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Comment by GolDDranks | Hacker News Reader

If one follows this and jailbreaks their Switch 2, are they in danger of getting their account banned by Nintendo, and their games unaccessible?

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The chances of getting banned for this are extremely high. The Switch 2 has plenty of mechanisms to detect tampering. Even if you were completely offline during the process and then reset the Switch afterward, there are logs. People have already been banned for using the MIG Switch to play backups of Switch 1 games on the Switch 2.

I wonder if this would be a reason to sue in the EU ? IIRC you can even replace the firmware without voiding the warranty, unless the manufacturer can prove the firmware cause the issue.

Here I guess you could just RMA the device or even sue Nintendo for retaliating after you just used the device you bought ?

Also, Louis Rossmann, please buy a Switch 2, apply the exploit & go online. Thanks in advance! :D

I also don't think remotely bricking/banning the console is legal in the EU.

they dont need to brick the machine - they can simply ban your online account, which they can use EULA to make you agree to before getting that account. You lose your games if the game requires online verification (which implies an account). This way, you won't be able to play your games purchased, even if it's a physical copy - you can only play games that don't have verification like this (i dont own a switch, so i dont know if this is actually true).

The law has superiority over the EULA, they could probably get away with disabling online multiplayer with concerns of cheating but I don't see any legal basis on how they could take away purchased games. That would go against any consumer right laws.

They don't brick consoles. They just ban the console from online play.

I jailbroke my Switch 1 the day I bought it, was banned from Nintendo Online the next day. The only games I bought were physical. I was told this would happen, so it wasn’t an issue at all.

I’ve told my friends if you plan on playing online on it, definitely don’t jailbreak.

IIRC the current approach makes your switch dual boot the unmodified firmware and the custom firmware with online capabilities disabled, so you could still play online and avoid bans.

But I wouldn’t trust that with an expensive account-bound digital library.

I had a hacked switch 1 for many years and was never banned. I always played in airplane mode, and got a 2nd to play online with. After I reset the switch to gift to a friend, it was not banned. If you’re careful it will be fine, but I’m sure they’ve cranked up security on switch 2.

never go online and even if you reset the console afterwards , assume the console will get banned when connect to the internet as they know to look for markers of customer firmware.

Switch 1 hacks bypass this by copying ofw from flash onto the microSD card and patching it there to my crude understanding, so that unsigned code never touches the firmware on the system memory.

Something like this definitely will be needed again for the Switch 2 so I'd only do this if you don't care about being banned.

EDIT: ofw = OFW = official firmware

Not your account but the Switch. That’s how it works in Switch 1

(I'm interested in Homebrew, and I'd love to port my self made game dev framework on Switch 2, but I'm afraid of losing everything)

Yes, this is true of all jailbreaks.

I guess banning may be challengeable to court in many juridictions but it would be expensive.

No doubt we will soon enough get de-Nintendo’d alternatives that service jb’d devices

Yes, you will get banned.

Definitely a risk.

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