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[StormCell]

"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue, the easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates."
- Gabe Newell

Piracy offers available downloads of all the classic Metroid games playable on current gen hardware. Nintendo does not. You need to hunt ebay or used shops for legacy hardware and/or titles.

Piracy offers a superior experience of the newest Metroid game even though Nintendo released a console refresh, like, literally to coincide with the new Metroid title.

Piracy good vs. piracy bad seems like the wrong discussion. Newell's right. Irrespective of price, why is piracy offering a better service/experience for the Metroid fanbase than Nintendo?

You would think that with so much understanding of what motivates people to "pirate" that we'd just stop calling it "piracy" and call it what it really is... ie. making it available, playing it enhanced, etc. I see nothing morally gray about playing Breath of the Wild in 4K with raytracing on PC if you bought the game. I also see nothing morally gray about carrying around all your SNES, GBA, N64, etc. games on whatever device you want to carry them on. It's really not your fault Nintendo hasn't offered you this solution, because people have been enjoying this type of product without Nintendo FOR DECADES.

 

[Draugoth]

"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue, the easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates."
- Gabe Newell

Piracy offers available downloads of all the classic Metroid games playable on current gen hardware. Nintendo does not. You need to hunt ebay or used shops for legacy hardware and/or titles.

Piracy offers a superior experience of the newest Metroid game even though Nintendo released a console refresh, like, literally to coincide with the new Metroid title.

Piracy good vs. piracy bad seems like the wrong discussion. Newell's right. Irrespective of price, why is piracy offering a better service/experience for the Metroid fanbase than Nintendo?

Piracy is different from game preservation. Piracy would be selling copies of a product you dont own for profit. It's a complicated matter anyway..

Either way, like i said, a Kotaku article isnt going to make hundreds of thousands of people emulate the game rather than purchasing it for the Nintendo Switch:

 

[BbMajor7th]

Weird article from Kotaku. Those games are Nintendo's and they're under no moral, legal or sensible obligation to do anything with them. If people want to play them, they'll have to do the leg work and hunt down the old hardware, like I do when I go hunting for decades-old vinyls that the original publisher hasn't seen fit to upload to Spotify (how verily fucking dare they). If they do they might discover that putting in hours of grind to hunt down rare loot isn't a recent invention by video game developers, but something you can enjoy in real life.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Weird article from Kotaku. Those games are Nintendo's and they're under no moral, legal or sensible obligation to do anything with them. If people want to play them, they'll have to do the leg work and hunt down the old hardware, like I do when I go hunting for decades-old vinyls that the original publisher hasn't seen fit to upload to Spotify (how verily fucking dare they). If they do they might discover that putting in hours of grind to hunt down rare loot isn't a recent invention by video game developers, but something you can enjoy in real life.

Exactly.

I never understood this obligation that people should be allowed to make copies as backups. If someone loses their media or it breaks, thats their problem unless it's under the 90 day or 1 year warranty. The one difference is that since software is a medium which someone can just copy or redownload, consumers have expectations every company should make it free and accessible forever like a lifetime guarantee until you die.

Sounds noble, but then you get the problem the industry has. Piracy. Every person will claim they dont pirate and any emulator they use is solely to replay a rom they bought 20 years ago, but cant find the CD buried in a closet. Ya right. Not only do most people play pirated stuff, but even if someone is replaying a back up of a game they had, most people sold that cartridge or CD to a flea market or GS 20 years ago. So you shouldnt be entitled anyway.

Your vinyl example is spot on.

Here's another one. You buy a picture at a store. In modern day, just about every picture sold by the company or artist will surely take a picture of it as back up for their own creations. If it's a mainstream thing like something at Ikea it was probably designed on PC to begin with.

In that case, every artist or store should send a digital file of it to me so I can make my own back up pictures if mine breaks or rips. I'll just print off another copy myself and glue it on so it looks new. Have all their artwork on a website in ultra high res format a free downloads. So anyone who bought it can download the file to fix a broken picture.

 

[MacReady13]

Weird article from Kotaku. Those games are Nintendo's and they're under no moral, legal or sensible obligation to do anything with them. If people want to play them, they'll have to do the leg work and hunt down the old hardware, like I do when I go hunting for decades-old vinyls that the original publisher hasn't seen fit to upload to Spotify (how verily fucking dare they). If they do they might discover that putting in hours of grind to hunt down rare loot isn't a recent invention by video game developers, but something you can enjoy in real life.

