Video Game Piracy Enters New Era as Japan Arrests Its First Alleged Modder of Nintendo Switch Consoles

Video game piracy has entered a new era with the first-ever arrest in Japan of an individual accused of modifying Nintendo Switch hardware. According to NTV News and translated by Automaton, a 58-year-old man was arrested on January 15 for allegedly violating the Trademark Act. He is suspected of modifying Switch consoles to run pirated games and then selling them.

The process involved welding modified parts onto the circuit boards of second-hand consoles, enabling them to play pirated games. The man is accused of loading these consoles with 27 illegally accessed games and selling them for ¥28,000 (approximately $180) each. He has confessed to the charges and is under further investigation for potential additional violations, as stated by the police.

Nintendo, a company long embroiled in the fight against piracy, has taken significant legal steps to combat this issue. 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. The lawsuit against Yuzu's creator, Tropic Haze, highlighted that Nintendo's flagship title, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, was pirated over one million times before its official release in 2023.

Legal actions against piracy are becoming increasingly common. Nintendo successfully sued the game file-sharing website RomUniverse, resulting in damages of $2.1 million in 2021 and over $12 million in 2018. Additionally, Nintendo blocked the GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from being released on the PC gaming 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."