GitHub Removes 144 Switch Mod-Chip Repositories After Nintendo DMCA Notice

GitHub has removed 144 repositories offering information and firmware for Nintendo Switch mod chips after Nintendo sent the platform a further DMCA takedown notice. Video Games Chronicle reports that the removals cover material relating to SX Core, SX Lite, Picofly and HWFLY. The action targets the software and information supporting those chips, putting firmware distribution at the centre of this latest enforcement effort.

In the notice described by VGC, Nintendo says the targeted firmware lets mod chips circumvent the Switch’s technological protection measures to run illegal copies of Switch games. Its technical argument focuses on the console’s startup process: Nintendo says the firmware bypasses the Switch’s boot sequence during operation. That is the connection the company draws between the firmware hosted in the repositories and the ability to defeat the console’s protections.

Nintendo’s legal position is that distributing this firmware constitutes unlawful trafficking in circumvention technology under the DMCA. The distinction matters: its complaint concerns the tools it says enable those protections to be bypassed, rather than simply the distribution of copied games themselves. The removal of repositories offering both firmware and information makes this an action against material supporting mod-chip use, with the company’s circumvention allegation providing the stated legal basis.

VGC also draws an important distinction around Gary Bowser’s guilty plea: it was not a court ruling definitively establishing that mod chips are illegal. That separates the legal significance of the plea from Nintendo’s allegations about the targeted firmware. The immediate outcome here is a hosting-platform decision in response to a takedown notice: GitHub determined that Nintendo’s notice provided sufficient grounds to remove the repositories.