Nintendo Reverses Switch 2 Ban After User Proves Innocence for Playing Pre-owned Switch 1 Games

Alright, here goes nothing:

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So, here’s a weird one. Imagine getting your shiny new Nintendo Switch 2 and bam—Nintendo slaps you with a ban. What happened? Well, a Reddit user, dmanthey, grabbed a few used Switch 1 games from the Facebook marketplace. Thought everything was cool. They popped those games into the Switch 2 and updated them. Next day, surprise! They get a message saying, “Nope, you can’t use Nintendo’s online services.” Just like that, games they bought were suddenly out of reach. Annoying, right?

Here’s the twist. dmanthey got lucky. They hit up Nintendo Support—luckily, there was an actual human there. (Shocking, I know, in this day and age!) Nintendo tells them, “Hey, your console’s banned coz those games are pirated.” But dmanthey manages to prove their innocence by showing the Facebook listing and pics of their cartridges. Apparently, it was super easy, and they even said it was a breeze compared to dealing with Microsoft or Sony. But others say, don’t get your hopes up—this smooth fix ain’t guaranteed for everyone.

Nintendo’s got some serious trust issues it seems, always watching out for folks messing with their stuff. I heard people even got banned using their own ROMs with Mig Flash. No joke. Getting banned doesn’t turn your Switch 2 into a fancy paperweight or anything, but yeah, you can kiss online gaming goodbye. It’s a buzzkill for sure.

The whole thing got me thinking about the risks of buying second-hand games. You got these sketchy sellers who can duplicate the game onto another microSD Express card. (Clever but not cool, man.) And then they unload the original as a used game. But Nintendo’s smart—they’ll know if two identical games are running at the same time somewhere. Boom, instant piracy alert! They’ll block your console’s online access—kind of like a “don’t mess with us” warning to everyone else.

Good news? Nintendo seems to be sorta understanding if you can prove you got tricked. They’ll undo the ban if you show the right proof. But, uh, no clue if those used games are still playable. I mean, what if they’ve been flagged as pirated now? Could be another ban waiting to happen.

Anyway, keep an eye on this space. Things change fast in gaming news, right?

Oh, and don’t forget—Tom’s Hardware is your go-to for all the updates. Just saying.