The Nintendo Switch 2 has intense anti-piracy measures under the hood that are so sensitive that a console owner reported their device was banned after buying used games.
Nintendo is known for wielding an often swung ban-hammer, and today, it was swung at the wrong person. Since its launch, fans have taken to the internet to complain about many issues with Nintendo Switch 2 functionality, namely that the console ‘could be bricked’ at any given time (as reported by IGN), at Nintendo’s discretion for breaking the revised terms of service. While fans cried foul on forums, this week, a Nintendo Switch 2 owner took to Reddit to report he had received a console ban from purchasing and playing used games legally.
In a long-winded Reddit thread (found originally by Tom’s Hardware) titled “Switch 2 users – be careful buying used Switch 1 games. You can get banned if a bad actor dumped it. Having said that, Nintendo support is amazing and will help get you back up and running,” user dmanthey explained the process of how he had his console banned, and what he did to reverse Nintnedo’s decision. Dmanthey explained they had purchased a slew of Nintendo Switch 1 titles off of Facebook Marketplace, then, while proceeding to play the legally owned carts, it triggered a full console ban.
After the console ban happened, dmanthey said he had gone to the official Nintendo support page to detail what had happened regarding his Nintendo Switch 2 console that was now unusable. While discussing the matter with a real-life human on the Nintendo support side, the representative confirmed the used titles were indeed cloned using piracy software — such as a MIG Switch or flash cart download — which triggered the Nintendo Switch 2’s anti-piracy measures.
Dmanthey summarized what occurred in a comment to the thread, “Basically, a thief buys/rents a game. They make a copy for themselves using the MIG dumper. They resell the original game and keep a copy for themselves on their MIG. Then both of you get banned when the Switch 2 goes online. Only one of you has the carts, so that’s the person that will be unbanned,” and in this case, dmanthey was the party unbanned. He was the one holding the official Nintendo Switch game cartridges.
Dmanthey went on to detail the staggering amount of information Nintendo has on Nintendo Switch 2 owners, calling it “crazy.” The user said, “They could see my ddwrt endpoints, the brand of my memory card, they even knew that I had an EVGA mouse and keyboard plugged into my Switch 2.”
If anyone experiences a similar issue with their Nintendo Switch 2 console, they can go to the official support page and ask for real human support. As more and more reports rock the internet of Switch 2 ‘bricking,’ fans may be able to get help using the “human” service deployed by Nintendo, but it’s worth mentioning the human service may know a lot more than you realize.
