Nintendo may ban players who attempt to play certain “older games” on the new Switch 2 console. The Japanese gaming company is specifically targeting those using flash cartridges associated with piracy, a report claims. Some new console owners have reportedly been banned after trying to use a type of flash cartridge designed for Switch 1 games on their Switch 2 devices. The device in question is the MIG Switch, a cartridge that allows users to load games, either from legally backed-up copies or pirated files. Last year, Nintendo began suing sellers of the MIG Switch and designed the Switch 2 to be incompatible with these cartridges. However, the makers of MIG Switch recently released a firmware update. This update made it possible to use these devices to load Switch 1 games on the Switch 2, which then prompted Nintendo’s reported bans.
How Nintendo is trying to tackle pirated games on Switch 2
Nintendo has reportedly started banning Switch 2 consoles that appear to have used illegal flash cartridges. “My NS2 has been console banned and I have absolutely no idea why! The only thing I can think what has happened is that I tried my Mig switch in my NS2 once,” a Reddit user named SquareSphere wrote on the Switch 2 subreddit,A similar report came from another user named givemeupvote on the Switch Hacks subreddit, who wrote: “Just wanted to let everyone know to refrain from using their mig flash on the Switch 2 online for now. My switch 2 was just banned (my account is fine for now).”“The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo,” the user added sharing an image of the error message.X user SwitchTools said they used a MIG Switch with ROM dumps of their games and were also banned. The user wrote: “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.”
While some players use such tools to back up their game libraries, these devices also raise piracy concerns for the new console.Although Nintendo has banned affected users from online services, it hasn’t yet exercised the full extent of its terms of service. In a pre-launch update, the gaming company notes: “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.”
