I also don’t like how things are legally speaking with DMCA, but the main takeaway is - the creation and distribution of an emulator, without DRM protections, is unequivocally protected and legal. ROM backup is certainly in most cases not, but if you are making your own copies for your own use, even while illegally breaking encryption, it would be difficult to prove and prosecute on an individual basis.

The right we must continually remind people is NOT even REMOTELY in question is the right to create and distribute emulators. This is by far the more important one, because people cannot reasonably develop their own emulators - it requires an open, collaborative community to ensure future preservation, and it’s a constant battle to keep people from actively trying to cede this right because they have nebulous loyalties to soulless companies that return no such feelings.

Not to be a stickler, but this does not say making copies is illegal - it makes circumvention of drm methods illegal. You can make drm’d copies as you like as long as you don’t circumvent the drm method. If your game isn’t encrypted, and the emulator doesn’t implement the drm, you haven’t circumvented drm - you are playing your legal copy on a device that does not implement the drm. It’s distinct from removing the drm from a device that implements it.

I do get that most consoles encrypt their software these days, but let’s be clear - it’s not as simple as “DRM means you have no rights.”

Copying your own game and materials for backup purposes is no grey area, and neither is development or use of emulators, and panicky, uninformed spewing of gut feelings are how public knowledge of your actual rights gets muddled into people with zero knowledge waxing poetic about how they THINK it works because they like games and think that makes their ramblings valuable.

Absolutely. I want to skim the important parts at my own pace. Not dedicate multiple minutes of attention to a video.

Now do Half-life 3.

Biological generative intelligence

Yes, which is intentionally being stonewalled by manufacturers who enjoy being able to force their old models into obsolescence at their whim. There are only a handful of market players with essentially a stranglehold on the market, and they could EASILY coordinate on a set of standards that SoC developers need to conform to to be considered for product launches if we didn’t live in a corporate driven techno-dystopia.

Yeah. Valve invented most of the attention direction techniques for Half-life (light, motion, etc, etc.) Trailblazers.

This again???

DECOUPLE THE OPERATING SYSTEM FROM THE HARDWARE THE WAY PCS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SO THEY CAN BE UPGRADED IN PERPETUITY UNTIL THE HARDWARE ISN’T POWERFUL ENOUGH ANYMORE.

“Let’s give them lots of player freedom this time!”

Play testers continually don’t look at a set piece vista the developers and artists spent 400 hours creating.

“Well, that’s enough of that. Back to the rails.”

If they have proof of that, more power to them, but at this point the only evidence I’ve seen in the case of Ryujinx is Nintendo making wild accusations. Maybe they have a case, maybe they don’t. In either case, “But the game piracy…” is not and has never been a valid defense of Nintendo’s actions.

That is completely irrelevant. Piracy is already illegal. If you pirate software you can be jailed and/or sued.

Emulation development, however, is completely legal and protected by law and precedent.

It’s not about either of those. A system emulator is nothing more than a program that converts the hardware instructions of one piece of hardware to another. What you DO with that can be legal or illegal, but the emulator ITSELF is totally legal and requires no justification.

Why do people not understand that piracy is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY irrelevant to the LEGALITY of emulation?

There is no “Oh, but Nintendo was losing money…”

My electric company loses money when I generate solar power. That doesn’t give them the legal right to come to my house and rip out my panels.

The established legal FACT is that emulation is LEGAL.

“But the pirates…”

No, shut up. Emulation is LEGAL. Making and distributing an emulator is LEGAL. And the best way to LOSE that legal right is to misunderstand that you have it and make the public think that there’s some legal gray area here. There isn’t.

You know what’s illegal? PIRACY. And Nintendo has every legal right to go after PIRATES. They DON’T have the legal right to stop development of system emulators. Stop with this nonsense justification, because there isn’t one. Nintendo is not legally right on ANY aspect of this.

Repeat after me:

CREATING AND DISTRIBUTING EMULATORS IS COMPLETELY LEGAL BY ESTABLISHED LAW AND LEGAL PRECEDENT AND NINTENDO ILLEGALLY EXTORTED SOMEONE INTO STOPPING A PROJECT.

Make no mistake… those people are clowns too.

Release date for the release date is about to drop.

https://www.google.com/search?q=samus+aran+nude&sclient=img&udm=2&safe=off

Maybe mark your link as NSFW?

This right here, folks? Is why the concept of “self-documenting code” is nonsense.

Yeah, but most of those layoffs have been in traditional studios making traditional pay games, not GAS studios.

Next year? I expect an announcement before the end of summer.

That is true, but until now we’ve mostly been able to enjoy the best of both without compromise or major obstacles, and even AAA games can offer quality, especially considering the value add of the modding community. We got all the benefit of a AAA title with customization and community at a fraction of the price. Sure, indies will still be there and delivering great quality no matter what, but more actively engaged big companies is still a net loss to PC gaming.

I’m scared. As soon as it becomes profitable, companies in the gaming space will be rushing to enshitiffy PC gaming the way they’re doing with consoles. Big, public game companies not paying attention to the PC space is a GOOD thing.

But hey, at least they’re compatible with Windows 11, right?

/s

This is Sony’s decision. It is a material change to the product that was sold. It is not the same as a patch or a nerf. It has rendered the product unplayable. Yes, you can make the argument that it was listed on the page from the beginning that an account was required, but it is also the case that EULAs are actually not legally binding contracts. Sony has made a unilateral decision, and as a result it does not matter whether a person is finished with the game or not. This is a change to the actual contract, which was the purchase of a game to use in perpetuity for the length of time that it is available on steam. Sony has made this decision, customers don’t have to justify the reason that they don’t like the change. It is a change. They are counting on people letting it slide, because most of the time that is how businesses do business.

Also, you should really stop standing up for giant corporations. Sony doesn’t need your help. They have teams of lawyers whose job it is to argue with valve over whether they need to give refunds. They may also end up having to deal with class action lawsuits, and potential legal issues with 177 countries which may have completely different laws of consumer protection than the US. That is not your responsibility.

Besides, one of the pillars of capitalism is rational self-interest, and that goes both ways, not just in the business side. If you can get a refund for something because a company has made a bad decision about how they do their business, why do you care about whether it’s fair or not to the company? They sure don’t care about whether it’s fair to you. Are you a Sony lawyer? Are you the “be nice to big companies police”? Let Sony and Valve, and possibly the court system, worry about what their legal obligations are, and you worry about your personal decision of whether you are going to take advantage of your legal rights. Don’t start judging whether others should or shouldn’t do the same.

You are applying a standard to the game that applies to YOU. Other players who are currently playing a game do not care that you are finished playing the game. They are not. The game did not ship with a 3 month subscription plan. It shipped as a sold product. Your analogy is like an all-you-can-eat buffet where after twenty minutes they close it down and make everyone stop eating, and your argument is, “Well, I’M full. It’s fine.”