not. However if say the game alters the sprites some, then they can qualify for fair use parody defense and have the legal right to distribute the game. Get this… for it to qualify under the parody defense… the general public has to recognize it as Pokemon. Meaning its only legal if it is close enough to being Pokemon to be noticeable.
Re: Hori Wants To Release A Retro Game Controller That Can Be Used To Play Hamster's Arcade Archives Series
@Dirty0814 Hori has the reputation of being the only third party manufacturer with 1st party quality. And I fully agree with that reputation. They are also endeared by the FGC which is arguably hardest on controllers.
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@SwitchForce oh here you go… actual legal cases where EULAs dont hold up in the court of law… and would you look at that… for the very same reasons I said above. Because the contract is not disclosed until after the sale is completed and the item is non returnable…. You know… video games you buy from Target… they dont do returns on open video games… do you have some actual court cases documented that you would like to share that proves the opposite of what I am saying? Or are you just going by hearsay on the internet?
“ The term shrink-wrap license refers colloquially to any software license agreement which is enclosed within a software package and is inaccessible to the customer until after purchase. Typically, the license agreement is printed on paper included inside the boxed software. It may also be presented to the user on-screen during installation, in which case the license is sometimes referred to as a click-wrap license. The inability of the customer to review the license agreement before purchasing the software has caused such licenses to run afoul of legal challenges in some cases.
Whether shrink-wrap licenses are legally binding differs between jurisdictions, though a majority of jurisdictions hold such licenses to be enforceable. At particular issue is the difference in opinion between two US courts in Klocek v. Gateway and Brower v. Gateway. Both cases involved a shrink-wrapped license document provided by the online vendor of a computer system. The terms of the shrink-wrapped license were not provided at the time of purchase, but were rather included with the shipped product as a printed document. The license required the customer to return the product within a limited time frame if the license was not agreed to. In Brower, New York's state appeals court ruled that the terms of the shrink-wrapped license document were enforceable because the customer's assent was evident by its failure to return the merchandise within the 30 days specified by the document. The U.S. District Court of Kansas in Klocek ruled that the contract of sale was complete at the time of the transaction, and the additional shipped terms contained in a document similar to that in Brower did not constitute a contract, because the customer never agreed to them when the contract of sale was completed.”
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@SwitchForce Video games have warranties, thats how they relate. Under the act a warranty cannot be voided because a user or third party uses a modification. Therefore if said item has a warranty, the company granting the warranty is granting you the right to modify the product… otherwise their warranty would be in violation of the act… illegal. This is a law. Its not that hard to put two and two together.
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@steventonysmith video games have warranties….
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@Dr_Lugae In my country (USA) we have the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, which gives you the legal right to modify any item, and to make your own modifications to distribute and sell.
Of course you can't sell the base game, but you can certainly sell the mod add on you built. That is why you will see many websites who would never dare host a game ROM, hosting the mod patch for the game. You can download the patch from them, but have to dump your own ROM or search on shady websites or torrents to get the ROM.
It was actually just 3 and a half years ago the Nintendo was sent a warning letter by the FTC, because because they were up to shady practices like this in relation to video game consoles. Stuff like putting warning labels on their system saying that your warranty is void if you open or modify the system. Yeah that thing that game companies having been doing for years, was totally illegal under American law. But these big companies will try to bully people into doing their will, wether they have the right to or not. (See Sony losing all their lawsuits against "Bleem!", but effectively shutting Bleem! down, as they went bankrupt from legal fees.)
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@SwitchForce Except those EULAs dont hold in the court of law for physical games. The reason is, the EULAs are not disclosed until after the purchase of the game (you have to boot the game up to read the EULA), and video games are non returnable items to retailers. It is not legal to sell someone a product and then force a contract on them after the sale is complete. This is documented on many legal resources that cover the specific subject at hand.
