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Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

polygon.com

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Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#61

Post by Sebb767 »

Alex3917 wrote: post #33
matheusmoreira wrote: post #2

> “A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,” the spokesperson said, adding that Nintendo recommends keeping Switch cartridges away from children “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.” The representative also noted that denatonium benzoate is non-toxic. That was unexpected and interesting.

Note that non-toxic does not mean edible, as the FDA recently clarified due to many people being severely poisoned from eating cakes decorated with luster dust meant for crafting. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7043a2.htm You would think that if something says non-toxic, licking it shouldn't kill you, but apparently not.

If anyone else is wondering, the only somewhat concise explanation I found was this[0]:

> Non-toxic is essentially a placebo term and unlike food-safe or food-grade products, has little to no government regulation in terms of its accuracy. [...]

> What non-toxic means is that the product contains no ingredients that have been linked to toxic responses in humans. Toxic responses are things like hormone disruption, poisoning, or cancer.

[0] https://www.greenmatters.com/p/does-non-toxic-mean-food-safe

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#62

Post by criddell »

ortusdux wrote: post #30

The same bitterant has been used in anti-freeze for about a decade now to help prevent poisonings of children and animals. It is also used in air duster cans, which I've found annoying because it can go from your keyboard to your fingers.

I think air duster cans for cleaning firearms does not have the bitterant in it.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#63

Post by southerntofu »

tialaramex wrote: post #53

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…

> for the same reason it doesn't execute or torture criminals.

I don't disagree with the idea, but to be precise torture and execution at the hand of police and secret services is still a thing in the EU. Especially since the covid lockdowns started almost two years ago, it seems police murders have raised significantly in some parts of the EU (like France).

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#65

Post by vel0city »

kosievdmerwe wrote: post #23
mikestew wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and had the awful bitter taste for the rest of the flight. Thanks for saving my lunch by letting me know that it is not just a momentary bit of unpleasantness, because I was about to go grab one from the Switch case here at 11:46 in the morning just to see how bad it is. EDIT: curiosity got the best of me. If I can eat a green persimmon, I can handle a Nintendo cartridge. A little lick of the sticker tells me not…

Just FYI if you actually want to taste it, the bitterness is in the sticker, not the cartridge itself.

I've got a pile of Switch cartridges next to me. They're bitter all over. Trust me.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#66

Post by ngngngng »

tacker2000 wrote: post #55
TylerE wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the Sony:Apple comparison at all. If anything, Sony is Japan's Microsoft: Do a gazillion things, many of them poorly, to such a unfocused extent that some of your divisions actually end up competition with each other. Like in Sony's case, how they've had internal battles for decades between the device side (that wants to make devices that are useful) and the content side (that wants DRM out the ass on eve…

I dont know if you can say that Sony is doing stuff “poorly”. Most of the hardware they make is very solid. Think about their speakers, headphones, the consoles, etc. But yes i agree, they are a huge company with a lot of divisions where sometimes the decisions are at odds. Which parts do you think are doing poorly?

Which parts do you think are doing poorly?

The names of their products. How do you keep anything straight when the name of each product is UUID?

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#67

Post by mattkevan »

kaladin-jasnah wrote: post #41
astrange wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony is older than Apple and was one of Steve Jobs' main inspirations. He even wanted to make everyone wear uniforms (which Sony and Nintendo still did then) - that's where his same outfit every day habit came from. They weren't focused back then, but neither was Apple.

Didn't Jobs also offer Sony to make laptops that ran OS X? Also, random thing, but both Orbis (Playstation operating system) and OS X are based on FreeBSD.

Pretty sure OS X is based on the Mach/XNU kernel and Darwin, not FreeBSD.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#68

Post by nitwit005 »

badlucklottery wrote: post #27
MBCook wrote: post #3

I know this isn’t new but I still love that Nintendo did this. It’s such a Nintendo thing. They’re a toy company and think like one. Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges? I don’t remember hearing so (and never thought to taste them?). Heh.

>Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges? Well, wonder no longer. I just licked a PS Vita copy of World of Final Fantasy and it only tastes faintly of plastic.

I appreciate the effort to answer these important questions.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#70

Post by jessriedel »

tialaramex wrote: post #53

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…

Whether it's reasonable to use poison as a disincentive needs to depend on how often people consume it, accidentally or purposefully. If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case, even if we don't think poisoning is a reasonable punishment for tax avoidance (because, indeed, the poison is not intended to be a punishment).

Likewise, we put up physical barriers like metal posts and concrete walls to dissuade drivers from crossing certain lines even though it would obviously be outrageous to punish a driver for crossing a lane line by smashing their car. As long as drivers strike these very rarely, it's reasonable to use these as disincentives.

By all means, if we find disincentives (like bittering agents) that are just as effective with even less risk, we should use them. But claiming that poison is being used as a punishment for tax avoidance is unjustified.

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