Nintendo has recently secured a notable win in its continuous fight against piracy, as the FBI effectively seized and dismantled NSW2U, one of the prominent Nintendo Switch piracy platforms. This operation was carried out under a seizure warrant granted by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Alongside NSW2U, additional comparable sites, such as NSWDL and Game-2u, were likewise shut down.
The operation included a partnership between the FBI and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) in the Netherlands. These platforms offered unauthorized links to download pirated Nintendo Switch titles, enabling users to play on emulators or modified Switch devices. This unlawful distribution practice resulted in NSW2U being included on the EU’s Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List earlier this year.
The European Commission acknowledged that stakeholders within the video game sector flagged the NSW2U sites for their involvement in indexing and managing links to unauthorized game copies. This enforcement action is part of Nintendo’s heightened initiatives to tackle the illegal distribution of its software. Previous targets of Nintendo’s legal efforts comprise Vimm’s Lair, LoveRoms, and EmuParadise.
Nintendo has also focused on emulators, successfully litigating against the Switch emulator Yuzu and convincing the developers of the Ryujinx emulator to halt their project. Although the creation of emulators is not illegal, the legal pressure exerted by Nintendo has proven to be too much for developers.