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 'Second Wind' Mod Videos Targeted By Nintendo
@Savage_Joe It goes by where the videos are served. Youtube would just have to not host the videos to its Japanese audiences and it could remain live everywhere else. They already do this with many videos to comply with local laws. Youtube wouldn’t exist if it had to follow each countries individual laws globally. That’s obvious
Re: Vagante Is A Final Fantasy Tactics-Inspired Combat Platformer Coming To Switch Soon
@N64-ROX I mean that would be cool if it was just a misleading headline, and the text in the story saved it, but that isn't the case either. This game looks nothing like Final Fantasy Tactics art style. I mean they are both using sprites I guess? But that's like saying Street Fighter 2 has Super Mario inspired art.
Re: Random: Reviews For This Hopeful Ring Fit Competitor Are Not Good
The game itself looks really cool. I have Ring Fit, but I'm bored of the ring exercises to fight monsters. Id rather be throwing fists in real time. But Im not buying a new device for this game. I have Oculus and Switch. Port it please.
Re: At Least Someone Is Celebrating Castlevania's 35th In The Right Way
@Jokerwolf but we aren’t talking digital vs physical. We are talking digital vs digital. What company and what shareholders believe in giving consumers control over their distribution? How do they think that will benefit them? Whos going to convince them that getting a percentage of a consumers resale, is better than just taking 100% of the sale for themselves and setting the price themselves? This isnt a finite resource. A new copy is exactly the same as a used copy. On one hand a company gets 100% profit and on the other hand a company gets to share profit with a random consumer? Which do you think they will choose? Nintendo can sell their 4 year old games all day long at $60 a pop, and lower it to $40 for holiday sales. And they sell well, because of the fact that they maintain control and dont let their ip value get diminished with overly aggressive sales. Do you think they are just going to hand that over to consumers and say “Hey lets see where this goes” for giggles? They have no incentive to do so. Makes no sense at all. Only makes sense for us the buyers. These companies have fought regulators over refund policies. They arent in business to be be friendsies with consumers.
Re: 40-Hour RPG 'Justice Chronicles' Launches On Switch Today
@Moonsorrow999 yeah I dont get it. This site is usually pretty good on the stuff it covers and there is rarely any shovelware. But for some reason they love posting Kemco shovelware. Either they arent reading the comments section to get a feel for their readers expectations, or these are paid sponsored articles. Because every single Kemco article they post has the comment section bombed by anti Kemco comments.
Theyd be better off posting articles for 99 cent calculator apps. Theyd get less reader remorse.
Re: At Least Someone Is Celebrating Castlevania's 35th In The Right Way
@Jokerwolf Yeah that would be awesome indeed. However consumers do not own the IP, the developers do. So its pretty pointless to speculate what would be the consumers preferred method of distribution, when the developer controls the distribution, and this is a disadvantage for them.
Unless some government agencies come in and force it, developers and publishers aren’t going to hand over their dollars and go against their share holders, just because its consumer friendly.
Re: At Least Someone Is Celebrating Castlevania's 35th In The Right Way
@burninmylight It would make sense from the consumers perspective. The seller could get rid of games they no longer want and make some money back. The buyer would get the game at a cheaper price than full retail that a new digital copy would cost.
However this doesn’t make sense from the perspective of the rights holder of the game, so this is unlikely to become reality. Sure they could take a cut of the resale… but that would put the resale price out of their control, and also result in less profit for them as apposed to just selling a new digital copy.
Re: New 'Capcom Creators' Program Offers Exclusive Incentives For Content Creators
@SpeedRunRocks love your profile pic
Re: The Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat Cabinet Will Support Online Multiplayer
@eviljerry The article says regular 3 is included. And yeah MK4 is a black sheep. Most people care about the trilogy and try to forget 4 exists.
Re: The 'Panda' GameCube Controller Kickstarter Has Been Cancelled
@JayJ This is not an "Elite" controller and isn't competing in that space.
"No one wants to pay $80,000 for a Kia Soul"
"Try telling that to Tesla!"
Pointless comment.
Re: The 'Panda' GameCube Controller Kickstarter Has Been Cancelled
@EVIL-C Yep that's the problem. Everyone says not to manufacture in China. But the reality is, if this controller launches at $150, no one is going to buy one, and the company will fold. So basically manufacturing domestically is a pointless dead end.