Unfortunately with the price of used games today people can't afford to track down what they want. Piracy is not the solution we need but unfortunately, companies like Nintendo are so hesitant to release their back catalog they almost force people's hands.

 

[coffinbirth]

First of all... piracy=/=emulation

Also, YES it was pretty scummy of them to put this out there in the way they did, but it's gaming NEWS, so IMO they are justified in reporting on it.
Personally, I dumped my cart to check it out in Yuzu, but you can pretty much guarantee that 99% of the people that read that article won't be doing this and simply downloaded it illegally.

 

[Swift_Star]

Twitter is going apeshit over this, I'm finding it really funny.

 

[cartman414]

Exactly.

I never understood this obligation that people should be allowed to make copies as backups. If someone loses their media or it breaks, thats their problem unless it's under the 90 day or 1 year warranty. The one difference is that since software is a medium which someone can just copy or redownload, consumers have expectations every company should make it free and accessible forever like a lifetime guarantee until you die.

Sounds noble, but then you get the problem the industry has. Piracy. Every person will claim they dont pirate and any emulator they use is solely to replay a rom they bought 20 years ago, but cant find the CD buried in a closet. Ya right. Not only do most people play pirated stuff, but even if someone is replaying a back up of a game they had, most people sold that cartridge or CD to a flea market or GS 20 years ago. So you shouldnt be entitled anyway.

Your vinyl example is spot on.

Here's another one. You buy a picture at a store. In modern day, just about every picture sold by the company or artist will surely take a picture of it as back up for their own creations. If it's a mainstream thing like something at Ikea it was probably designed on PC to begin with.

In that case, every artist or store should send a digital file of it to me so I can make my own back up pictures if mine breaks or rips. I'll just print off another copy myself and glue it on so it looks new. Have all their artwork on a website in ultra high res format a free downloads. So anyone who bought it can download the file to fix a broken picture.

Except the two cases are different. The CD/vinyl rights are usually in the hands of the record label, while the latter is (sometimes) in the hands of the creator. The artist sees much less agency or profit in those cases.

And again, there are lots of cases where people lacked awareness/interest/money when the originals were still out. Should they adopt a speculator mentality and buy every game that might become the next collectible/rarity, just in case?

 

[cartman414]

100%.

Graphics whore morons need those few extra pixels and no frame drops for a game to be acceptable.

Fuck pirate scum.

Believe it or not, frame drops affect gameplay.

 

[ManaByte]

Twitter is going apeshit over this, I'm finding it really funny.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Digital piracy bad. Will nobody think of the starving game developers? Now excuse me my slave produced coffee is ready.

 

[Yamisan]

Its illegal to download roms even if you own the original game. You're required to back up your own copy yourself.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Its illegal to download roms even if you own the original game. You're required to back up your own copy yourself.

Is this the real law? I don't know.

All I know is people who support emulators and rom downloads claim as long as you own the game, then downloading a copy is ok as you already own it. Or downloading it is their way of getting a back up copy.

 

[coffinbirth]

That tweet is an outright lie though. They didn't even spell Metroid right, lol.

 

[Fuz]

Is this the real law?

No.

 

[stranno]

Emulation is absolutely irrelevant in numbers compared to the 20 millions of Fusee Gelee vulnerable consoles that Nvidia left to Nintendo under the tree.

And everyone promote piracy in one way to another. The first result you get on Google looking for Switch overclocking is Digital Foundry "promoting" the sys-clk and SaltyNX plugins, not to mention ReverseNX in other videos. MVG has done exactly the same and he is a damn Switch dev

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

OP must be one of these champs lol.

 

[Calling 911 Melts Beams]

I copy every Kotaku article to a word document and then send it to people against their will

 

[Drew1440]

I do wonder how Nintendo will react to this in future hardware releases, will they deliberately try to make the hardware hard to emulate or enforce further DRM!

 

[BbMajor7th]

Unfortunately with the price of used games today people can't afford to track down what they want. Piracy is not the solution we need but unfortunately, companies like Nintendo are so hesitant to release their back catalog they almost force people's hands.

I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but maybe it's just that being a collector of retro consoles and software is an expensive hobby, like old records or classic cars or whatever. Those things are rare and often very collectible - if you can't afford to do it, then that's just life. Sometimes we can't get what we want.

