Nintendo is targeting a Switch piracy subreddit with over 200,000 members to identify people who helped run “pirate shops.”

November 30, 2024

Nintendo’s ongoing battle against Switch game piracy continues, as the company is now targeting a Nintendo Switch piracy subreddit that was recently highlighted in a lawsuit against an alleged pirate.

It was in June (Thanks, TorrentFreak), that Nintendo initially filed a lawsuit against James Williams, also known as “Archbox”. It was alleged that he was “involved in creating, operating and promoting (and assisting others in creating, operating and promoting) a network of unauthorized online “shops” (nicknamed “Freeshops”) that “offering the public extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for download.” At the time, it called him “an active and prominent member of the Reddit community r/SwitchPirates,” and according to a new Report from Game Fileit sounds like the company is planning further investigation into the subreddit itself.

In one new court applicationThe statement said there had previously been a “comprehensive and thorough investigation into the operations, ownership and control of the Pirate Shops, including efforts to establish the identity of defendant Williams,” during which “we obtained various details about the Pirate Shops and found out about the defendant’s involvement in it. One of those things, it is alleged, is that the “defendant was the lead moderator of the Reddit community ‘SwitchPirates.'” Additionally, it goes on to say, “We have also become aware of several other online actors who appear to have played a role in the Pirate Shops were playing,” but they were unable to identify or locate them at the time.

It goes on to say that because Williams “chose not to appear in this promotion,” Nintendo has selected eight third parties who it believes may be able to “identify the unnamed individuals associated with “Collaborated with Mr. Williams in the operation of the Pirate Shops or in any other way.” Providing pirated Nintendo games to the public. These include Reddit, Discord and GitHub, and Nintendo is seeking permission to serve them with subpoenas (essentially written orders) that would require them to produce business documents.

It says the subpoenas would be “limited in scope” but would ultimately “seek information confirming and identifying account holders and the sources of any payments, as well as, where appropriate, aggregated traffic and access statistics for the Pirate Shops and related websites.” Online locations.” In the case of Reddit, Nintendo says it has “reason to believe that other accounts active in the SwitchPirates Community may also have been controlled by Defendant or may reflect other individuals who worked with Defendant have.”

At the time of writing, the subreddit has around 217,000 members, so it could be quite an extensive investigation. It’s worth noting that as of today, Nintendo isn’t specifically saying it’s shutting down the subreddit, but rather is “obtaining relevant information that NOA needs to file an infringement claim,” so it looks like more lawsuits could be filed. The legal department is obviously keeping an eye on it, so we’ll have to see if other actions might end up being taken. Nintendo has already taken action against the Switch emulator Yuzu this yearAnd Ryujinx has disappeared from the internet After the lead developer was reportedly contacted by the company, his team has been busy lately.

After turning the Switch into a giant emulator, Nintendo files a lawsuit claiming that emulators are “unlawful” and only suitable for piracy.