Topic: Digital Downloaded Games

Sorry but a newbie here and a grandpa.......I just bought a used Switch for the grandkids to keep at my house for when they visit. The girl i bought from also sold me two games pre loaded on the Switch......she did not factory reset it so her Nintendo Account with the two games are still on the console. I would just as soon wipe it clean and factory reset it. But she said then i would lose the games. Is there a way i can factory reset it without losing the games that i paid her for?

Did you try removing the account from the Switch? There's a guide on how to do so: https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a...

It only removes their save data and not the actual software.

If you remove that account, won't that remove the games as well since those downloads are most likely tied to that account? I'm pretty sure that if that Nintendo Account downloaded the games, then the only way to keep them is to keep the account on the console. You should be able to create a new user account for yourself and play them with that though.

@Ikeman Yeah, in your case, those two games you've mentioned will be lost if you factory reset the Switch, since you've got a secondhand console. As far as I know, any purchased games from the eShop are tied to one's Nintendo Account. So, assuming that the two downloaded games were bought and downloaded from the eShop, those are tied to her Nintendo Account. There is a way to initialize your console without deleting save data, but I didn't see any other methods that keep your games, unfortunately. I wish I could help more - hopefully this at least answered your question.

@Ikeman If you reset the console, or delete the previous owner's account, you lose access to play the games, because you don't have the account that owns those digital games. So, there isn't a way to keep those games if you do those things.

It's not a good scenario to buy a used Switch with preloaded games on it, because the ownership of those digital games is tied to the account of the previous owner. That previous owner can log into their Nintendo account and deregister their account from your console, and you lose the ability to play those games. And then you have no recourse to get the games back.

Forgive me if I've repeated anything said in a previous comment.😉