Nintendo is known for being incredibly protective of its IP and brand and in that regard has taken a harsh stance against piracy. Despite Nintendo’s best efforts though, The Switch 1 hardware proved very easy to crack and there were multiple Switch 1 emulators that were well regarded by fans.
While emulation in and of itself is not illegal and not a form of piracy, especially due to how companies use official emulators to bring their games to modern platforms, the issue arises when ROMs are dumped onto the internet. This is a form of piracy as it allows anyone to play the games without paying, and proved to be an issue Nintendo kept fighting against with Switch 1 game roms becoming available almost as soon as the games were released, if not before. Nintendo vowed that Switch 2 would not have this situation, and while fan devs scoffed at that notion, it seems Nintendo was not playing around.
Fan developers have indeed started making emulators for the system, with two in active development, but they were not ready for the precautions Nintendo took. Recently the page for one of this emulators, was updated with a new caption that reads “IMPORTANT: THIS PROJECT WILL NOT BE READY FOR A DECADE MINIMUM!”. By that point, Nintendo will likely be on its next system and so will have its attention focused elsewhere,
While it is not clear how Nintendo managed to make the Switch 2’s inner workings so difficult to crack, it seems they lived up to their word and Switch 2 emulators won’t be coming anytime soon.
