Nintendo is preventing third party USB-C from working with the Switch 2, Lhamo Fitzsimons warns of the consequences.
Trying to get gaming companies to stop anti-consumer practices is like trying to herd cats. Have you ever attempted or witnessed such a task? My neighbours certainly have.
Me, desperately trying to chase and coax my fluffy babies back in after they get night zoomies. Third-party developers and lawyers, desperately chasing Nintendo, after they add baked-in proprietary protocols and remove the universal out of USB-C (Universal Serial Bus type C) and right under the EU’s nose.
Many (including me) believed that when the EU brought in the EU common charger rules (you’re welcome Apple users) all was well and solved, and that it was the end of predatory proprietary hardware and software. Oh, to be naive and believe that it would stop simple things like identical interchangeable cables and ports with the right voltage from rejecting each other! Alas, for consumers and third-party devs and manufacturers, the nightmare never ends.
Thus begins a game of whack-a-mole for devs and consumers as they try to navigate this hostile hellscape of ‘Switch 2’s new handshake’ or, in my opinion, anti-competitive bespoke encryption protocols. Nintendo’s Switch 2 calls it ‘vendor_defined message’, leading to the console refusing to accept non-Nintendo USBs. You may have noticed that since the Switch 2 was released, there has been a certain lack of portable Switch 2 Docks or any non-Nintendo manufacturer third-party accessories.
What Nintendo has done by baking proprietary messages into what is supposed to be non-proprietary USB-C is blatantly anti-consumer and anti-competitive. To quote Linus Tech Tips ‘Nintendo's Greed could Change the Tech Industry’. They’re not the only ones worried; we all should be.
The tech and gaming industry was dragged kicking and screaming by the EU into adopting universal and non-proprietary hardware. We used to have different chargers and cables with unique and funky ports for every different device and console. An environmental and consumer nightmare when they needed replacement. What Nintendo has done is the equivalent of an invisible proprietary port, in an underhanded move that stops any form of competition and forces the consumer to only buy from Nintendo and if something breaks? Pay through the nose, as only Nintendo can replace it.
I’m not saying that all USBs have to be compatible or that all USB-Cs are compatible, but the ones on the Switch 2 should have, and easily could have been. This has all the hallmarks of a deliberate choice to try to sneak in anti-consumer practices for pure greed, completely unnecessary for any required functional part of its hardware or software. The creation of proprietary handshakes between their devices, cables, and accessories is a massive step back against the current tide of universal accessibility and environmentally friendly tech. Nintendo can change this handshake at any time too, remove it, or make it so that the few devs who have cracked their code are also locked out, along with all the poor ol’ consumers.
So, what does the EU have to say? Well, the Common Charging Directive does include the following bangers for your consideration (talking to you too Nintendo). Perhaps the commission will email them… Dear Nintendo, did you miss the part where we said:
‘ensure a minimum common interoperability between …equipment and its charging devices, as well as to improve consumer convenience, to reduce environmental waste and to avoid market fragmentation’
‘The Commission shall continuously assess market developments, market fragmentation and technological progress’
And most importantly…
‘The Commission should take action towards promoting and harmonising …to avoid future fragmentation of the internal market’
Well, it seems to me that all these anti-competitive bespoke encryption protocols spit in the face of the Common Charging directive and the EU Commission's own words within that directive and its amendments.
What scares me most is what if others follow suit? What if other tech and gaming companies start adopting this anti-competitive practice? Intentions matter, and if the commission intends to follow up on its Directive, then it may have to have some words with Nintendo and the tech industry before it’s too late.