Video game piracy has entered a new era with the arrest of a 58-year-old Japanese man by Japanese police, marking the first time someone has been apprehended for modifying Nintendo Switch hardware. As reported by NTV News and translated by Automaton, the man was arrested on January 15 on suspicion of violating the Trademark Act. He allegedly modified Switch consoles to run pirated games before selling them. This was purportedly done by welding modified parts to the circuit boards of second-hand consoles, enabling them to run 27 illegally accessed games. The consoles were sold for ¥28,000 (approximately $180) each. The man has admitted to the charges and is under further investigation for potential additional violations.
Video game companies like Nintendo have been vigorously combating piracy. For instance, in May 2024, Nintendo issued a takedown request targeting 8,500 copies of the Switch emulator Yuzu, following the emulator's removal two months earlier. Nintendo's lawsuit against Yuzu's creator, Tropic Haze, highlighted that their flagship title, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, had been pirated over a million times before its official release in 2023. Legal actions against piracy are becoming more prevalent, with successful lawsuits such as the one against game file-sharing website RomUniverse, which was ordered to pay $2.1 million in damages to Nintendo in 2021, and another case in 2018 that resulted in over $12 million in damages. Additionally, Nintendo's legal efforts blocked the GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from being released on the PC game platform Steam.
This week, a patent lawyer representing Nintendo shed light on the company's stance on piracy and emulation. Koji Nishiura, Assistant Manager of Nintendo's Intellectual Property Division, discussed the legality of 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 underscores Nintendo's ongoing efforts to protect its intellectual property and combat piracy in the gaming industry.
