Civilization 7 on Switch 2: is the cartridge being recalled?

The Ocarina of Time remake is out, and the Switch 2 firmware update many people expected alongside it never came. The game was also running on PC before it launched. Meanwhile, sellers are cancelling orders for Civilization 7, the cartridge behind one of the Switch 2 exploits, and somebody now claims to have the file system exploit working on it. Here's what I can say about whether Civ 7 is being recalled, who has the exploit, and what ways in exist.

No Switch 2 firmware update arrived with the Ocarina of Time remake

Many people expected a system update to land together with the new Zelda. It didn't. As of now, the newest Switch 2 firmware is still 23.0.1. One user in Germany bought the game digitally, installed it, launched it, and stayed on 23.0.1. Others reported the same thing.

The cartridge tells a similar story. One user on the ReSwitched Discord put it into a console on 22.5.0, and it didn't even ask to update. A look inside the game showed it ships with SDK 22.2.5, with the update on 22.2.8. So far, nothing about this game has forced anyone onto a newer firmware. That doesn't mean an update isn't coming. It didn't come with Zelda.

The Ocarina of Time remake ran on PC before launch

Hours before launch, Ocarina of Time was running on a PC in a fork of a Switch 2 emulator. A clip of it has over 110,000 views. It's far from perfect. Notebookcheck reports anywhere from 20 to 60 fps, regular stutters, and colors so washed out that you can barely see Link. But think about that for a second. A brand new Zelda was on PC before the people waiting in line in New York got their copy.

I'm not showing where any of that comes from. What I can share is what people found inside. One user posted that the game's code name is Owl and that it runs on the same engine as Tears of the Kingdom. It looks like it was built on top of that game. There is even the chemistry engine in there, and leftover references to the Zonai.

Will the file system exploit keep working for future Switch 2 games

Some people have asked whether this keeps working for future games. Here's how it works for now. The file system exploit is what lets people copy their own game off the console, and it works on 23.0.1. A console that stays there can't run a game that requires something newer.

So it all depends on the next firmware and whether the exploit survives it. Nobody knows that yet.

Civilization 7 orders are being cancelled, but no recall has been shown

For anyone who missed it, there is a save exploit for the Switch 1 cartridge of Civilization 7. It only works on version 1.0.0 of the physical cartridge, and the cartridges already out there stay on that version.

A post went up on Switch 2 hacks saying a German Amazon reseller told a buyer the publisher has withdrawn the physical version because of technical and security related requirements. The seller offered a refund or the code in a box version. Other people got similar messages. A Spanish email talks about a recently discovered security vulnerability. Others told me their cheap copies got cancelled too, and on Reddit, people report cancelled Best Buy orders, one of them from a third party seller. Notebookcheck picked it up as well, and headlines are now saying recalled. I ordered mine from a tech store in Switzerland, and they cancelled it too. I ended up buying one for over 100 bucks on Ricardo, a secondhand online store.

At the same time, people keep getting their copies. Some got it at Walmart for $12 and at GameStop for $27. Others on Reddit got theirs delivered. Amazon Germany still listed 17 copies at about €7, and one user says they bought 16 of them. People also point out that some of these sellers want to resell at a higher price, and one of them doubled it. When someone in the Discord said it got recalled, one of the developers replied, "I highly doubt that."

So some sellers are cancelling orders. That part is real. Whether 2K or Nintendo ordered anything, nobody has shown yet. As for why anyone cares this much about one cartridge: it needs no modified save. You own the cartridge, and you're in.

Unverified claims of the file system exploit running on Civilization 7

Then this happened. One user on the Switch 2 hacks Discord says they got the file system exploit running on Civ 7 on 23.0.1, with no PC needed after the first install. They posted a screenshot, and that became a Reddit post with 18 upvotes. A second user says their own Civ 7 setup has been way less unstable than SmileBASIC.

I haven't been able to verify either one. The first user later wrote that they had handed their work to somebody else and that it only needs core FS acquisition to be finished. So it seems it's still not done. There's also a public fork of the Civ 7 exploit on GitHub trying the same thing, and its own page says the console locks up deep into the process. It's the same story elsewhere. Several people say they reached four out of four in private. That's the exploit's own progress counter, and four out of four means it's finished.

But nothing is public. The only public file system exploit is still the one on SmileBASIC. One developer put it well: what counts is the whole chain, and anything else is non-functional.

The Civilization 7 save exploit keeps improving

The save exploit itself keeps moving, though. A fix went out for Pico instability on Switch 1. Remember, the Pico types the whole exploit into the game chat, which takes about 20 minutes. Once it's installed, it starts from your save, so no more waiting. One user was pretty happy about that.

