How the Nintendo Switch prevents downgrades

Downgrade prevention has been a cat-and-mouse game between consumers and companies since the inception of remote updates. The Nintendo Switch adopts a worrisome-strategy of preventing firmware downgrades by permanently modifying your device every time it updates. While this isn’t a new concept (the Xbox 360 was doing it back in 2007), it is part of a greater effort to prevent end users from modifying their devices to their liking.

The Nintendo Switch use an Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC, which comes with a fuse driver. This allows it to programmatically blow fuses - permanently modifying the device, making it impossible to revert to a previous state.

Despite being used in an anti-consumer manner, the technology is fascinating.

7 Comments

  1. 2018-04-27 10:00 am
    • 2018-04-27 12:43 pm
  2. 2018-04-27 2:26 pm
    • 2018-04-27 4:24 pm
      • 2018-04-27 6:17 pm
        • 2018-04-29 9:52 pm
  3. 2018-05-01 11:07 pm