Nintendo has assisted Japanese police in arresting a person allegedly promoting hacked save recordsdata of Nintendo 3DS sport Pokémon Sun.
As reported by TBS News and translated by Automaton, a 32-year-old man is suspected of violating Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act by promoting Pokémon Sun saves on-line obtained by way of unlawful means.
Police noticed listings for objects comparable to “save knowledge with over 800 Pokémon” being offered for ¥5,200 (round $34) which included not simply common Pokémon from the seventh era however myriad restricted version ones too, obtainable solely by way of theatre occasions and equally uncommon occasions.
The man was subsequently tracked down and the save recordsdata offered to Nintendo, which confirmed that they had been tampered with. The man’s pc and 37 video games had been seized from his residence, and he has since admitted to the costs however continues to be underneath investigation.
Violators of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act can withstand 5 years in jail and fines of greater than ¥5 million (round $33,000).
The Pokémon Company and Nintendo above it do not take kindly to these hacking or emulating its video games illegally, typically taking people and firms to courtroom themselves.
A takedown request in May 2024 noticed Nintendo goal 8,500 copies of Switch emulator Yuzu after the emulator itself was taken down two months prior. Its preliminary lawsuit in opposition to creator Tropic Haze stated the $70 game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo’s premiere online game launch of 2023, had been pirated a million instances earlier than it was even launched.
Other profitable lawsuits embrace these in opposition to sport file sharing web site RomUniverse, which was ordered to pay $2.1 million in damages to Nintendo in 2021, whereas the same case noticed it obtain greater than $12 million in damages in 2018. It additionally blocked GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from releasing on PC sport platform Steam.
The online game trade is at present ready with bated breath for the results of maybe the most important of all these lawsuits, nonetheless, as Nintendo sued Palworld developer Pocketpair in September. The open world survival sport dubbed “Pokémon with weapons” by followers has lengthy drawn comparisons to the long-lasting Nintendo franchise, nevertheless it’s taken a number of months for Nintendo to take motion.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.
