Nintendo grants itself the power to brick Switches with pirated games

Nintendo’s latest legal move to combat piracy may be super effective. According to a new change in the Nintendo User Agreement, the console maker can brick your Switch, or render it useless, if it’s found with pirated games or mods. While some people may have glazed over the changes since Nintendo didn’t make this a major announcement, Game File’s Stephen Totilo dug through the changes and spotted the major updates.

In Nintendo’s own words, you shouldn’t “bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services.” The company’s previous agreement only prohibited if you “adapt, reverse-engineer, or modify a Nintendo user account,” but this updated language gives exact definitions of what you can’t do with your Switch. If you do break these rules, Nintendo could make your “applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.” In plain English, that means if you’re found with an emulator or pirated copies of games, your Switch might just end up being a very expensive paperweight.

This latest legal leap isn’t surprising considering Nintendo’s strict stance on emulation. In March 2024, the company filed a lawsuit against the popular Switch emulator called Yuzu claiming that the developers were facilitating piracy. Later that year, another emulator called Ryujinx shut down after Nintendo offered an agreement to the development team to discontinue the project in October. This latest user agreement update comes on the heels of the upcoming release of the Switch 2 that’s planned for June 5.