Nintendo Switch Cartridge ROMs Have Started Appearing Online
Well that didn't take very long. Today, the first batch of Nintendo Switch game ROMs have appeared online, according to a post on GBATemp. Hacking suit Big Blue Box has reportedly ripped six Nintendo Switch games straight from their carts, according to the post from BBB, this was done using a Nintendo Switch console (exactly how I won't pretend to understand). The games ripped so far include:
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- ARMS
- Has Been Heroes
- Puyo Puyo Tetris
- Lego City Undercover
So you may be asking yourself, "What does this mean? Are people about to start downloading Nintendo Switch games for free and ruining everything?" The answer is no. Not yet, anyway. But these advances to have a number of consequences, and there are some things that you may want to keep an eye out for. Actually, there are some really near things that could come from this, and some not so neat things that could come from this.
The Best Case Scenario
The best case scenario would look something like this. A bunch of really talented people get full access to all of the game files and do some incredible data-mining, and we get to learn something unique and exciting about a game like Breath of the Wild. There's no way to play the ROMs that have been ripped, which is actually a good thing, but people still have access to all of the files and get to peek into the world of first-party Nintendo game development. We're already starting to see character and item models from ARMS and Splatoon 2 appear on Twitter.
We could also start seeing some incredible homebrew show up for the Switch way sooner than expected. Keep in mind that the Switch itself hasn't been cracked open quite yet, but at this point, it's only a matter of time. Some super talented people are already on the case, and soon the door could be opened. Imagine being able to back up all of your Super Nintendo game and play them on the go, or being able to load up a few of your favorite movies to your microSD card to watch on a custom video player.
Is it what Nintendo intended? No. Is it illegal? Nope. Would you totally brick your Switch trying to install some neat homebrew? Yeah, you probably would.
The Worse Case Scenario
Piracy. This is exactly what we don't want. As with almost anything opportunity in life, there are going to be people who take advantage of it to do something cool, and there will be people who take advantage of it to do something stupid. If people start illegally downloading and playing Nintendo Switch games due to these advancements, then everyone is eventually going to lose out in one way or another.
Nintendo would absolutely lose money. You can talk your way around it any way you want: "Nintendo doesn't need my $60. I wasn't going to buy it anyway so it doesn't make a difference. I just want to try the games first," or whatever else. It doesn't matter. The bottom line is that pirating games hurts the company you're stealing from, and it makes things harder for those that want to enjoy the system legitimately.
Nintendo is going to be much slower, and much more cautious in bringing things like a functional web-browser and alternative storage methods to the Switch when it knows that there's a community actively trying to find exploits to allow the downloading and playing of game ROMs.
Something to think about.
