Switch 2 account ban saga continues as Redditor taunts Nintendo after ripping 20 cartridges and playing online — others warn that it's just a matter of time

Nintendo Switch 2 playing Mario Kart World

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

A Reddit user claims that update 1.2.2 for Mig Flash works, because they haven’t been banned from Nintendo’s online services despite using the third-party cartridge extensively. According to the Redditor, they “ripped 20 carts” and “played them all online”, and their Switch 2 console still works fine. However, other users say that it’s just a matter of time before they get banned, especially as the Japanese gaming giant is quite protective of its intellectual property.

The Mig Flash is a third-party reprogrammable game cartridge designed for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It’s primarily used for backing up legally purchased games, and you can fit multiple titles on a single card, making playing multiple titles on the go much easier. But it can also make piracy much easier, and Nintendo cracked down on its use when the Switch 2 launched. In fact, it just took 12 days after the popular handheld console dropped for Nintendo to start nuking Switch 2 consoles that used the popular flash cart, even if users were dumping their own ROMs.

Still not banned from r/switch2hacks

However, the Mig Flash received a firmware update on July 1, which the company behind it claims makes the cartridge “virtually undetectable from a real gamecard.” It also released a further update, 1.2.2, on July 9, following the discovery of a potential issue with update 1.2.1 by its bug bounty program.

The anonymous user received a 0.2 ETH award for the report, which amounts to more than $600 at the current exchange rate. Despite this, the company still does not guarantee that using the Mig Flash won’t get your console banned, and says that you’re using it at your own risk.

Many Nintendo Switch 2 users have been burned by other users who used a Mig Flash or similar tool to back up their titles and then sold the original cartridge later, leading to an unexpected ban. Perhaps more egregiously, some users are even reporting account bans stemming from using second-hand Switch titles legitimately bought on eBay. For example, a content creator was banned after buying and playing an old game that had apparently been flashed onto another cartridge and used simultaneously with their real copy. Thankfully, those who can prove to Nintendo of America that they acted in good faith and that they were duped can get the decision reversed. But those who were caught using a Mig Flash are likely out of luck, as that is against the company’s terms of service. Even those who go undetected, like this confident user, are playing with fire.

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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

13 Comments Comment from the forums

osiris11235

"It’s primarily used for backing up legally purchased games"

That's highly doubtful. How it's advertised likely has NO correlation with how it's used. This product is for piracy.
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VizzieTheViz

Nintendo should have given the switch a decent amount of local storage so you don’t have to carry a bunch of games around to play all your stuff. Or do you still need the physical copy to play even if you’ve installed the game on the switch local storage?

Anyway if they’d made the switch more convenient to use there’d be far less of an excuse for stuff like this mig-thingy to exist and far more of an excuse for Nintendo to try and put a stop to it.
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gggplaya

osiris11235 said:
"It’s primarily used for backing up legally purchased games"

That's highly doubtful. How it's advertised likely has NO correlation with how it's used. This product is for piracy.

Actually, I have no need to pirate. As a parent, I cringe whenever my son carries around his Switch case loaded with games. At $60 each and something like 10 games. That's about $900 he's carrying around. Would be much nicer to mitigate it to just a switch as a flash card.

If I weren't worried about getting banned, I'd actually buy this and use it for it's stated purpose.
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-Fran-

As it is often the case, the only ones really affected by draconic DRM is never those "who know", but the regular consumer.

Hack the planet and all that. Heh.

Regards.
Reply
Silicon Mage

gggplaya said:
Actually, I have no need to pirate. As a parent, I cringe whenever my son carries around his Switch case loaded with games. At $60 each and something like 10 games. That's about $900 he's carrying around. Would be much nicer to mitigate it to just a switch as a flash card.

If I weren't worried about getting banned, I'd actually buy this and use it for it's stated purpose.
So why wouldn’t it be safe to use the product for this purpose?

Every example of banning seems to be folks that bought used games that previous owners copied for themselves then sold.

Or people that ran two copies at the same time.

Has anyone been banned for copying a game and running the single copy with the originals safely stored away?
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diminishedfifth

I will never give Nintendo my money, they are such a shady group
Reply
cryoburner

VizzieTheViz said:
Nintendo should have given the switch a decent amount of local storage so you don’t have to carry a bunch of games around to play all your stuff. Or do you still need the physical copy to play even if you’ve installed the game on the switch local storage?

