New concerns have arisen over Nintendo’s strict policies over how you use the Switch 2, although for the moment it does seem that there’s a solution.
Nintendo gets away with a lot of negative consumer practices purely because their games and consoles are so popular, but there’s already been concern about their ability to put the Switch 2 permanently offline if you use mod carts, which are often used for playing pirated games.
Now a different problem has arisen, from a Switch 2 owner that claims he was banned for using second-hand Switch 1 games that he bought from Facebook Marketplace.
Nintendo apparently realised they were second-hand when he attempted to download patches for them, when starting them up on the Switch 2. At this point, he claims he was banned and while it’s not something that’s been widely reported by others it does raise obvious concerns for the future.
According to dmanthey on Reddit, they were able to un-ban themselves after speaking to Nintendo support and showing them the Facebook listings and photos of the cartridges.
What exactly Nintendo thought was going on is unclear, since it’s hardly unusual to sell second-hand games, but they likely believed they were pirated games, which seems to be their main concern at the moment.
Although Nintendo is pushing digital downloads more with the Switch 2, than previous consoles, physical game sales are still much more prevalent on Nintendo formats than PlayStation and Xbox.
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That means second-hand games are commonplace and while traditional piracy is relatively rare on Nintendo consoles, fake cartridges are still easily found on eBay and other online sources – while the mod cart that Nintendo has already banned is the sort of thing used to download pirated games.
The long-standing problem is that Nintendo games are rarely discounted, by Nintendo or retailers, and so second-hand games are vital for many fans in order to be able to afford all the games they want.
If Nintendo starts banning everyone simply for playing a second-hand game then there’s going to be chaos online, but hopefully they realise that before issues like this become common.
How to get your Nintendo account un-banned
If you do have your Nintendo account banned, for any reason, there is an easy way to try and have it overturned. Indeed, it’s generally regarded as much quicker and less painless than speaking to PlayStation or Xbox support, at least in the US.
The UK support page is here and the US support here. According to dmanthey he simply started a live chat, with a human, and they were able to get him un-banned straight away.
Although naturally you don’t want to be doing that every time you buy a new second-hand game.
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