Re: Out Of Bounds Discovery In Super Mario Bros. 3 Lets You Tag In Luigi
@Fath as Spider said, this is not original hardware. Game Genie is a non licensed hack device that manipulates a games hex code. The game cant do this on its own.
Re: Cyberpunk Point-And-Click Adventure 'Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER' Gets New Trailer
2064 is one of my favorite Switch games of all time. In handheld mode, its a really great replacement for a book and bedtime reading.
Re: Hori's Next Split Pad Pro For Switch Is Mega Man-Themed
Just a heads up, this one doesn’t say its made for OLED Switch. The new Pokemon one does. I have an OLED Switch and a Hori Split Pro, and it doesn’t dock right. It will dock, but if you dont drop it in exactly right, you wont get a charge, because it doesnr fit right. One time it even rebooted my Switch.
Hori released a statement when the OLED debuted, sayin their Split Pads are not 100% compatible with the OLED.
So go with the new Pokemon one if you have or plan to have an OLED
Re: Pokémon GO Creator's AR Platform Is Now Being Used To Hunt Bitcoin, Not Pocket Monsters
@nessisonett the article doesnt say you have to put any real money into the game. So you arent gambling.
The article doesnt try to explain much actually, but what I came away with is that while getting the coin that would be temporarily live, you can lose some of it. But I assume you would be able to transfer that coin later to a regular account where it would be safe.
Either way, if you dont have to pay to start playing, then you arent losing money. At the worst you would play a free game and walk away with nothing. I would assume there would be optional in app purchases where you could end up losing money, but yeah thats the case with a lot of modern games and it’s optional.
Re: Nintendo Of America's President Doug Bowser Issues Internal Response To Activision Blizzard Reports
@Dragonite89 Or maybe he's just some dude who went to college, worked his way up through a crappy company for 23 years, and now enjoys his job at Nintendo where he can make enough money to leave an inheritance for his family after he passes, and in the mean time set a good example for his kids.
Re: Nintendo Of America's President Doug Bowser Issues Internal Response To Activision Blizzard Reports
After he kidnapped that little blonde girl? Some nerve.
Re: Activision Blizzard Employees Stage A Walkout Calling For CEO Bobby Kotick's Resignation
@thiz- Your Diablo 2 memories are safe. That was done by Blizzard North. That was a separate location and office, and it was a separate company that Blizzard bought. They only kept in touch over the phone. When Blizzard tried to absorb North into Blizzard, all the employees walked out.
Re: Dragon Ball: The Breakers Is A Seven-Against-One Online Multiplayer Game Coming To Switch
DBZ X Friday the 13th? Ok Bandai.
Re: Poll: Which Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games Should You Play First Via Nintendo Switch Online?
@talllennart yep, thats the problem with the Genesis collection described perfectly.
Re: Poll: Which Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games Should You Play First Via Nintendo Switch Online?
@Crono1973 because the Genesis collection has horrible input lag.
Re: Poll: Which Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games Should You Play First Via Nintendo Switch Online?
@Jonny5a Part 1 isnt a Genesis game, and most people dont like 2 and 3, so 4 is the best option.
Re: Nintendo Reveals The Top 15 Most-Downloaded Switch Games In September 2021 (Europe)
@Friendly honestly I dont think anyone at Blizzard has ever worked on the game unless you count marketing. The port was developed by Vicarious Visions. The original game was developed by Blizzard North, which despite the name, was never really Blizzard. They came up with Diablo 1 while they were a different company all together. Blizzard offered to fund Diablo 1 if it was developed for Blizzard, so the company accepted and changed their name to Blizzard North. They had a different office in a different city. They only kept in touch with Blizzard over the phone. When Diablo 1 was a success, Blizzard North again completely developed Diablo 2 alone only keeping in touch over the phone with Blizzard. When Diablo 2 was a success, Blizzard North again began developing Diablo 3 on their own. Partway through the development of Diablo 3, Blizzard called Blizzard North and told them they were going to completely absorb them into Blizzard. Blizzard North said hell no you aint and everyone noteworthy walked off the job and went off to start their own company because they didnt want to be a part of Blizzard.
