Homebrew Discussion A theory of the lack of features

[Lako]

Why did Nintendo remove saves? Why did they remove the web browser? I have a theory of it. Let's start with the saves, if you were following the Wii's homebrew scene, multiple saves were able to be modified to access homebrew, so Nintendo was probably trying to avoid foreign saves from modifying games. Yes, it's possible to circumvent it like how GTA 4 managed to not load a foriegn save. Now the web browser, it's really similar to the last reason, but much harder to avoid. As you may know, web browser exploits are inevitable, the 3DS gotten browser modded, the near unmoddable PS3 got browser modded (With no patch), the Wii got browser modded, iOS got browser modded, need I say more? The Switch even ALREADY got browser modded with the webkit exploit and the RCM reboot exploit. So that's my theory as to why these features weren't implemented.

 

[CatmanFan]

An RCM exploit doesn't count as a browser mod...

 

[supergamer368]

Wow we definitly didn’t figure this out a year ago, nice insight

 

[Red1Reaper]

Pick one:
A) No shit, sherlock
B) Thank you captain obvious.
C) Is the Pope a Catholic?
D) Do bears shit in the woods?
and if you picked B:

Spoiler

 

[JellyPerson]

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

 

[Viri]

This is also why we'll never get custom themes!

 

[Draxzelex]

Well, I guess Nintendo will stop manufacturing consoles and handhelds now. Can't exploit it if it never hits the market.

 

[Ericthegreat]

Well, I guess Nintendo will stop manufacturing consoles and handhelds now. Can't exploit it if it never hits the market.

Really Nintendo doesn't give a shit, 1st party titles will sell.

 

[guily6669]

If you figured all that up by your self, you also have to think Why in god's name M$ and Sony also knew that for ages and guess what?

They both still gave us a god damn browser, media player and save extraction not just by cloud, but by USB too...

My Sherlock Holmes mind simply tells me that Nintendo security department = mehh let's cut security budget in half and they simply decide to cut Every other non gaming feature unless it goes 1st into their online paid service...

I enjoyed so much hex editing saves for the community or even making a custom theme way before Xbox360 had RGH or JTAG and before anyone making a custom theme or app...

I wish that days were back 4 my PS4 so I could hex edit saves again 4 me and 4 ppl . But I really hate when Devs decide to go with formulas on their saves, makes it a lot harder to get to values and a huge time spent comparing saves to see what changed and then some had custom hash protections which makes us more pissed to rehash and resign...

 

[zoogie]

Well, I guess Nintendo will stop manufacturing consoles and handhelds now. Can't exploit it if it never hits the market.

Remove sd slot. Remove gamecard slot (games will be added by replacing the system by mail ). Cut wifi chip out. Encase the system in a unibody titanium shell to keep modchips out.
Even remove controllers lest there be some sort of TAS based exploit.
Can't be too careful.

 

[guily6669]

It's better to just simply remove the LCD and output chip and bam no more info 4 anyone and 0 hacking interest...

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

And even after all those "precautions," the doors on the Switch were blown wide open before a year was even up. It's quite anti-consumer to treat every customer as a potential hacker and thereby lessen everyone's experience with the console. The amount of people who hack systems are so minuscule compared to the total units sold, it's dumb that every single Switch owner has to be penalized because Nintendo wants to keep one tiny little niche at bay. Sony and Microsoft can seemingly figure this out and be fine.

 

[FAST6191]

I don't know if I would agree with the OP. At some level it makes some sense, but at the same time they could easily sandbox things and do major precautions to prevent it. On the other hand if Nintendo does not get security, and *points at the history of such things*, then it could make sense in their incompetence.

This is also why we'll never get custom themes!

Nintendo could quite easily do a bulletproof theming system. Drop all support for any kind of image format, make everything straight BMP or even simpler. Make it a fixed size. Don't allow compression. Every image is then going to be the same dimensions, file size and everything it contains will only be pixels/graphic data. If you are doing a slideshow then make it sharply limited. No markup in any text, probably a limited set of unicode if you allow text in the first place.
Ultimately it would be a bit larger than you might want or could see happening if you went to but nothing even a vaguely modern machine couldn't handle.

The reason they do not do that though is because the general public is not a graphic designer (see also why any customisation of any modern social network type thing is very very very limited), and occasionally the general public would probably opt for very graphic designs (and I think they are still pretending to be a "family" company because it sells to some in middle America, see also playstation pornable, and everybody else just smirks and carries on with their day).

 

[Taffy]

They should go back to making game&watch, good luck trying to hack one of those.

For themes, they couldn't at least opt for a simple color picker? That sucks

If they wanna be totally hack-proof, or at least hack-proactive, they could get some guys to be double-agents and work on the inside!

The devs would never know wht hit 'em!


...or they could just use google. then agin, idk how it all works.