Nintendo is banning Switch 2 users for piracy, even if they're just backing up their games
Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR Nintendo is banning Switch 2 consoles that use MIG flash carts to load games.
These can be used for both piracy and legitimate game preservation efforts.
Bans seem limited to consoles for now, with no account-wide bans reported.
Nintendo has been at war with pirates for decades, and now the battleground has moved to the Switch 2. A wave of users across the internet are reporting console bans after inserting MIG flash carts into the system, with no recourse available.
MIG flash carts are essentially third-party cartridges with a microSD card slot. They can play pirated games downloaded from the internet or legitimate backups of purchased games, but Nintendo no longer discriminates between the two when issuing bans.
That's the case for X user SwitchTools, who found their Switch 2 console banned after using a MiG flash cart to play their own backups. They confirmed this by posting a picture of a stack of games with a handwritten note. Several Reddit users have had a similar experience, again while confirming that they own the games they were attempting to play.
Playing legit backups of purchased Switch games will earn you a ban.
On Switch 1 consoles, using a MIG flash cart generally wouldn't result in a ban as you play your own games. It's assumed that since Nintendo uses unique IDs for each game cart, it can detect when users play pirated copies and promptly ban them. If it's your backup copy, it's no different than swapping the physical game card, since it still has a unique ID.
However, that doesn't appear to be the case for the Switch 2. Simply inserting the cart and attempting to load a game (whether successful or not) can lead to Nintendo banning your console. For now, these bans appear only to affect the specific Switch 2 console used, not the entire Nintendo account.
While it's no surprise that Nintendo is cracking down on piracy for the Switch 2, this is a clear escalation of anti-piracy efforts. Updates to the Nintendo Account User Agreement in May added new text stating that the company would 'render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part' if users 'bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services, including through the use of any hardware or software…'
In other words, using a Nintendo console or cartridge in any way other than intended will earn you a ban. Unfortunately, that includes any game preservation efforts.
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