A new update for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch OLED consoles has recently gone live, but it’s one that a vast majority of Switch owners likely didn’t notice. From time to time, Nintendo will release what is dubbed “rebootless” updates for Switch consoles. These patches are ones that Nintendo is able to make to Switch hardware without requiring a download on the user’s end. As such, since there is no download needed, these patches are often pretty minor and don’t do a whole lot. Still, adjustments have been made to the Switch all the same and we now know what Nintendo has chosen to do this time around.
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Noted by Nintendo Switch data miner @OatmealDome, the latest rebootless update for the platform dropped at the start of this week. Rather than make any key changes to the Switch UI or the console’s overall performance, Nintendo only “reshuffled” the list of banned words that aren’t able to be used on the hardware. It’s not known why this reshuffling happened, but it has been theorized that it was done to avoid false positives. Other than this small tweak, the only other addition that Nintendo made was adding new words in Russian that are banned in that language on the Switch.
While this might seem like a strange update for Switch consoles, Nintendo has pretty frequently been banning certain words on the platform over the course of its life cycle. As such, this patch is pretty much in line with what we’ve seen from Nintendo in the past.
Moving forward, it’s not known when the next major firmware update for the Nintendo Switch might release. The last time that a substantial patch for the console came out was at the end of October 2024 when update version 19.0.1 dropped. Nintendo hasn’t altered anything else tied to the Switch until this week’s rebootless patch rolled out.
Related: Nintendo Switch 2 Release Month Revealed in Most Credible Leak Yet
In all likelihood, Nintendo is much more focused on its successor to the Switch, which should likely be called the Switch 2. Nintendo has already informed fans that it will reveal its new Switch platform at some point before the end of March, but recent leaks have all but shown off everything that should be expected from the Switch 2 in advance of Nintendo sharing the news itself.
