If You Play Nintendo Switch Pirate Games Online, Nintendo Will Ban You
Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch . But if you hack your Nintendo Switch to play pirate games for free, you have to pay for it: you won’t be able to play online .
Prominent hacker Nintendo ScriesM recently took to Reddit to outline the anti-piracy measures Nintendo has taken to sniff out consoles playing pirated games and permanently ban them from accessing the Nintendo network.
Nintendo stores an encrypted client certificate in the core TrustZone of each Switch, unique to that console. When you log in, Nintendo’s servers identify your console with this certificate, which means that if your Switch is locked, it will remain locked. As pointed out by Ars Technica , 3DS hackers were able to forge a token in order to get a locked console back online, but this does not work with Switch.
Games, both physical cards and digital downloads, have their own encrypted certificates that identify them as legitimate. For downloads, the encrypted ticket embedded in the game code also includes information about the console and the user who purchased it. Try playing a copy of a game that was purchased on a different console and with a different account, and boom , your Switch is locked. You won’t even be able to play legal games online.
All of these certifications are verified when your console is online, so if you play pirated games completely offline, Nintendo won’t be able to detect it. However, this is not 100% certain. It is possible that the console firmware will detect pirated games you play offline and mark the console for blocking when you go back online.
Ars Technica and Reddit have more details, but the bottom line is this: Nintendo is very good at catching players who pirate Switch games. If you want to play any Nintendo Switch games online, either don’t jailbreak your Switch or be incredibly careful.