Reviewers have started receiving copies of the MIG Switch Flash Cart for Nintendo Switch. Most people who received review copies found the device to work as expected (all Switch models run a “backup” of Switch games). The exception is the MIG Switch cart, which doesn’t seem to work at all. One of the reviewers (video below). Questions remain about the risk of having his one console or account banned by Nintendo for using the MIG Switch.
What is a MIG switch?
MIG Switch is a flash cart for the Nintendo Switch that allows you to save and load multiple “backup” games on any revision of the console. Even though he advertises the MIGSwitch as a “backup and development device,” there is no question that its primary purpose is piracy of his Switch games.
![](https://i0.wp.com/wololo.net/wagic/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mig_switch_device.jpg?resize=678%2C585&ssl=1)
Mig Switch Flash Cart – Source Skin Pixel
While it’s already possible to hack basically any Switch model, techniques for hacking modern consoles include soldering mod chips. Although it is highly effective once performed, this procedure is not for the faint of heart. By comparison, MIG switches are more limited, more dangerous (risk of ban), more expensive, but much easier to use. Therefore, MIG switches remain a viable alternative for people who are not confident in their soldering skills or who do not want to rely on a third party to do the soldering.
In the case of Homebrew Sheen, part of the interest in the MIG switch is how the team behind the device was able to break some of the switch’s security, and whether Sheen could reverse engineer the MIG switch. (This is probably encrypted) There’s also an air of mystery surrounding the MIG Switch team itself. They claim to be from Russia, but it’s probably just the good old “3 years in prison wasn’t enough” team Xecuter are back for more pranks.
MIG switches work as advertised most of the time.Concerns about the ban remain
Reviewers, including some YouTubers, have already received their devices. Youtuber Alien Retro Gaming in particular has published a video introducing the device and answering some questions.
Generally, all reviewers who received the MG Switch agree that the device works as advertised. However, NanoSpeedGamer said he bricked his MIG switch after updating it to firmware 1.0.8. (He was released 2 days ago on the MIG Switch site).
Risk of Nintendo banning the use of MIG Switch
Most people in the field remain concerned about the risk of having their devices banned.
As you know, each cartridge has a unique certificate required to run games on the Switch, and the MIG Switch won’t bypass it. This means that if you copy someone’s game and its certificate, Nintendo can see that the same certificate is used twice by him on different consoles.
No one (other than Nintendo itself) knows exactly how Nintendo checks for abuse of a particular certificate.
If a single certificate is used by thousands of gaming consoles around the world (as is the case if it is shared publicly on pirated sites), that gaming console or the certificate itself can be banned from Nintendo’s network. The sex is very high. (Whether that’s acceptable or not is another discussion, but keep in mind that banned game consoles lose a lot of value on the second-hand market)
But clearly, sharing your games with friends and family or reselling your games on the second-hand market are all perfectly acceptable use cases. Therefore, in typical use cases, a particular certificate will appear in multiple consoles at different times. This raises questions about the risks of buying second-hand games that have been copied for piracy purposes in the past. Even if you are a legitimate user, does that mean you (or your newly acquired game) will be banned?
ARG has some explanations for how this device could be used for piracy. He says each cartridge has a unique certificate, but in his testing the certificates are not tied to a specific game. Specifically, he I was able to run my copy of Hogwarts Legacy using my Mario Kart certificate. In other words, it seems like a single legitimate certificate owned by a user could potentially be used for multiple games. Alternatively, you can hoard a bunch of genuine certificates from cheap games and reuse them as pirated copies.
Of course, it’s very likely that Nintendo will be able to detect that a particular certificate is not being used for a proper game, in which case the result will be, as you can imagine, a ban again.
There is no doubt that people will inadvertently use this device for copyright infringement, which will result in a ban. The question, of course, is whether only the most “stupid” pirates get caught, or whether even pirates who are careful enough to only use backups of their games end up being banned.
I see people saying, “I don’t care, my console is already banned.” However, if the console is already banned, then this device is most likely not needed, since it means that you can already run his CFW on the console.
The switch error codes when using a prohibited certificate are as follows: 0x1F727C — 2124-4025. (sauce)
MIG switch reverse engineering efforts
I’m sure there are some people out there working hard to try and reverse engineer MIG switches. Although this device doesn’t seem all that useful to me (especially considering the price of the MIG switch + cartridge damper, which ships as a bundle), I personally think Modchips are a much better solution right now. (It costs nearly $150 when shipped as a bundle), and as a technological breakthrough, it will be interesting to see what security the device is able to bypass.
As multiple reviewers have indicated, TX appears to have erased the identifiers of some of the chips on the device in an effort to slow down reverse engineering efforts.
![](https://i0.wp.com/wololo.net/wagic/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/migswitch_scratched_chips.jpg?resize=800%2C528&ssl=1)
Identifiers on MIG switch chips have been shaved off, presumably to slow down reverse engineering attempts – screenshot taken from NanoSpeedGamer’s video on Youtube
By definition, the MIG switch firmware is encrypted. Monitoring, dumping, and opening the firmware actually running on a MIG switch takes hardware and effort.
No, lol. Of course, the update binaries are encrypted, so the actual chip (very likely a low-cost FPGA to emulate a game card LSI or a general management MCU) I need to dump what is running.
— Mike Heskin (@hexkyz) January 19, 2024
But there is no doubt that this device will eventually reveal its secrets. However, I’m not entirely sure if we’ll ever see a clone of it, given its (in my opinion) limited usefulness. The MIG switch reminds me of the Vita Black Fin (though certainly not in how it works, but in its purpose and the risks involved). This device ultimately did not even reach the market (at least his MIG switch did). market).