Hacking Is Starting To Affect Online Switch Games

A few weeks ago, Switch hacking was blown wide open by a hardware exploit that allowed players to modify code on the console. As a consequence, some players are now employing cheating measures in competitive games.

Today, a number of videos and tweets have been going up of cheaters taking part in Splatoon 2, modifying weapons in a way that makes them overpowered and throws the balance out of whack. In this clip below, a player has massively updated the fire rate of a weapon that is meant to fire slow, powerful blasts to resemble hidden, non-competitive weapons used in modes like Salmon Run.

Please ban this person in #Splatoon2 pic.twitter.com/6hw0YgnvEv

— JD (Squidiot) (@Water_011209) May 25, 2018

There are also videos of hackers changing parameters for, as an example, eliminating the charge time on sniper rifles so they fire like machine guns, or turning completely invisible and invulnerable. While there are reports of Nintendo banning users with modified firmware from online access, it seems the process is not 100%. 

It is worth noting that, to report players, you need to use the Nintendo Online App, access Splatnet, and report the player you think was cheating.

With games like Super Smash Bros. coming this year, hopefully Nintendo manages to sort this out before it becomes too great a problem.

Our Take
It's not a good look as Nintendo is trying to convince people to pay for online play access, so hopefully they can stop hackers with a secure method before too long. Splatoon 2 is great fun but that experience isn't hard to ruin.