Right to Repair: Why Gamers Should Care About Tech They Can’t Fix
Have you ever had something you loved or used every day suddenly break on you? Little Billy, playing hours and hours on his brand new PS1. Then, out of the blue, Billy’s PS1 cuts out and never works again, mid game – Toy Story 2. If this has never happened to you, then I say lucky you because it is one of the worst feelings ever. This happened to me as a kid and absolutely destroyed me. My family wasn’t able to afford a new system until months later I was able to get a new N64, my first Nintendo console. Sometimes, I still think about my PS1 and how come I was never able to finish that game and plan on to one day. But imagine if you had the power to repair/fix/trouble shoot any of your valuables when this type of issue does arise. In this day and age, less and less service third-party stores are showing up and forces us to go to the massive corporations that do not wish to repair your item or make it impossible for any third-party to even repair it, as they twist your hands to purchase a whole new item.
“Right to repair” is a right that we all should have access to. These companies nowadays especially for tech, design their products and keep in mind when something does break, we must jump through hoops to repair it ourselves. Most consumers would just give up and purchase a whole new product which is what the companies want. Nowadays, the “right to repair” movement is growing more than ever. As gamers, we really see these companies for what they really are; trying to take our rights away and force us to line their pockets with our money. In this modern age of the internet, you can literally search up anything and learn about anything within seconds. In my opinion, to have something last longer even if it does break, not only helps you save money and a headache; you are helping the environment. In the UK, there is already a big movement as they are the second largest E-waste producer per person in the world, according to the reports of The Round Up.They’ve already started making thrives towards recycling and helping with right to repair. The Right to Repair Regulations was passed in June of 2021 and it states that companies must make consumer friendly products that allow us to recycle parts and repair with ease. People believe this is why the iPhone recently switched over to USB-C because it is now the universal type. While in the US, we fall right behind China in E-waste overall, which is at a whopping 6,918 KT. Now that’s a lot of Nintendo Switches, Xbox’s, and PS5s. While we are slowly making changes towards right to repair laws in the US as seen here in this summary of the Right to Repair Legislation. For many of those states that have some laws in place that ranges from different products all throughout, like electronics parts being available to service companies to repair. It is not ideal, as I would prefer for it to be open to the public to purchase it as a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, with the Switch 2 in the horizon, the worry is – can I repair my joy cons or my new switch? Or even mod my joy cons to hall sensor sticks? The answer is still to come, and a lot of worries come with a new system and articles like this one, stating Nintendo arrested a modder in Japan. While he was “"soldering modified parts" within the Switch system, enabling modded consoles to run pirated games.”, which is obviously illegal. Imagine if Nintendo can arrest or fine us for modding our joy cons that failed even after warranty? If Nintendo was able to make parts available for modern systems and not just extra parts for the DS, things would run a lot smoother. Imagine not being able to get your beautiful switch or joy cons UV printed because Nintendo said so in their EULA? That’s why we need to fight more than ever for the right to repair movement and show that we want to be knowledgeable about the products we buy and use on the daily.
-Written by Bryan
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