If you own a Nintendo Switch and have a Nintendo account, we’ve got some bad news for you guys. Nintendo has just admitted that 160,000 user accounts have been hacked and had their login IDs and passwords stolen. The company is notifying users who have been affected by the hack. In an effort to curb the breach, Nintendo has apologies and disabled logging into your Nintendo Account through a Nintendo Network ID. It is believed that this was where the hackers got into the system.
The company also issued a statement that said, “This time, login IDs and password information were obtained illegally by some means other than our service, a phenomenon that seems to have been made by impersonating login to Nintendo Network ID (NNID) from around the beginning of April. We also confirm that there was an illegal login to some ‘Nintendo accounts’ via NNID using this impersonation login.” This goes on to confirm that it was indeed the Nintendo Network ID that was hacked. Nintendo is looking at resetting passwords sequentially on accounts that may have been hacked.
The company has also released a statement asking users to reset their passwords. The statement read, “Please reset your password the next time you use it. In that case, please avoid reusing the password that you have already used for other services. If you have already logged into your Nintendo account via NNID, please log in with your Nintendo account email address/login ID after the next login.”
Even though Nintendo does not have much of a presence in India as compared to Sony and Microsoft, the gaming giant is much beloved by gamers worldwide and users in India are no different. Many gamers have bought Nintendo Switch’s on the grey market while some have essentially bought the system abroad. And, the one good thing about the Nintendo E-store is that you can actually change your country of origin and check out all the games on offer. As Switch owners, we can safely say that the US store and Japanese store have some of the best games and tons of demos you can try out as well. So, if you do have an account on Nintendo, as Indian users, what we can do is basically reset the account and change any and all passwords associated with it, just to be safe.
The system has actually gone on to become a mega-hit as it has sold more than 52 million units since launch. But, if you’re a more of a Sony fan, you can check out the best games on the PlayStation 4, right here. Or, if you’re a gamer who owns all three systems including the PC, you’ll want to check out the mega list of games we’ve got, right here.