Gaming pirates might be fast, but Nintendo is faster. While the gaming giant is known for its no-nonsense stance on emulation and piracy (even sending its lawyers after the fan-organized Smash World Tour championship), we thought it would take a little longer for these issues to come to the Switch 2.
After years of speculation, leaks, and dashed hopes from Nintendo, the Switch 2 is finally here as the successor to 2017's chart-topping Switch. Although there's only a select roster of games at launch, the Switch 2 has a big bonus thanks to being backward compatible.
Despite the Switch 2's infancy, gamers are already seeing how far they can push its boundaries, and while some are dismantling the console, others are trying to shatter another of Nintendo's golden rules.
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It's no secret that trying to jailbreak your Switch can land you in hot water with the House that Mario built. Even though you might be able to get access to apps like emulators, back up your games to external devices, and even play for free, jailbreaking your Switch can lead to your console being 'bricked'. It's a little different when it comes to the Switch 2, and even if you might not have your pricy new plaything bricked, you could soon find your console being banned.
As reported by Kotaku, Nintendo is coming down hard on anyone who might be using a MIG Switch cartridge. These cartridges can be loaded with games, either those you've legally bought or ones that have been pirated.
Nintendo isn't a fan of MIG Switch, and as well as trying to sue those selling them, tried to build the Switch 2 so it's incompatible with them. MIG Switch's manufacturers found a way around this and released a firmware update where your OG Switch games could be loaded onto the Switch 2. Posting on X, SwitchTools confirmed their account has been banned as they tried to load games they'd legally bought and backed up onto an MIG cartridge.
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Posting on the Switch 2 subreddit, someone else said they didn't try to hack their console (claiming they wouldn't know how), explaining: "The only thing I can think what has happened is that I tried my Mig switch in my NS2 once. It didn't work. It just showed the game title and refused to load. It tried to download a title update for it and that was it."
When using MIG Switch cartridges on the original console, you typically weren't banned when playing your own games. It's thought that because Nintendo has unique IDs for each game cart, it could differentiate between purchased copies and pirated ones.
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It seems that even if a game won't load on the Switch 2, the savvy Nintendo can detect the use of a MIG cartridge and ban your console.
While it's frustrating that specific consoles are being banned, it doesn't seem to be affecting your entire Nintendo account - good news for anyone who has a couple of consoles. Nintendo doesn't look like it’s going for the bricking option yet, but with its new terms and conditions being far more draconian, we wouldn't risk messing with the gaming Goliath.