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Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch

(www.videogameschronicle.com)
361 points ashitlerferad | 3 comments | 06 Nov 24 14:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.628s | source
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bladderlover21 ◴[06 Nov 24 15:28 UTC] No.42063777[source]▶
And this reveals the real reason Nintendo came after Switch emulators - to buy some extra time before Switch 2 gets properly emulated.
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jsheard ◴[06 Nov 24 15:44 UTC] No.42064022[source]▶
The hard part of emulating the Switch 2 probably isn't going to be the actual emulation, but breaking the security so that the games and firmware can be extracted and decrypted. Nintendo pretty much nailed their software security with the Switch 1 but were undone by catastrophic hardware bugs, so we'll have to see how well they learned their lesson on the hardware front next time.

Microsoft and Sony have demonstrated that hardware security can be more or less perfected, neither of their systems have been compromised via hardware attacks for several generations now.

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1. Gigachad ◴[07 Nov 24 00:31 UTC] No.42071812[source]▶
The modern versions of the switch with those catastrophic bugs patched are still hackable though through mod chips. It's too hard for the casual user to install, but it's plenty accessible for a hacker who just wants to dump ROMs and reverse engineer the OS.

Even if the software is absolutely bulletproof, you can hack almost everything by modifying the hardware. Cutting the power of the CPU for a tiny amount of time for example can cause it to glitch in a way that bypasses the security checks. This is accessible enough for at least one person to get in and dump games.

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2. mmaniac ◴[07 Nov 24 12:49 UTC] No.42076188[source]▶
Modchips on newer Switches use fault injections (clock/voltage glitching) but there exist mitigations for those. The Xbox One is confirmed to use them.

I encourage you to watch this video where Microsoft describes the security design of the Xbox One, which so far has been almost bulletproof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7VwtOrwceo

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3. Gigachad ◴[08 Nov 24 00:46 UTC] No.42082905[source]▶
Incredible video. The engineering effort that goes in to this stuff is unreal.

I’d be mad about this, but I’ve got a Steam Deck which is fully unrestricted. I guess the trade off is not being able to play competitive online due to the lack of cheating prevention.