The first batch of the Mig Switch flashcarts have made their way into the hands of reviewers. Plenty of initial impressions have gone live, with users showing off how the device works. Just as promised, you can in fact play your "legally owned Nintendo Switch games", across any model of Nintendo Switch. However, there are more questions raised than answered.

For one, it's still uncertain if and when you'll get banned after playing online using the Mig Switch--the team claims so long as you have a valid certificate, card ID set, and card UID, and a fully complete game dump, you'll be able to play online just fine. Whether or not Nintendo can notice and take action is something that will take time to see. In order to obtain updates and DLCs for games, you'll need to be online to download them, as the Mig Switch can't load those files itself.

This leads into another quandary. The three aforementioned aspects--the certificates and IDs--come from a backed up copy of a Nintendo Switch game. If someone were to illicitly share their certificate online, there could be dozens or hundreds of users using the same cert for multiple games, across multiple systems, at the same time. Since you can obtain a certificate from a physical game, there's growing concern as to how it could affect pre-owned backed up copies of games that might have had their certificates used and banned. We know for a fact that Nintendo has banned gamecart certificates in the past, as found by scene memeber SciresM back in 2018.

If you're interested in seeing the Mig Switch in action, there are a handful of reviews from notable emulation-focused YouTubers.

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So far, what are your thoughts on the Mig Switch? There's plenty of interesting quirks to the device, from its usage, to its mysterious development team. Have you ordered one, either to test out, or for use on trickier to softmod Switch revisions? Or are you staying away from anything to do with this flashcart?

 

[SaberLilly]

honestly i would try this for my own switch library so im not hauling around so many physical games. However this flashcart has now made me very cautious of the used market, although the chances are slim there is still a chance of someone buying a game, dumping it and then returning it or reselling it.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

No. The certificates must be signed and matched up to the original game ROM.

Maybe after they reverse engineered the MigSwitch in China, they will turned it into one of those 100 games in one cartridge.

 

[SylverReZ]

Maybe after they reverse engineered the MigSwitch in China, they will turned it into one of those 100 games in one cartridge.

Exactly. They did just that also with the Sky3DS+ carts.

 

[CaliousKai]

roms of switch games will work on the mig switch but there are a few work arounds

 

[Blavla]

If you get banned that's on you because you haven't done your diligence. I don't think you have ground for a lawsuit because if you bought something flagged you have agreed to the trader terms if it was disclosed otherwise it becomes a catfight between you and the trader.

That is wrong. How could a father know when he buys a used game from Gamestop for his kids? Even Gamestop will not know that the game is flagged.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Something else I just thought of. If the dumper just makes the system think the cart is an SD card to allow us to dump it…I wonder if it could be used alongside Yuzu for an eventual “read from dumper” option

So it can function almost like a gbxcart. Would make emulating libraries in 4k hella easy

 

[BigOnYa]

Something else I just thought of. If the dumper just makes the system think the cart is an SD card to allow us to dump it…I wonder if it could be used alongside Yuzu for an eventual “read from dumper” option

So it can function almost like a gbxcart. Would make emulating libraries in 4k hella easy

True, but dumping to a PC and it reading from a SSD would be much faster than USB anyways.

 

[TheStonedModder]

True, but dumping to a PC and it reading from a SSD would be much faster than USB anyways.

That’s fair they still are only using usb 2.0 aren’t they. I don’t understand I’ve purchased disposable vapes that use a better usb c standard lol

 

[cellegray]

I would rather get some blank carts to fuel with games. The mig is a great idea but to geeky

 

[Draxzelex]

That is wrong. How could a father know when he buys a used game from Gamestop for his kids? Even Gamestop will not know that the game is flagged.

While Gamestop may not even know if its flagged, surely they keep a history of transactions so if the game suddenly is banned, then we all can track down the culprit. Nintendo is still within their right to ban any tampered games which they have already done so earlier on the Switch during the days of SX OS as well as on the 3DS. The chances of this happening though is clearly slim because most people have enough common sense to not play a dumped game online that they returned to the store.

 

[Vanessa__]

Kinda scared to buy used copies of switch games after this...
I don't wanna get banned

 

[subcon959]

Kinda scared to buy used copies of switch games after this...
I don't wanna get banned

Nintendo must be loving seeing comments like this. If they're smart, they'll wait till maximum trust is lost in the used market before killing the Mig.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Something else I just thought of. If the dumper just makes the system think the cart is an SD card to allow us to dump it…I wonder if it could be used alongside Yuzu for an eventual “read from dumper” option

So it can function almost like a gbxcart. Would make emulating libraries in 4k hella easy

The contents of cart is encrypted and nobody has the keys to decode the game carts.
For Yuzu you need decrypted contents.
So unless someone finds the keys to the castle to decode game cart contents, a reader like gbxcart is very unlikely.

When carts are dumped on the Switch, this decryption is handled automatically by a dedicated chip (ASIC) that sits in between the cpu and the game cart.
Nintendo designed that security very good.
The keys for decoding the cart contents are inside the firmware of that dedicated chip but that firmware is also encrypted and only the dedicated chip has the keys to decode it's own firmware.
So no security keys are store in plain text anywhere.
What Nintendo didn't anticipate was that someone would emulate a cartridge,

 

[CaliousKai]

That’s fair they still are only using usb 2.0 aren’t they. I don’t understand I’ve purchased disposable vapes that use a better usb c standard lol

Vapes contain urine so your inhaling piss.

 

[BigOnYa]

Vapes contain urine so your inhaling piss.

OK, sure. And I have a bridge to sell you. What does your false statement have to do with the Mig card anyways?

 

[TheStonedModder]

Vapes contain urine so your inhaling piss.

Do they? Care to enlighten me on where you see anything that actually says that? Or do you also think Redbull is made from testicles?

https://harborcityhemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AACJ154_D8LO-0122_01312022_61f844fc6e005.pdf

 

[ack]

I'm legit interested in Switch homebrew. Save managers, emulators, ftp, homebrew app store.

I wonder if those are possible with the MIG Switch. Maybe if they can make different filetypes of the homebrew the MIG Switch can read? With some cert and UID from some random lowest rated game lol

Then I can finally back up my island, mod Pokémon and some other games.

no, not possible, period.

 

[ghjfdtg]

That’s fair they still are only using usb 2.0 aren’t they. I don’t understand I’ve purchased disposable vapes that use a better usb c standard lol

On a Switch the games only dump at like 18 MB/s to a fast microSD anyway so it's pointless to go with USB 3.0. But yeah, i don't see why you could not let Yuzu or Ryujinx read the game directly off the virtual drive. It will be much slower than copying it to your SSD.

 

[TheStonedModder]

On a Switch the games only dump at like 18 MB/s to a fast microSD anyway so it's pointless to go with USB 3.0. But yeah, i don't see why you could not let Yuzu or Ryujinx read the game directly off the virtual drive. It will be much slower than copying it to your SSD.

Game speed dumping directly on the switch should have no correlation with how an independent PC based dumper will perform

That’s comparing apples to oranges

 

[ghjfdtg]

It absolutely does. The Switch OS must read as fast as it can and several benchmarks already show that gamecards are the slowest media for games.

That said the absolute theoretical limit of the bus is about 47 MB/s (50 MHz, 8 bits per clock cycle) not counting all the overhead. USB 2.0 limit is 480 mbit/s (~60 MB/s) theoretical. The dumper will also have a lot of overhead too since it has to emulate a filesystem.