Somebody has also already ported a Game Boy emulator to Civ 7, running at "glorious 10fps" in their words. I love this community.

A visual novel demo launcher and a possible bug in a programming game

There's also a launcher built on a save exploit for visual novel demos. Its developer's page now lists both of the demos it used as pulled from the eShop, so my earlier note about one of them still being on the US store is out of date. A developer then ported it to a third demo, Hamidashi Creative, on the Japanese eShop. It was tested on a real Switch 2, printed hello world, and was merged a few hours later.

Now the limits. To get it in, you need a hacked Switch 1 and Nintendo save transfer. The project's own FAQ says it's not really an entry point like SmileBASIC. It's meant as a one click launcher for future exploits. My favorite part is a commit message on that repo, addressed to Nintendo employees watching it and wishing them a nice day.

There might be another one coming. A newer user posted research on a programming game on the Switch. They found a bug in its file functions and tested it on a Switch 2 on 23.0.1 by typing code into the editor. It's confined to the game's own save, so there's no code execution yet and nothing close to the kernel. It's also one post from one person. But a programming game you can type into is exactly what SmileBASIC was.

Homebrew menu and a Mesa graphics driver on Switch 2

On homebrew, one developer wrote that they have imported HB menu and full NRO launching. It's not released yet. NROs are the homebrew apps from the Nintendo Switch days.

The part I find crazy is the graphics. The Switch system doesn't include a general graphics driver, because every game ships with its own from Nintendo's SDK, so homebrew needs one too. The developer ported Mesa to the Switch 2, a driver that supports both OpenGL and Vulkan. In their words, it's a "stronger GPU than my laptop."

Someone asked the obvious question: does this lead to custom firmware? The developer answered, "It already allows for it to a degree, not full custom firmware." And on finding a way into the kernel, their answer was that they doubt it.

Balatro exploit progress and PS2 emulation on Switch 2

One developer is still working on Balatro and wrote about making progress, but can't promise anything. The problem is space. The Balatro save is limited to 16 megabytes, and according to one user, the exploit's readme asks for about 20. But the developer also found they can write to any save slot for any user on the console. So more users means more space, and it means a backup of the exploit can sit on another user.

Another developer released version 0.21 of their tool, which keeps running offline once it's loaded and survives sleep. They also showed PS2 emulation on the Switch 2, with GTA San Andreas at 6 to 8 fps. Civ 7 and Balatro support is planned once the physical copies arrive. All of that comes from the developer's own posts so far.

Mario Kart World mod, a ban error code and Nintendo's Switch 2 numbers

For Mario Kart World, a mod called Classic Grand Prix went up on GameBanana. It gives three laps on every track and no intermissions, which people have been asking Nintendo for since launch.

The ban side got a bit clearer too. A screenshot is going around with error 21245114. According to Nintendo's own support page, that code blocks online features for one specific game or service, so it's not everything on the console. It's still only one screenshot, and Nintendo hasn't confirmed this case.

For scale, Nintendo's new numbers up to the end of September are 26.35 million Switch 2 consoles and 16.48 million copies of Mario Kart World.

Switch 2 emulation: Donkey Kong Bananza, Tears of the Kingdom on Android and PlayStation 5

Donkey Kong Bananza is now running pretty smoothly on PC in an emulator that couldn't even load it a couple of weeks ago. Tears of the Kingdom got a native recompile on Android, running at 35 to 45 fps on an Android handheld. No game files are included; you bring your own.

On PlayStation 5, Ocarina of Time is already booting too. A user posted pictures of it, and some replies said the graphics aren't rendering properly yet, so it's a start but nothing more. Another developer posted a clip of a PS5 Switch 2 emulator running at 120 fps with frame generation on day five of working on it. That clip has over 63,000 views.

And the developer who was retiring and then wasn't has a pull request called Last Dance on a PS5 project. It adds experimental Switch 2 support to the app running on the PlayStation 5 port of the emulator, and the app itself is getting renamed. To be clear, the pull request itself says there's been no PlayStation 5 hardware test and that Switch 2 game compatibility is unverified. The developer is working on a first test version, and that means Mario Kart World on my PlayStation 5.

The same developer also pointed me to a feature I didn't get at first. A PS5 project has a feature called play together. You're the one with the jailbroken console, and the game gets streamed to your friend, who opens a browser and joins as a second player. Your friend doesn't need a PlayStation 5. I haven't tested it myself yet, but that's crazy work in my opinion.