If you compare it to Nintendo’s handheld line then it makes a lot more sense, especially considering the Switch Lite, and OLED Switch.

Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light, Gameboy Color

Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, Gameboy Advance Micro

DS, DS Lite, DSi/XL

3DS/XL, 2DS, N3DS/XL, N2DS/XL

and now the Switch, Switch Lite, OLED Switch, and now the incremental hardware upgrade with the Switch 2

The Gameboy color, arguably the whole Advance line, DSi, arguably the whole 3DS line, and absolutely the N3DS/N2DS ones were definitely incremental upgrades.

Color obviously brought color and better hardware. Advance brought shoulder buttons and better hardware though no hardware changes within the advance line. DSi introduced the home screen and the online store to the DS line along with better hardware. 3DS brought better hardware and many advancements to the OS experience of the DSi. N3DS brought better hardware and a second joystick.

To me how Nintendo is treating the Switch 2 makes a lot more sense in comparison to the handheld consoles instead of home consoles.

Don’t forget the N3DS which actually was more powerful than the original and had the second, tiny analog stick.

Well don’t forget the DSi, New 3DS, or the Gameboy Color. This feels like pretty much the same as any of those.

If you want to discuss specifically why someone might pirate a game for the explicit purpose of not liking Nintendo’s practices then it sounds like you don’t understand the concept of spite and/or don’t understand how infrequently that is the primary reason one would pirate a game in comparison to the other myriad reasons.

Pirating a game comes with some inherit risk depending on precise circumstances so a potential pirate would be to weigh how much their desire to play a game compares to the time and effort it would take to get it working (download time, installing emulators, installing drivers, configuring, modifying the game, etc), the risk to the machine they’d be installing it on (the malware that may be installed alongside, the risk of physical damage to hardware modifications that might be required, the potential for your console or your IP being banned from servers, etc), and if it’s worth any additional hardware they might require to install it (additional storage space, buying tools to modify hardware, buying hardware mods that could allow hacks, etc)

Not being physically, legally, or financially capable of buying games may make someone willing to risk some, many, or all of these factors. I can’t imagine a significant percentage of people who’d pirate a game like Tears of the Kingdom were financially well off enough to easily afford it, but chose to do it with the explicit purpose of saying “Screw Nintendo, they don’t deserve the money I easily could give them for this game.”

I can however reasonably believe that the majority of the pirates for a game like Tears of the Kingdom would do so because “I can’t play the game without better accessibility options that Nintendo doesn’t offer, so I need to play it on an emulator that can support what I need”, “it’s not available in my region other than from brick and mortar stores which are all out of stock or charge absurd prices I can’t afford”, or “I just want to add a few mods to make the game I love even more enjoyable without risking my console getting banned from online play”.

But refusing to discuss other reasons except the most petty feels like you want to disregard other valid reasons in order misrepresent piracy as nothing but a petty practice. Of course I don’t know your exact intentions, but that’s the vibe I get from your response here.

So are you gonna cite your sources for that 1-9 ratio? Still waiting on the source for your other comment about only 1% of gamers backup their games implying the other 99% use backups for piracy.

You’re being just as dishonest as the people you accuse in two different ways: there are people already in the replies to this comment admitting to the same things, as well as making unverified claims that “they’re actually pirating, they just won’t admit it”

I feel like devices like this aren’t really under a false pretense though. Most people who would pirate games like this probably wouldn’t buy a third party device so they can copy a friend’s cartridge so they can emulate it, they’d more likely just download it and skip the middle man.

The only real way I see it being used primarily for piracy is in areas where Internet activity is heavily monitored/restricted, or broadband isn’t available/accessible. Otherwise a 1 month subscription to a VPN and a few gigabyte of Internet usage is far cheaper and easier to a pirate.

Not all games back up to the cloud and you nees an active NSO subscription to be able to backup to their cloud.

I haven’t seen this video yet (battery almost dead, gonna watch later) but this device appears to let you backup your saves locally without running it by Nintendo.

Edit: I forgot that Switch cartridges don’t hold saves so this device can’t do that.

Assuming they bought it, they’d probably just shut it down.