Nintendo Intensifies Efforts to Pursue Switch Pirates

Nintendo is still forging ahead with its determined crackdown on Switch users and modders who find themselves accused of piracy. Recently, a federal court document revealed that the company is on the hunt for more individuals to bring into the fold of this legal pursuit. This comes in the wake of Nintendo’s decision to take action against an infamous Switch modder linked to facilitating the piracy of their games.

This latest investigation is just another chapter in Nintendo’s long-standing legal saga aimed at safeguarding its intellectual property. The video game giant has a history of leveraging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to systematically dismantle leaks and shut down sites offering ROMS and emulators for its games and systems. Earlier in 2024, Nintendo clinched a $2.4 million settlement in a lawsuit against Tropic Haze, the operators behind the Yuzu Switch emulator, which has now been removed from all code repositories. Though the Yuzu project bit the dust, Tropic Haze remained vocal in opposing game piracy.

Even with a full plate of legal proceedings this year, Nintendo shows no signs of slowing down its efforts to serve more legal notices. A court filing out of Washington state, bolstered by insights from Stephen Totilo of Game File, indicates that Nintendo is reaching for more individuals in the aftermath of a probe into a well-known Switch pirate. Following Nintendo’s successful lawsuit against James “Archbox” Williams, the spotlight turned to the SwitchPirates subreddit, affiliated with Williams, which boasts over 216,000 members. After Williams lost a default judgment by not defending himself in court, Nintendo seeks the court’s green light to subpoena business records from platforms like Reddit, Discord, GitHub, Cloudflare, Google, and domain hosts such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Tucows to unearth Williams’ alleged co-conspirators.

Looking back at June 2024, when Williams was initially sued, Nintendo concurrently filed a lawsuit against Modded Hardware. This entity dealt in MIG Switch devices loaded with, or allowing access to, pirated Nintendo games. Ryan Daly, Modded Hardware’s head, had been hit with a cease-and-desist in March 2024, yet that did not deter him from continuing to sell these devices until legal action was initiated.

Nintendo’s series of legal triumphs underscores its zero-tolerance stance on the piracy of its intellectual properties. As anticipation builds for the release of the Switch’s successor, it remains to be seen how effective Nintendo’s ongoing investigations will be in quashing piracy once and for all.