Earlier this week, a Nintendo Switch 2 user took to social media to warn folks against buying used Nintendo Switch games to use in their Nintendo Switch 2. This topic surfaced after one user was banned from Nintendo Online after downloading patches for a series of Switch 1 games they’d bought from the Facebook Marketplace.
This immediately sent ripples of concern throughout the Nintendo community, with users far and wide writhing with worry that their second-hand game cards would see them stripped of their Nintendo Online privileges.
Simple Solution
In a post on Reddit, a Nintendo user explained:
Got banned and unbanned after simply downloading patches for 4 Switch 1 games I bought from Facebook marketplace.
Fortunately, they advised that the solution for this problem was simple and took no time at all to resolve:
If you get banned, go here https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/contact and under Talk to a human select Start Chat. It’s fast, painless, and you get a live person helping you!
They even had time to make a dig at Microsoft and Sony, suggesting that Nintendo’s customer support solution is far more effective.
This might seem like a worrying situation, but the explanation behind what happened makes complete sense.
Nintendo has an anti-piracy solution that gives unique identifiers to each game cartridge, which acts as a preventative measure and blocks malicious operators from copying cards and selling them on.
People will use a device like a MIG Flash to copy cartridges before selling them on marketplaces as used, which means that unique identifier could ‘be online twice at the same time’ as both the original owner and the new owner play the game.
We can expect this to become more of an issue thanks to the Nintendo Switch 2’s backwards compatibility mechanics, but fortunately, it looks like it’s easy enough to resolve.
Have you had this issue with any Switch 2 games? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Will Ospreay had another Assassin’s Creed-fuelled entrance at AEW
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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