 

[Abriael_GN]

The fact that in this forum there are actually people going out of their way to bat for Kotaku somehow believing that they're batting for emulation becomes more amusing with each page.

If you really think this kind of article does emulation any favors, you're way more naive than you think you are. It only brings the negative attention that it really can do without.

 

[Killer8]

Normally I don't care about piracy, but I also really want to see Kotaku go under and have everyone involved out of a job. I'm conflicted.

 

[Clear]

First of all... piracy=/=emulation

Also, YES it was pretty scummy of them to put this out there in the way they did, but it's gaming NEWS, so IMO they are justified in reporting on it.
Personally, I dumped my cart to check it out in Yuzu, but you can pretty much guarantee that 99% of the people that read that article won't be doing this and simply downloaded it illegally.

Emulation is not piracy in the same way that a mod-chip isn't piracy! There are legitimate use cases but for the majority of gamers its just a means to cheaply get access to a lot of content.

Everyone knows this is the reality and the whole "b-b-but its muh game preservation" justification is a sham 99.9% of the time its brought up.

This is the precise reason why that Kotaku piece was so egregious. Kotaku isn't serving a niche cadre of dedicated preservationists, its basically going to a wide audience; "Hey kids, free shit!".

That said, the article is primarily a dick move not because its dishonest (even though this isn't "news"), but because it shows a cavalier disregard for the people who created the content and who's livelihood depends on being able to profit from that work.

Honestly. Given their attitude is "fuck you guys, we want our clicks"", I'd hope that Nintendo return the favour.

 

[Kenpachii]

Its illegal to download roms even if you own the original game. You're required to back up your own copy yourself.

Technically its not actually. As u could download your own ROM.

If you want to go into the nitbits of what is legal or what is not legal physical media is also going to dive under and even movies. In many if not all license agreements there specifically states that u can't lone games out or trade or that u can't watch with more then x amount of people towards a movie before u need to buy another license. So no u can't sell of your physical copy's, trade or even lone them out or even watch them with more people in most cases.

So when people here state u can hunt down a old copy of something, thats technically also piracy. the same way as downloading a rom from the internet is from a stranger as technically the guy that oploaded the rom is lending the game out to you for a while until u delete it.

This is how peer to peer sharing started out originally and got legitimized until company's started to get wind of it.

So in short, if you consider digital roms as downloads piracy u should also consider second handed sales on games piracy and even loning your copy out piracy. Yet people often don't care because they think they own the license and the game while in reality u don't.

This is why people chanting for physical being the freedom versus digital that is completely dependend on company that provides it is also simple a illusion. Sony knows which PS5 played which game and can black the serial of every game tommorow by simple pushing a update and kill that copy off and the PS5's that got into contact with it. Big chance through creditcard information they could also straight up sue you after it. hell they could block every PS5 tommorow from playing any game they feel like with a update that u need to play the next game.

They don't because so far they allow it for fear for blackslash, but if its legal in there license agreement? probably not.

Exactly.

I never understood this obligation that people should be allowed to make copies as backups. If someone loses their media or it breaks, thats their problem unless it's under the 90 day or 1 year warranty. The one difference is that since software is a medium which someone can just copy or redownload, consumers have expectations every company should make it free and accessible forever like a lifetime guarantee until you die.

Sounds noble, but then you get the problem the industry has. Piracy. Every person will claim they dont pirate and any emulator they use is solely to replay a rom they bought 20 years ago, but cant find the CD buried in a closet. Ya right. Not only do most people play pirated stuff, but even if someone is replaying a back up of a game they had, most people sold that cartridge or CD to a flea market or GS 20 years ago. So you shouldnt be entitled anyway.

Your vinyl example is spot on.

Here's another one. You buy a picture at a store. In modern day, just about every picture sold by the company or artist will surely take a picture of it as back up for their own creations. If it's a mainstream thing like something at Ikea it was probably designed on PC to begin with.

In that case, every artist or store should send a digital file of it to me so I can make my own back up pictures if mine breaks or rips. I'll just print off another copy myself and glue it on so it looks new. Have all their artwork on a website in ultra high res format a free downloads. So anyone who bought it can download the file to fix a broken picture.

Some country's pay extra money for products to cover for the losses when backups happen. We had that law here until it got removed a decade+ or so ago as it was no longer relevant.