When you pull out the cartridge from a switch you get a message saying: „always close the software before removing the game card.“ why though? What’s the worst that could happen?

Question

When you pull out the cartridge from a switch you get a message saying: „always close the software before removing the game card.“ why though? What’s the worst that could happen?

In: 339

Answer 1

Really the worst that could happen is that the console is reading something important, which is done by running a current through the pins on the cart, and suddenly removing the cartridge could damage some circuitry. They surely accounted for that and took precautions. (I don’t think the console can write to the cart on the Switch the same way it used to be on the GBA/DS)

Realistically, it causes the software to crash and you’re gonna lose whatever progress you didn’t save yet, and also if you yank it while the game is saving, it could corrupt your save and you lose all progress. Also, on a really low level, removing the cart suddenly probably causes some unexpected behaviour in the software, which *maybe* could be exploited by hackers to crack the console.