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Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

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Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#31

Post by LightHugger »

tombert wrote: post #29
jaylittle wrote: post #23

This is one reason I'm over and done with proprietary consoles. So tired of shitty company's like Nintendo being able to call any kind of shot. They may still know how to make fun games and do that on accessible and reasonably priced hardware, but beyond that they are an objectionable and ass-backward company on so many levels. I vote with my dollar. I vote against Nintendo.

I don’t disagree in principal but what exactly is the alternative? Playing SuperTuxKart and Pingus or some other open source games all the time? I hate the “service-ification” of everything, but I think it’s a near-monopoly that’s kind of hard to avoid. There’s sites like GOG that give DRM-free versions of games, and I like GOG a lot, but it’s still fundamentally a proprietary service that could shut its doors down t…

lots of steam games have no drm

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#32

Post by naikrovek »

amlib wrote: post #24
zeta0134 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is almost certainly because Street Pass is device-to-device, based entirely on proximity to other users. There's no server to shut down, so Nintendo would have to go out of their way to turn it off by releasing some sort of update to have devices kill the feature on some date.

I'm surprised the 3DS hasn't been hacked trough this functionality. It would be an awesome opportunity to create some kind of worm that quickly spreads around the world and you also get to name it with a trendy name like "Fail Pass".

Fortunately, small protocols like this are pretty easy to write securely if you sanity check all of your inputs and bail if anything is wrong.

I don’t know the Mii format but it can’t be large, and the only arbitrary input there is the name, I believe.

Nintendo themselves are pretty good at writing secure stuff; it’s usually libraries or 3rd party games which have been responsible for the software exploits in Nintendo software.

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#33

Post by godzillabrennus »

kohanz wrote: post #13

I just bought my kid a used Wii U for Christmas. If I only care about his ability to play games offline, should I be concerned?

The NAND issue is what to avoid. https://www.reddit.com/r/wiiu/comments/11q733p/whats_is_the_...

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#34

Post by dangus »

Flux159 wrote: post #2

This seems like it's only going to get worse many games need online services to function at all. Super Mario Maker as mentioned in the post is one of them, but there are countless others on 3DS and PC that won't function properly. Ideally it would be possible to archive the games (like ROMs or what the Internet Archive does for websites and files) and also the server / database so that the games could be playable in…

I disagree that it will inevitably get worse, with the exception of games that explicitly games as a service.

As the article points out, this whole system was basically a result of the infancy of online game services, especially for Nintendo. It's a quirky result of an architecture that is much less centralized than modern console game services.

If you ask me, it's very unlikely that Nintendo will ever shut down the Switch eShop, because I don't think the Switch eShop will be replaced when its successor launches. It will be much more like the PS4 to PS5 transition where your account information and digital library stays the same.

(By the way, the solution you are talking about is what the blog authors are working on)

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#35

Post by Libcat99 »

LightHugger wrote: post #31
tombert wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t disagree in principal but what exactly is the alternative? Playing SuperTuxKart and Pingus or some other open source games all the time? I hate the “service-ification” of everything, but I think it’s a near-monopoly that’s kind of hard to avoid. There’s sites like GOG that give DRM-free versions of games, and I like GOG a lot, but it’s still fundamentally a proprietary service that could shut its doors down t…

lots of steam games have no drm

They require steam to be running, don't they?

What happens if steam goes away?

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#36

Post by godzillabrennus »

jaylittle wrote: post #23

This is one reason I'm over and done with proprietary consoles. So tired of shitty company's like Nintendo being able to call any kind of shot. They may still know how to make fun games and do that on accessible and reasonably priced hardware, but beyond that they are an objectionable and ass-backward company on so many levels. I vote with my dollar. I vote against Nintendo.

Vote with your dollar and support an open source game like 0ad then.

https://play0ad.com/community/donate/

Until there is a proven revenue model to pay people to work on open source games there won’t be many.

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#37

Post by daydream »

I wonder long will the backend infra supporting the Switch will last. Especially now that they’re selling download-only versions of the games.

Online services for earlier consoles like the Wii were more basic, and IIRC in some cases were developed and maintained by third parties, not Nintendo themselves? I understand wanting to get rid of that overhead especially if it wasn’t driving incremental revenue.

But now the Switch is more intimately tied to online services for buying games and add ons. The most customer-friendly approach would be to keep backend services running indefinitely. Basically consider your backend to be a platform like Windows or macOS and maintain and evolve it indefinitely, keeping older consoles alive as long as possible (and continuing the ongoing revenue stream from older consoles, even as it shrinks over time, to at least cover cost.)

It seems like they have to do something like this to support downloadable games, at least with the online shop. I wonder how they’ll handle it.

I read a rumor that the successor to the Switch is expected in 2024 or 2025. And we picked up a Switch a couple months ago and I chose to buy all games as digital download version. And I remember the backend for the Wii being shut down. So this has been on my mind recently.

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#38

Post by greeniskool »

jpablo wrote: post #16
kohanz wrote: post #13

I just bought my kid a used Wii U for Christmas. If I only care about his ability to play games offline, should I be concerned?

no, nintendo ships complete playable games.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was an unfortunate exception to this rule. Seeing them drip-feed features already present in the previous games doesn't bode well for the future of the franchise.

Re: Nintendo Network shutdown – The beginning of the end

#40

Post by daydream »

dangus wrote: post #34
Flux159 wrote: post #2

This seems like it's only going to get worse many games need online services to function at all. Super Mario Maker as mentioned in the post is one of them, but there are countless others on 3DS and PC that won't function properly. Ideally it would be possible to archive the games (like ROMs or what the Internet Archive does for websites and files) and also the server / database so that the games could be playable in…

I disagree that it will inevitably get worse, with the exception of games that explicitly games as a service. As the article points out, this whole system was basically a result of the infancy of online game services, especially for Nintendo. It's a quirky result of an architecture that is much less centralized than modern console game services. If you ask me, it's very unlikely that Nintendo will ever shut down the…

I made a top-level comment before I saw yours wondering how they’ll handle Switch online services.

And I think you’re right. If they have any sense, and it generally seems like Nintendo does, they’ll keep the Switch eshop running indefinitely. Hopefully they do the same with the other backend services supporting the Switch, but that is more questionable. They really should though.

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