TLDR: A Switch 2 game sold as brand new to me has scratches on it's pins, indicating use (seen in photo). Can anyone here confirm if brand new games are supposed to come like this? Or, if you have any unwrapped brand new games that have never been inserted in a console, could you please check for me if the pins have any scratches on them?
I'm pretty annoyed because I just bought a "Brand New" copy of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition from EB Games in Australia, and it appears to have been used. It has scratches on the gold pins. You can see them in the photo, but it's very hard to tell from the picture, you have to zoom in and look really closely for a faint line going down every pin. I've not inserted it in my Switch at all yet. Now, I personally know that these scratches are completely normal for Switch 1 & 2 games (even DS & 3DS). They are not generally a reason for concern. Every single Switch game you own should have these scratches if you've ever used them - they're normal. But this is supposed to be brand new. This to me indicates EB Games sold me a used copy. Also, as usual in Australia, like seemingly every store here, they annoyingly don't sell ANY brand new games with the original plastic wrap on them, meaning issues like this can in theory easily occur.
Other then it not having plastic on it, the game case itself is perfect looking condition on the outside - it appears to be brand new. The only thing off about the case was that when I got home and opened it, it had a very tiny white hair sitting inside it that looks like it came from a short-haired dog. It also had just a few very tiny flake-like white specks the size of dust inside it too.
Really, everything seems to point to that they sold me a used game as a brand-new one. But I'm not 100% sure yet. The only reason I'm slightly skeptical is because I'm wondering if the games possibly come with those scratches when it comes from the factory or if they're tested before arriving in stores (I doubt it, but it's just a thought). Does anyone here have any unwrapped brand new Switch games, or, ideally, Switch 2 games that you've never played that you can check for scratches for me? It has to be a cartridge that has NEVER been inserted into the console even once, otherwise it's almost certain it will have these scratches. If I can prove brand new games aren't supposed to have these scratches, I can know for certain that they sold a used game to me. I have a couple of wrapped Switch 1 games, but I was hoping to save them for when I do an unboxing video of them, which I was going to do when I get around to playing them.
Update: Okay, to save you some reading time, from what people are telling me in the replies below, this seems to be almost certainly a normal thing, even for brand new games. Apparently the games do get tested before being sent out, and the pins get scratched in the process. I'm not sure about the hair that was in it, though. I'd still appreciate if anyone check a copy of their own unused cartridges for these scratches. I'm a collector like many of you, so I get it if you don't want to open any games that are still wrapped until you want to play it; I'm the same. I was just wondering if anyone who has an already-unwrapped copy might be able to check.
I have no firsthand knowledge of the subject, but I would assume they get inserted at the factory as part of QA. How else would they make sure everything works as expected?
Been an engineer in manufacturing for many years. I'd think there's a really good chance it's manufacturing QA, whether by hand or by machine
If the cartridge works, who cares? It'll have marks on it the second you use it. Presumably this isn't the kind of game you're gonna try to save for decades to resell
I don't know how that would work. They make millions of these cartridges, and if a machine were to grip the top of the cartridge in order to push it into a consoles cartridge slot, I don't think it would be able to fit all the way in. Then there's also the fact that, how would a machine be able to confirm that the Switch cartridge definitely works? I think you would need human labor for that, and I don't see how a bunch of human laborers would be able to test millions of cartridges on thousands of consoles. It would just cost too much money.
Edit: Another thing. It's not really noticeable in the photo, but these scratches are not perfectly straight lines. They look like they've been inserted into the console by human hands. If it was a machine, while I don't really know anything about manufacturing, you would think that a machine inserting a cart would create perfectly straight-lined scratches every time.
That's why you test a sample. One every hundred or so. QA is most likely done by humans. Every mass production industry does it. You'd be pretty upset if they just didn't bother and your shit didn't work.
Okay. Based on what most people are saying to me, I think you're right the games are tested by humans. It does make more sense the more I think about it. I'm not 100% sure yet that they're all tested, because like you suggested, it might just be every hundred or so, or whatever the number may be. If that's the case, I'm totally okay with humans testing the cart by inserting it into something; I guess the problem I have then shifts to the fact that these stores only sell games with the plastic wrap already taken off. If every cartridge has these scratches on it, how the hell can you tell the difference between a real brand new game and a used one? For all we know, they could have intentionally put a used game in a brand-new case to sell a used game for more. Or, perhaps more likely, a simple accidental mix-up. I don't see how a mixup would be hard. They don't actually store the games in their cases, they store them in a drawer behind the counter - I think in some sort of little cartridge pouch. I think they're all labeled, but it seems like a very easy way for them to mistakenly put a used game in a new case. If the plastic wrap was kept on, this wouldn't be a problem.
To answer this question, you don't plug the cartridge-under-test into a regular Switch console. You plug it into a custom test rig, and the test rig has custom electronics and programming to interrogate the functions of the pins. It would probably also read the entire contents of the ROM and compute a hash to verify that the correct software is loaded.
Given what they sell these cartridges for, i think that would certainly be within the realm of economic possibility in a factory setting. A lot of electronics still get final assembly into enclosures by hand.
That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the input. It's also nice to know there's still a lot of human work involved in these things.
This has been a thing for decades now... they still do it today.
Okay, well thanks for the lesson then 😀. I had no idea because I've never looked into anything around manufacturing of electronics. I just assumed millions of cartridges would be too time-consuming and expensive economically to work on.
Why do you think they would have an actual console that they get inserted into?
It's quite likely they have a programming and/or test system that let's it get automatically inserted, and then programmed with the software and validated that it wrote correctly, maybe some self-test operation, and then packaged and shipped.
As for line straightness, machines aren't perfect either, if it doesn't have to be perfectly straight it likely won't be, why would they spend time making the machine grab the cartridge exactly the same way every time to make straight lines if it works just fine without being perfectly straight?
Other people here have suggested they use a specialised test system. It's quite obvious to me now that I think about it and makes perfect sense.
Speaking again from a complete lack of knowledge about how these things work, my assumption would be that a machine is programmed to move and perform actions in a very specific order in the same exact way every single time. I could see though how there could be a little bit of shakiness that could sometimes cause imperfect straightness in the lines, but my assumption (not that I'm saying I'm correct, necessarily) would be that only some of the carts would be left with imperfectly straight lines. If it was shaky all the time, you would think it would greatly increase the risk of damaging something, after all.
There's a certain amount of permitted lost/non-functional products off a manufacturing line. They don't make the machines as precise and perfect as they can, that costs too much, they make them as fast and cheap as possible and if 5% of the widgets get busted or don't work it's likely an acceptable margin of failure to just reject those and move on.
It'd cost more to make the machines better than to just throw those items away or scrap them to some company that could fix or repurpose them.
Automated testing would use a special rig not the switch itself. And it would have specialized grippers, maybe even with suction cups. Might be human testing though, just saying automated can't necessarily be ruled out just because of the size of the cartridge.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-4aJSSHyk&t=115s&pp=2AFEkAIB0gcJCWQCo7VqN5tD
While I can't say it's exactly like this, it's like this.
Basically, they don't treat the cartridge like a game, but like a piece of hardware that responds to certain inputs correctly and has the right data on it, and returns that data at an acceptable speed.
Game testing isn't the same thing as cartridge testing.
Appreciate the YouTube link. And I understood that thanks. I knew they wouldn't be literally booting up the game and playing it. It's just a matter of whether the correct data is on the cart and can be read correctly.