Japan Arrests First Alleged Nintendo Switch Modder, Marking New Era in Video Game Piracy

The battle against video game piracy has reached a significant milestone in Japan, with the arrest of a 58-year-old man on January 15, marking the first time someone has been detained for modifying Nintendo Switch hardware. According to NTV News and translated by Automaton, the man is suspected of breaching the Trademark Act by altering second-hand Switch consoles to play pirated games. This involved welding modified parts onto the circuit boards of the consoles, enabling 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 that has been at the forefront of combating piracy, continues to take legal action against unauthorized distribution of its games. 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, had been pirated over a million times before its official release in 2023. Such legal efforts are increasingly common as companies strive to protect their intellectual property.

Nintendo's legal victories include a $2.1 million damages award against the game file-sharing site RomUniverse in 2021, and a $12 million award in 2018. Additionally, Nintendo successfully blocked the GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from being released on the PC gaming platform Steam. In a recent development, Koji Nishiura, Assistant Manager of Nintendo's Intellectual Property Division, shed light on the company's stance on piracy and emulation. He noted, "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."