Nintendo Assists Japanese Police Investigation Into Man Allegedly Selling Hacked Pokémon Saves on 3DS

Nintendo has assisted Japanese police in arresting a man allegedly selling hacked save files of Nintendo 3DS game 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 selling Pokémon Sun saves online obtained via illegal means.

Police spotted listings for items such as "save data with over 800 Pokémon" being sold for ¥5,200 (around $34) which included not just regular Pokémon from the seventh generation but myriad limited edition ones too, obtainable only via theatre events and similarly rare events.

The man was therefore tracked down and the save files presented to Nintendo, which confirmed they had been tampered with. The man's computer and 37 games were seized from his home, and he has since admitted to the charges but is still under investigation.

Violators of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act can face up to five years in prison and fines of more than ¥5 million (around $33,000).

The Pokémon Company and Nintendo above it don't take kindly to those hacking or emulating its games illegally, often taking individuals and companies to court themselves.

A takedown request in May 2024 saw Nintendo target 8,500 copies of Switch emulator Yuzu after the emulator itself was taken down two months prior. Its initial lawsuit against creator Tropic Haze said the $70 game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo's premiere video game release of 2023, had been pirated one million times before it was even released.

Other successful lawsuits include those against game file sharing website RomUniverse, which was ordered to pay $2.1 million in damages to Nintendo in 2021, while a similar case saw it receive more than $12 million in damages in 2018. It also blocked GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from releasing on PC game platform Steam.

The video game industry is currently waiting with bated breath for the result of perhaps the biggest of all these lawsuits, however, as Nintendo sued Palworld developer Pocketpair in September. The open world survival game dubbed "Pokémon with guns" by fans has long drawn comparisons to the iconic Nintendo franchise, but it's taken several months for Nintendo to take action.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.