Nintendo Switch 2 Buyers in Russia Face Legal Access Restrictions to Key Services

Users of the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 gaming console in Russia will face restrictions on legal access to various services provided by the Japanese company, as reported by «Izvestia.» This includes limitations on purchasing digital versions of games through the Nintendo eShop, using the GameChat voice function, reaching technical support, and other features. Global sales of the Switch 2 are set to commence on June 5, 2025.

Additionally, individuals in Russia will not be able to utilize the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, the GameShare feature for inviting other users to gaming sessions, and the Virtual Game Card system for transferring digital games between consoles. In the absence of tech support, users will also miss out on service maintenance.

In May of this year, Nintendo updated its security policy, introducing console bans for unauthorized use of games and services, including piracy and emulation. For reasons of security and moderation, devices will record the final three minutes of voice and video chats.

Many features will require users to register accounts in other regions and change their IP addresses. However, Nintendo may choose to block such accounts.

The Japanese company halted the sale of games and the supply of consoles in Russia in March 2022 following the onset of military actions in Ukraine. Nintendo put the eShop into maintenance mode after terminating transactions in Russian rubles. In the spring of 2023, the company ceased its operations in Russia.

Despite these restrictions, the Switch 2 will offer support for the Russian language, with games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza being localized.

Yaroslav Meshalkin, managing partner at the digital communications agency Heads’made, points out that Nintendo products remain popular among Russian gamers. He attributes this demand to the «special cultural status of the Nintendo brand.»

Meshalkin notes that Russian gamers continue to register accounts in other countries to maintain access to game libraries and digital purchases. He considers the potential for blocking such accounts as theoretical, but acknowledges that widespread use of gray payment schemes and account trading could lead to specific measures restricting access to the eShop.

The average price of the Switch 2 in Russia is expected to range from 50,000 to 65,000 rubles. The console features an Nvidia T239 chip with eight ARM Cortex-A78C cores, as well as a graphics processor based on the Ampere architecture with 1,536 CUDA cores.