SEVEN websites used by millions to illegally obtain popular games for free has been shut down in a major crackdown by the FBI.
For more than four years, players were able to obtain pirated copies of upcoming titles days or weeks before official release.
3
3
Between February and May this year, there were 3.2million downloads on the sites alone.
It’s estimated that the operation resulted a loss of $170million / £126million to the gaming industry.
The seven sites specifically made Nintendo Switch ROMs available, which users download and play from a hacked console or PC emulator.
A message saying that the website “has been seized” by the FBI now appears on all of them.
“This domain has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in accordance with seizure warrant issued pursuant to 18 U.S.C §§ 2323 issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia,” it reads.
The seven sites that have been shut down are:
- nsw2u.com
- nswdl.com
- game-2u.com
- bigngame.com
- ps4pkg.com
- ps4pkg.net
- mgnetu.com
Nintendo recently beef up its rules threatening to render consoles “unusable” if they’re found to be loading illegal software on them.
The firm’s user agreement states that you must not “bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services” or it may “render the Console and/or Software permanently unusable”.
Nintendo has also sued illegal ROM-sharing websites too.
Last year, Tropic Haze, a popular Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator developer, agreed to pay the the company $2.4million.
3
