The War Between Nintendo And Switch 2 Pirates Is Heating Up

It took hackers over a year to jailbreak the original Switch, but the Switch 2 has one vulnerability its predecessor didn’t: backwards compatibility. Some new console owners have already tried to use a type of flash cartridge associated with the piracy of Switch 1 games on their Switch 2 consoles, and were promptly banned by Nintendo.

The device in question is called the MIG Switch and it’s a cartridge that users can load up with games—either ones backed up from legally purchased copies or files pirated online. Nintendo started suing people who sell the MIG Switch last year and designed the Switch 2 so the carts wouldn’t work with it. The makers of MIG Switch, however, recently released a firmware update that made it possible to use the devices to load Switch 1 games on the Switch 2.

Nintendo has responded by banning any Switch 2 that it’s seemingly found to have run one of the illicit flash cartridges at some point. “My NS2 has been console banned and I have absolutely no idea why!” wrote SquareSphere on the Switch 2 subreddit earlier today. “The only thing I can think what has happened is that I tried my Mig switch in my NS2 once.”

Someone else reported something similar. “Just wanted to let everyone know to refrain from using their mig flash on the Switch 2 online for now,” wrote givemeupvote on the Switch Hacks subreddit. “My switch 2 was just banned (my account is fine for now).” They shared a picture of the error message on their Switch 2. “The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo,” it read.

X user SwitchTools said they used a MIG Switch with ROM dumps of their own games and were also banned at the console level, writing that they suspect Nintendo has a new method for detecting its presence. “I strongly recommend that you do not use the mig switch, it was already very risky to use but it is even more so on Switch 2,” they wrote. Some players use MIG Switch and competing clones to create backups of their gaming libraries, though the proliferation of tools like it also threatens to make piracy on Switch 2 even worse than its predecessor.

While Nintendo has been banning these users from online services, it doesn’t yet appear to be using its nuclear option. Back before launch, Nintendo updated its terms of service to give itself the option of bricking entire consoles if they violated the agreement. “You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the foregoing restrictions Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part,” it read.

Hackers have already started trying to reverse engineer the Switch 2. Early signs don’t give much sense of how rapidly the hardware vulnerabilities might be discovered and exploited, but it seems likely that Nintendo has taken every precaution available to keep the Switch 2 as locked down as possible. Unlike at the start of last generation, however, the company is already on the legal warpath. Last month, it filed a lawsuit against accessory maker Genki who flaunted an early 3D-printed mock-up of the Switch 2 at a trade show earlier this year.

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