I received an email this morning from an online retailer in China, specializing in hardware mods for console. The kind of site where you’ll find Gateway 3DS, Cobra dongles, etc…

The email states that this specific shop will be accepting preorders soon for Team Xecuter‘s upcoming hacking device for the Nintendo Switch. Team Xecuter have stated this device will be compatible with all firmwares of the Nintendo Switch (although it is assumed a hardware revision of the SoC would void that claim).

Specifically, the retailer states:

 We will be soon taking preorders for the new Nintendo Switch line of revolutionary products by Team Xecuter. The products are not online on our shop yet, but we are exceptionally accepting offline preorders as we expect that the demand will largely exceed the available stocks. Regular customers can reserve stocks from us, no deposit required. This is limited to past customers only!

I am not mentioning the retailer’s name, or pointing you to their site, for multiple reasons:

First of all, I firmly believe that a free, software hacking solution will always be superior to a hacking dongle sold for profit. And since Fail0verflow and Reswitched have both demonstrated they have access to a hack similar to what Xecuter have in stock (here and here), there are good reasons to hope a software hack will ultimately be released to the Nintendo Switch scene. In that context, I would certainly not recommend to rush on a preorder for a device that has not been reviewed yet, and might end up being useless before even being released.

Secondly, although that retailer claims they are an official distributor, they are not on Team-Xecuter’s website’s list of resellers. It could be that Xecuter’s website is not up to date, but who knows. (Don’t get me wrong, I have no specific reason to believe that site is scamming anyone, but again I see no good reason for anyone to buy Team Xecuter’s device now, when it’s not even released.)

Assuming the claim is legit though, this gives us an indication that the device is getting close to a release date (however Team Xecuter have not made any recent statement regarding this). Whether we are against such devices, or just indifferent to them, there’s still excitement in the air, as the scene wants to know what hackers have up their sleeves for the Nintendo Switch.