Two weeks ago, it was reported that Nintendo had banned Switch 2 devices from online use after people tried to use flash cards that allow them to pirate Switch games.
This essentially renders the hardware unusable, as it is not possible to download games and updates, nor launch physical games stored on so-called Game-Key Cards. Few have been outraged by this because, after all, it’s mostly about pirates indirectly contributing to higher price tags for games, but it also means that your Switch 2 can be arbitrarily shut down by Nintendo if you do something they don’t like.
And even if you don’t run pirated games, there’s a chance you’ll be affected anyway because those who have bricked consoles have managed to return them on open purchase so other customers got them instead, or resold them on second-hand sites, leaving no chance of compensation.
The Brazilian Procon-SP, Consumer Protection and Defense Program in Sao Paulo, thinks this is a problem (thanks IGN) and has now requested that Nintendo completely remove this possibility. Nintendo has received this demand and will respond within 20 days.
We will return to the matter when we know more, and we can imagine that more countries and markets may follow suit in the future. The EU in particular tends to dislike this type of solution.