California, the biggest state in the US when it comes to both population and the sheer volume of tech companies squeezed into its borders, has just passed the country’s most extreme right to repair bill in the US (via Ars Technica). It’s the third state to pass such a bill, but goes further than either Minnesota or New York in that it forces companies to support their products for longer. But while it will cover gaming PCs and laptops, games console manufacturers get a free pass.
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There are exceptions, however, and it seems like games consoles are somehow exempt from this right to repair requirement. Guess someone’s been lobbying against the inclusion of consoles, eh? The bill itself talks specifically about an “electronic or appliance product” or just a “product”, but stipulates that doesn’t include a video game console.
“‘Video game console’ means a computing device, including its components and peripherals, that is primarily used by consumers for playing video games, such as a console machine, a handheld console device, or another device or system. ‘Video game console’ does not include a general or an all-purpose computer, which includes, but is not limited to, a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or cell phone.”
So, that means your Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch consoles are all seemingly exempt from having to offer long term support, but at least in the computing space your PC and laptop will be covered.
Did Apple figure out a way to classify iPhones and Macs as game consoles then?
Why yes! My product the Google iPixel ZFold 15 is a gaming console! You would think it’s a phone because of the calling and phone-like features however it is exempt from right-to-repair because it plays Genshin with more fraps than any other gizmo and doohicky in anyone’s pocket in this hemisphere!
And you would be remiss to assume my Grapple ThinkPad 2025 is a mere laptop! Nay! A gaming console it is! It can’t even run the Chrome Dinosaur for 35 seconds without running out of RAM and is really built for content creation and the school setting in mind, but it is absolutely built for gaming and also omitted from right-to-repair!!
Console vendors, particularly Nintendo absolutely hate it when someone tries to thinker with their products. There was a Darknet Diaries podcast from August 1 named ‘Team Xecuter’ that gives some insight into this. Funnily enough, not every country is encouraging this behavior from Nintendo like the U.S. is. France is pretty lenient on console modders, for example.
Umm… important context: Team Xecuters work was based on enabling piracy on the device. It had fuck all to do with repairs or non-security-compromising mods
Japan would rather die. Microsoft, I don’t know what their shit deal is.
Because fuck you peasants… What you are gonna about it, bitches?
Hopefully at the very least they’ll call their state representatives and tell them about the bullshitness of this exclusion.
What about steam deck ? Is it a video game system or a handled pc ?
PC. It’s running PC hardware and PC software.
So how many of you are planning on contacting your state representative to tell them this exclusion in the new law is bullshit?
This is obviously the result of lobbying but… I don’t disagree on the end result.
When my PC has a failure, I know what to test. I can replace the psu, the memory, even the gpu or cpu or mobo in a pinch. Maybe I can replace a cap on the motherboard but, at that point, I generally write off the board because I can’t trace all the vias and the like. But if a cap on my GPU fails? I am doing an RMA or crying. Because the situations where even the dedicated repair shops (let alone consumers) have the resources to determine if there are any other failures are incredibly rare. If it is out of warranty I might give it a go but it feels like a ticking time bomb.
I would hope for finer grain logic on this. Be able to replace the disc drive (even though we won’t have those next gen… and maybe not even for the refresh SKUs) and… that is really it? Oh, probably ports too. But, increasingly, consoles are just bigass SOCs.
Same with phones, really. You can, and should, be able to replace the screen. Maybe a few ports since those tend to still be soldered on to connectors. But good luck doing meaningful repair to the actual computer-y parts.
I think this is still an incredibly good bill and am all for it. But I am also reminded of people who are angry that they could repair their vacuums back in the 70s. And then they MIGHT acknowledge that the small handheld vacuum I keep in my garage has like five times the suction and is so small I regularly lose it when I need to detail my car.
This is silly thinking. Just because you can’t be bothered doesn’t mean someone else can’t and do a good job. You should probably YouTube component level repairs before wildly stating that 3rd party techs can’t do it. They already do it but it’s a bit of a learning process for each device due to the lack of documentation etc. Provide docs and access to parts and it’s then alot easier for the people who already can do these types of repairs and then we can all create less ewaste.
You should probably YouTube component level repairs before wildly stating that 3rd party techs can’t do it.
The irony is that yesterday YouTube suggested these kinds of videos to me in a big banner at the top of their main page.
I didn’t even know this kind of repair existed until I watched a bunch of the videos as I went down the rabbit hole, some of the repairs were very cool to watch.
So… You think reoairabikity makes sense for PCs because they’re pretty repairable. But repairabikity doesn’t make sense for consoles because gee, they aren’t very repairable.
The reason even repair shops can’t do much for consoles is because THEY ARE NOT MADE TO BE REPAIRABLE! Legislation would change that!
Wow! I can’t understand how you can miss the basic point here so badly.
Right to repairability is not just YOUR right to repairability ya dingus, its also the right of people far more knowledgable than you to repair other people’s consoles as a job. Right to Repair allows people other than the company to open up their repair shops.
This reads like corporate ChatGPT.
I just fixed the fan on my steam deck, it was pretty simple. Not every failure is a problem on the motherboard