Anyway if they’d made the switch more convenient to use there’d be far less of an excuse for stuff like this mig-thingy to exist and far more of an excuse for Nintendo to try and put a stop to it.
The Switch 2 has a MicroSD Express slot, allowing users to expand the storage for games as they see fit. And it has 256 GB of internal storage, 8 times what the original Switch had and the same as what the current base-model SteamDeck has, which is arguably a fine enough capacity for holding a decent number of games. Including additional storage would just drive up the device's cost for those who don't need it. Nintendo's largest first-party games so far are all under 25 GB, though some third-party AAA games are up around 60GB. Many third-party games will likely be optimized for the hardware though, as you don't exactly need ultra-high resolution textures when playing games on an 8-inch 1080p screen, and even docked, the device is going to be limited by its graphics hardware, which is most comparable in performance to an entry-level PC graphics card from 9 years ago. A flash card device like this also requires MicroSD storage to run games from, so there isn't much difference there.
Reply
hotaru251

osiris11235 said:
How it's advertised likely has NO correlation with how it's used. This product is for piracy.
thats same for anything.
The legit reason can be the main reason even if its the least used one.

Nintendo restricts backups to their subscription model...and even IF you do pay for it some games do NOT let you backup at all. (pokemon games are example of this due to risk of abuse of trading, then reverting and basically cloning pkmn), Back on the 3ds w/ I think it was pkmn x/y many people were shafted by a bug in game that bricked your save if you saved in a major town.
This happened after the evnt for a 1 time obtainable item....meaning peopel started over and lost out on ever getting that item again. The fix for it didnt come for like 2 weeks (and no mention of it ever beign fixed so ppl never were aware to not start over).
This is why some people like having backups in event a game comes a game breaking issue.

Piracy is a grey area at best.
If I buy my console, the games, & I obey every rule about not cheating....is it piracy?

If you bought a game, it dies from age, is no longer made, gets stolen, or some other accident happens that its not playable anymore is it piracy to dl a rom of it? you paid them for the product so does it really matter how you play it so long as you paid to begin with and arent sharing it?

Yes, Piracy is a big issue, however it isnt black & white as there are grey areas.

I am a big Nintendo fan. Owned every console (except the virtual boy), some multiple of each, from og gameboy to the Switch 1...only reason I dont have a switch 2 atm is no exclusively switch 2 games I care about atm...I'll likely buy one in future though.
I like the products (if its one thing i will always defend Nintendo for its they are one of only game companies that try stuff out thats different even if it will fail) and I know devs of games don't make the anti fanbase choices of the company so I enjoy their games.
At the end of the day people like me who do support and buy stuff (even when every generation of Nintendo consoles have been easy to pirate for over a decade now) still out number the people who pirate it illegally.

Silicon Mage said:
Has anyone been banned for copying a game and running the single copy with the originals safely stored away?
we won't know that answer most likely.
From my udnerstanding its server seeing a game carts specific data being used by multiple systems in a period of time thus triggers that specific games id to trigger a ban.

Apart from that the device detecting a flashcart device "could" get you banned i guess but again we likely wont know.
Reply
JamesJones44

gggplaya said:
Actually, I have no need to pirate. As a parent, I cringe whenever my son carries around his Switch case loaded with games. At $60 each and something like 10 games. That's about $900 he's carrying around. Would be much nicer to mitigate it to just a switch as a flash card.

If I weren't worried about getting banned, I'd actually buy this and use it for it's stated purpose.

My understanding of how this works is each cart has a unique ID that gets paired with a system when inserted along with an online account/location. Once Nintendo sees the same cart ID being used in several different systems and several different locations the ban occurs. Thus for this use case one "should" be safe.

I know my kids share carts all the time and a ban has not occurred, my son traded games with another friend for the Switch 2 and neither has been band. My suspicion is Nintendo bans these once they see several instances, not just one or two.
Reply
JamesJones44

VizzieTheViz said:
Nintendo should have given the switch a decent amount of local storage so you don’t have to carry a bunch of games around to play all your stuff. Or do you still need the physical copy to play even if you’ve installed the game on the switch local storage?

I don't think carts can be physically copied to storage (at least one couldn't on the Switch 1) and they don't take up space in that instance. Storage is for games bought via the Online Shop, saves, recordings, screen shots, etc. The internal storage is also extendable with MicroSD Express cards.
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