Thats why I dont mind buying this. There was a lot of heart put into this game by people that arent Blizzard. Sure Blizzard will make money off my purchase, but if the game sells like crap because of a boycott, Vicarious Visions will take the blame. When they try to take on a big project 10 years down the road, they might get turned down, because itll be on their record that their Diablo 2 port was a financial disaster.
Re: Nintendo Reveals The Top 15 Most-Downloaded Switch Games In September 2021 (Europe)
@PhhhCough not really. I put my boxed copy up for sale for $50 shipped and no one bought it. Theres a sealed copy on ebay for $99, boxed copies for $60 and cart only copies for $55
Re: These New Sega Charging Mats Let You Wirelessly Charge Your Phone In Style
@Sam_TSM Just from zooming the pictures it appears to be micro. Could be wrong, but it looks like micro to me.
If it is micro, I wouldn’t trust the device altogether. Probably means they just got a great deal on some left over parts from a cheap Chinese factory and slapped Sega stuff on it for casing.
Re: These New Sega Charging Mats Let You Wirelessly Charge Your Phone In Style
Would have bought the Saturn one if they used USB C, but these are using Micro USB for some reason.
Re: Here's Our First Look At Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, Coming "Soon"
@SakuraHaruka Yeah, Nintendo is definitely at fault there. But it doesn’t really matter, because people jump on bandwagons full of pitchforks and torches, without ever looking into things for themselves. Just taking the good word of fellow commenters , and sketchy blogs.
Re: Here's Our First Look At Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, Coming "Soon"
@sanderev From the Pokemon TCG Live website "©️️2021 Pokémon. ©️️1995–2021 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. TM, ®, and character names are trademarks of Nintendo."
People need to stop pretending like Pokemon is separate from Nintendo, just because they read something on a blog.
Everything Pokemon puts out is licensed by Nintendo. They own the Pokemon trademarks. The games are made and copy-written in a joint venture that always involves Nintendo. Again.. Nintendo owns the Pokemon Trademarks. Game Freak and Creatures INC, are not allowed to release Pokemon products without Nintendo's OK.
Pokemon TCG live is copy-written in part by Nintendo (the Pokemon Company is a company shared with Nintendo and the two others), meaning they are credited with creating parts of this game.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 You said using Nintendo’s characters on a media publication wasnt legal. Nintendo Force replied that they use those characters as they have the same journalistic freedoms as everyone else. So you were wrong there.
You said Nintendo helped create Nintendo Force. If you have no creative control over something, you therefore arent creating it.
Thats like me donating a brush to an art institute and then claiming I helped create a painting.
You can super stretch things. Or just admit you are human like everyone else and sometimes make mistakes or are misinformed.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 I reached out to Nintendo Force on Patreon. This was their response:
“ We work with Nintendo's public relations team from time to time. Nintendo does not have creative control over the magazine. We have the same permissions to use their characters as any other journalistic outlet: in the capacity of presenting previews and reviews of their new titles, etc.”
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@Bratwurst35 yep under fair use in a guide. A practice that has legal precedent for decades. Not something new or underground. Business as usual for major publishers.
Go look up thousands of cases where ip rights are involved in conjunction with precedence. The law is very clear.
Ill remind you, you are on a for profit site that uses Nintendo art to make money.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 So they didnt help create the magazine? They just sent them stuff to use in the magazine. Readers send in fan art and it gets published. Readers are supportive. Art submissions arent creating the magazine. Game companies send YouTubers review copies of games. The game publishers didnt create the Youtube channel. This is how the media works in general.
I think it’s important to note the irony of all this in the comments section of an unofficial Nintendo based media website where they constantly use Nintendo art as the cover photo for a story, and where the owner of the site has photos of himself with Nintendo top brass. That doesnt mean this is an approved or licensed Nintendo product. They even criticize Nintendo. They make enough money here to pay a full staff of workers. Im willing to bet Nintendo Life makes more than $300k a year.
But no one can legally take down NintendoLife, because its fair use.
