If you’ve ever shopped for secondhand Nintendo DS games, then this story will sound very similar to you. In a post on ResetEra yesterday, user jokkir wrote that they purchased a copy of Pragmata on Nintendo Switch 2 from an Amazon Warehouse deal. Warehouse deals are when Amazon sells off used or refurbished items at a discount, often 50% off. Having purchased items this way successfully in the past, they didn’t think to check the Pragmata cartridge before putting it into their Switch 2.
When it wouldn’t read, they attempted to eject the cartridge and it got stuck. After prying the cartridge out, it damaged the pins in the console and broke the cartridge reader. When they inspected the back of the cartridge, it turns out it was just an empty shell with improper molding. While the cartridge is likely a fake 3D printed shell, it could also be a legitimate cartridge that had its internals removed and placed in another shell.
As Hanafuda Report discovered, it’s not too difficult to find replacement Switch cartridge shells. It might be difficult to break a Switch cartridge, but some players like to customize their game collections with different shell colors or designs. In the pictures provided by jokkir, the Pragmata label is slightly misaligned, so it’s possible someone printed a label and slapped it on a replacement shell to request a refund.
At any rate, Amazon doesn’t seem to realize what is going on. When jokkir inquired about reparations for repairing their console, Amazon said it would not cover any costs. There was no further acknowledgement of fake games flooding their marketplace. This might be a one-off occurrence, but the moral of the story is to thoroughly check any used Switch games you get from now on. They might just be fake cartridges, especially if sold by Amazon.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
