After a long period of speculation and waiting, the Switch 2 is finally in the hands of users. After a quick update, those who have the system to hand are able to play a reasonable assortment of updated Switch titles alongside the system's big hitter Mario Kart World. That is, at least if you were sent a system running the proper retail firmware. Earlier today user AJ on the GBAtemp Discord server posted an unfortunate image of a brand new Switch 2. Instead of a new library of games however, all they're able to try out is a short list of tests intended for QA at the factory.

A short list of json files, these tests appear to cover aging, charging the battery, rebooting, and shutting down the system. Though a remarkably interesting thing to have on paper, this mix-up at the factory does unfortunately leave them with a system unable to really do much of anything. On a complete lapse of judgement I have in fact bought the system from them, and will hopefully have something of a follow up to this post next week.

Thanks to AJ for posting about this (and selling it to me!) and I hope their next system is a functional one.

Update:
The user has since refunded me and blocked me on Discord. I assume they got a better offer elsewhere, so we can only hope the person who ends up with it is happy to share details.

GBAtemp's Discord Server

 

[|<roni&g]

the sooner the switch 2 is modded the better. Be nice to be able to download games for free AND play online like in the glory days of the wii & 3ds

 

[YoureALoser]

I highly doubt this will lead into anything since we can't really dump it right now (even more so since all it seems to be able to do is read json files, which you can't do too much with anyways), nor would we even be able to gleam much of any value since all you can do looks like just having the Aging tests done on loop and anything you can write for it will only work for any Switch 2 that just so happens to be in the same situation as this unit here.

Baseless assumptions. We do not know what it is capable of and will not know until it is in the hands of someone capable, not a noob on a gbatemp discord group.

 

[HaloEffect17]

And so it begins...

 

[BlusterBong]

Baseless assumptions. We do not know what it is capable of and will not know until it is in the hands of someone capable, not a noob on a gbatemp discord group.

Baseless assumptions are all we can make and I see with my eyes a bunch of JSON files (a format that is typically used for configuration data) on the ROM right now. Until it gets in the hands of OP and he shares more details, this is all we have to chew on, and if it turns out we can do more with it, then I'll admit i'm wrong.

 

[skunk_]

Do we have videos of the aging tests yet???

 

[Xzi]

Baseless assumptions are all we can make and I see with my eyes a bunch of JSON files (a format that is typically used for configuration data) on the ROM right now. Until it gets in the hands of OP and he shares more details, this is all we have to chew on, and if it turns out we can do more with it, then I'll admit i'm wrong.

Isn't that just a single step away from tricking it into booting something else disguised as a JSON file, though?

 

[Lostbhoy]

At least they got to see it.....

https://www.eurogamer.net/switch-2-...entally-staples-receipts-into-consoles-screen

 

[Xzi]

At least they got to see it.....

https://www.eurogamer.net/switch-2-...entally-staples-receipts-into-consoles-screen

That shit's really on Nintendo for having zero padding between the screen and the front of the box. I guess two cents of bubble wrap would've eaten into their margins too much.

 

[BlusterBong]

Isn't that just a single step away from tricking it into booting something else disguised as a JSON file, though?

I doubt it as if you would want to run code in a format that wasn't JSON, you'd have to actively convert it, which can be a bit of a problem because JSON code only has 6 usable data types you can write with, a lot of them you'd take for granted being lost under the those limitations, especially functions, compared to something like Python code, which has many, many more data types you can work with, so anything you could write is significantly more limited if you wrote them from JSON, and simply changing the file extension only would probably cause the system to possibly fail or refuse to read the file at all if any full-fledged operating systems like Windows or Linux are anything to go by.

 

[Cracko298]

Imagine messing something like this up during QC.

 

[RAHelllord]

Neat, hopefully those tests can be dumped and turned into homebrew / run on CFW. It would be very useful to have a full set of diagnostic software available to help with troubleshooting issues.

 

[linuxares]

play online

Oh sweet summer child....


Anyway this just seem to be a QA firmware. Not sure why some people gets hyped about it...

 

[QT2U]

Isnt a qa unit capable of being downgraded or does it not have other hidden features?

I mean in general independent whether its a switch 2 console

Im wondering if that would be the equivalent to a ps3 stuck in factory service mode

 

[Greninji88]

This'll probably help with the modding discoveries....

 

[Moe87]

I don't think that kind of factory firmware is very significant or breakthrough for hacking since it take a long time to find exploit in Switch 2, or more worse, never.

OG Switch is hacked in less than one year because Nvidia screwed up that allow to have RCM and enabled the way to develop the modchip in patched Switch. Those are very miracle.

As for Switch 2, hacking can be discovered early if there is flaw that enable the path to hacking, such as RCM that is seen in OG Switch and it could be either patchable or not patchable. If not patchable, it is big win for hacking community and if it is patchable like one in PS4, it gets annoying because Nintendo will do cat and mouse chase.

Now with virtual card, it gets more inconvenient when have to get out of CFW and go back to OFW to slot the virtual card in. I miss primary/secondary method to run same game on 2 Switches, so it cannot be done with virtual card.

 

[Viri]

Just... How did this happen? >.>

By paying your sweatshop workers like $2 USD an hour.

 

[gotchi]

What did you pay for it?

 

[K3Nv4]

Oh sweet summer child....


Anyway this just seem to be a QA firmware. Not sure why some people gets hyped about it...

Yeah I was kind of thinking this. Just because they have debug options doesn't mean an emulator is going to come out in like a month or two. Dev units are obviously going to leak some things but will still be a while before we actually get anything that matter out of it.

 

[Cracko298]

I don't think that kind of factory firmware is very significant or breakthrough for hacking since it take a long time to find exploit in Switch 2, or more worse, never.

OG Switch is hacked in less than one year because Nvidia screwed up that allow to have RCM and enabled the way to develop the modchip in patched Switch. Those are very miracle.

As for Switch 2, hacking can be discovered early if there is flaw that enable the path to hacking, such as RCM that is seen in OG Switch and it could be either patchable or not patchable. If not patchable, it is big win for hacking community and if it is patchable like one in PS4, it gets annoying because Nintendo will do cat and mouse chase.

Now with virtual card, it gets more inconvenient when have to get out of CFW and go back to OFW to slot the virtual card in. I miss primary/secondary method to run same game on 2 Switches, so it cannot be done with virtual card.

Literally ROP found Day 1, it's userland as to be expected. But still-
https://bsky.app/profile/retr0.id/post/3lqtwrndzf22w

 

[linuxares]

Literally ROP found Day 1, it's userland as to be expected. But still-
https://bsky.app/profile/retr0.id/post/3lqtwrndzf22w

I guess he used a DNS redirect like they did with Switchbru and then found an rop exploit in the webkit?