Hand Drawn dude isnt even using Nintendos art. Hes using his own art if Nintendo characters.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 Also curious as to the source of your comment that Nintendo worked with Nintendo Force to create the magazine. I looked at a bunch of stuff and couldn't find anything to corroborate that. All the origin articles and sources from NF themselves, just say that they were a bunch of writers from different websites that came together to make a magazine because they were sad that Nintendo Power was ending. Apparently the first issue was the best selling magazine ever on MagCloud. Went back and google searched interviews and articles about the magazines launch, and NF staff just say stuff about being fans of Nintendo Power. Nothing about them sitting down with Nintendo to create a magazine.
Also I'm trying to understand your comment that "someone who worked for Nintendo Force, went on to work for Nintendo". What are you trying to say here... it doesn't make any sense in the context of anything discussed here so far. Are you trying to infer some deep hand in hand partnership because an employee went to work somewhere he was a fan of? I mean Xbox employees go to Nintendo and Playstation all the time and vise versa. It literally has nothing to do with anything at all. You know how many Google employees have gone to work for Apple? Rival companies have employees going in between them, what more for a fan magazines employees?
Also I'm a subscriber to Nintendo Force Magazine. I have their most recent issue in front of me. Inside the magazine they still refer to themselves as "Nintendo Force". Their website is Nintendo Force. Their Twitter is Nintendo Force. I'm inclined to believe NF is just an abbreviation.
If Nintendo was helping in the creation of this magazine and using the word "Nintendo" was an issue, then why would the first issue have "Nintendo Force" on the cover? Also to be noted the "NF" logo abbreviation was also present on the first issue. So they haven't really changed anything, that was always their logo, and at times they printed "Nintendo Force" in and on the magazine.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@Vexx234 I didn't say Nintendo Force was a rebel company sticking it to Nintendo. I said they were and unofficial magazine. Sure they work with Nintendo. Thats how you get stories and interviews. But Nintendo doesn't license the magazine or have a legal agreement with them. Nintendo Force uses Nintendo art on their covers all the time.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 Legally you dont have to work with the company at all. And legally speaking you cant just wait 40 years until you pick on project you think its “getting too big”. You are clearly not familiar with how the law works in this area. Precedent is a huge part of how rights work in these cases. You cant just cherry pick your claims, you have to show a history of claiming your rights.
Thats aside from the fact that you keep putting up the straw man of “this one is big and some others have been small” yeah some others, but not even close to all others. This is by no means the biggest sale of an unofficial Nintendo guide. Its not even close. Major publishers have released these things for decades.
As I type this im at my bookshelf holding an unofficial Nintendo guide from 1990 with pictures of Nintendo owned characters. This was published by Prima Games and was on retail shelves across the world at $10 a pop. You dont think it sold 30k copies? Or the hundreds of other unofficial guides this company put out, or other companies like Brady Games. Were you around in the 90s when there was like 50 different gaming magazines all using Nintendo characters?
Like I said before this is not some little thing hidden in the corner of the internet. This was big business for years, but you gonna try to straw man some randoms on Amazon.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 $300k is small potatoes. Its not enough to go against Nintendos lawyers and Nintendo knows this. The guides on Amazon are not selling enough for Nintendo to pay someone to write a cease and desist. If one does sell enough, Nintendo will go after them. Nintendo just wont go after anyone that can defend themselves. Thats the point. That is the exact definition of a bully.
Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
@jsty3105 Nintendo Force Magazine has over 4000 subscribers plus an online shop. Safe to say they are probably pulling in over 10k a month. This isnt something new or just a little secret in the dark part of the internet. Major corporations have been printing unlicensed guides for over 40 years. Nintendo didnt go after them, they went after an individual with no legal team. $300k would easily be eaten up in years of court appeals by Nintendo, and Nintendo knows this. Fair Use is a legal defense, meaning you have to defend it in court. The Hand Drawn guide guy would almost 100% win a court case, because guides would definitely fall under fair use, and because theres 40 years of legal precedent, which judges always look at when deciding these things. But financially the dude would lose.
That is a major problem the legal system is grappling with. The victor of the court case is the loser in the real world.