News / Piracy: Be cautious when buying used copies of Splatoon 2 or 3 online now

I'm probably going to start this post that I am 100% fearmongering and it's probably not as bad as I'm going to make it out to be here.

It's extremely unlikely you'll ever run into this scenario but I want to make you aware.

Late last year, you might have heard some talk about a tool that enabled people to play backups of games using a flashcart. The creators behind this tool are now releasing a dumper tool which allows people to backup their games without any special skills.

Backing up your game does sound like a good idea, but it's a problem when people resell it. You might no longer want the game one day and you sell it online but keep it on this flashcart. If the buyer of that game and the original owner through their flashcart play the game at the same time, they run a risk of getting banned from online services on their Switch.

(p.s. it's also worth noting that legally, backups may not be legal in some countries)

I know this is a very unlikely chance that anything will ever happen from this, I just want to warn you all.

#スプラトゥーン3 #スプラトゥーン #Splatoon3 #Splatoon #Nintendo #NintendoSwitch @splatoon@lemmy.world

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[-] splatoon@wetdry.world 4 points 8 months ago

@PlasticExistence

I agree with your response but regarding the reselling part, the new owner may not know that it's been dumped by someone and may inadvertently get banned. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere doesn't accidentally play online.

[-] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Right, but both copies would have to be online at the same time for Nintendo to take action. I don't disagree with you that this scenario is possible, and someone will run into this problem.

There's literally no way to track or verify if a cart has been copied, so it's not really worth worrying about.

It's like those very unlucky few people who get struck by a freak bolt of lightning. It's terrible, but you can't live your life as though it's going to happen to you since there's very little you can do to prevent it.

Another thing to consider is that piracy on the Switch isn't new and this same situation has been happening since 2018 when the first Switch hacks were made public. I have a launch day Switch that's vulnerable to exploitation, and newer models can still be chipped. Most people who pirate know enough to not play pirated copies online because their Switch will get banned.