Nintendo brings down the ban hammer on Switch 2 owners using MiG carts

The post Nintendo brings down the ban hammer on Switch 2 owners using MiG carts appeared first on Android Headlines.

Jun 18, 2025 - 00:20

The Nintendo Switch 2 is only a few weeks old, and already, there are owners reporting bans from Nintendo. This probably isn’t an issue that many thought they would find themselves in this early on, especially given the reason for the bans. However, Nintendo isn’t taking the situation lightly and won’t be letting owners off easy.

The bans are a direct result of owners using a device called the Mig Switch. This is a flash cartridge that was launched in the last year or two of the original console’s life cycle. Its purpose is to allow users to play backups of their owned games, although it can be used to play downloaded copies of games as well. When used with the original console, the company didn’t appear to have as much of an issue with it, but that seems to have changed.

Nintendo is issuing bans to users who insert MiG Switch cartridges into their Switch 2 consoles

According to reports from users on Reddit (via 9To5Google), simply inserting the MiG Switch into your new console can result in a ban. One user on X also posted about receiving a ban. With that being the case, it’s probably best to avoid doing this. That is, unless you want to risk your console losing some of its functionality.

Several redditors have made posts about Nintendo banning their consoles. It’s also important to note that this happened with games that were confirmed to have been backups of games they owned. So, it seems Nintendo doesn’t care if you already own the game or not. It’s also important to note that these users placed the MiG Switch cartridges in their consoles while they were online, which is likely how Nintendo detected the backed-up games.

With the old console, each game has a unique ID that identifies it as an owned copy. Backups on the MiG Switch included these unique IDs, which is apparently how users were safe from a ban. That is no longer the case.

Going offline before using the MiG Switch can still impact your console

While going offline with the MiG Switch can save you from a ban in the moment, it isn’t necessarily going to stay that way. As soon as you go back online, you risk a ban. Long story short, users should avoid using the MiG Switch on their Switch 2 consoles altogether at this point. While it is unfortunate that you can’t reliably play backed-up games that you own, not having this capability is better than not being able to use the console’s online services ever again.

As of right now, no users appear to have reported banned accounts. That could change, however. Nintendo made a point to highlight recent changes to its policy before the Switch 2 officially launched. Those changes included very clear intentions to hardware ban users who made any attempts to modify the console for unintended use. In other words, popping in a MiG Switch cartridge. The policy change also stated that bans could be permanent and applied to both the hardware and the account.

The post Nintendo brings down the ban hammer on Switch 2 owners using MiG carts appeared first on Android Headlines.