Video game piracy has taken a significant turn as Japanese authorities have made a groundbreaking arrest related to the modification of Nintendo Switch hardware. On January 15, a 58-year-old man was apprehended by the Japanese police, marking the first such arrest in the country for this type of offense. He faces charges under the Trademark Act for allegedly tampering with second-hand Nintendo Switch consoles to enable them to play pirated games.
The man reportedly welded modified parts onto the circuit boards of these consoles, allowing them to run 27 illegally obtained games. These modified consoles were then sold for ¥28,000 (approximately $180) each. The suspect has confessed to the charges and is under further investigation for potential additional violations.
Nintendo, a company deeply affected by piracy, has been actively combating this issue. In May 2024, the company issued a takedown request targeting 8,500 copies of the Switch emulator Yuzu, following the emulator's removal two months earlier. This action was part of Nintendo's lawsuit against Tropic Haze, the creators of Yuzu, which highlighted that their flagship game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, had been pirated over one million times before its official release in 2023.
Nintendo's legal efforts against piracy extend beyond this case. In 2021, the company won a lawsuit against the game file-sharing site RomUniverse, securing $2.1 million in damages. Similarly, in 2018, another legal victory against RomUniverse resulted in over $12 million in damages awarded to Nintendo. Additionally, the company successfully blocked the GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from being released on the PC gaming platform Steam.
This week, Koji Nishiura, Assistant Manager of Nintendo's Intellectual Property Division, shed light on the company's stance on piracy and emulation. He noted the complex legal debate surrounding emulators, stating, "To begin with, are emulators illegal or not? This is a point often debated. While you can’t immediately claim that an emulator is illegal in itself, it can become illegal depending on how it’s used." This statement underscores Nintendo's ongoing battle to protect its intellectual property in the face of evolving piracy methods.
