Nintendo is once again making anti-piracy efforts as the Japanese company shifts its focus on a Switch piracy subreddit that has 200,000 members.
The subreddit is known as SwitchPirates and Nintendo told a federal court that it plans to subpoena the platform. This was in order for it to identify the members of the subreddit who allegedly worked with a supposed Switch pirate.
Nintendo Targets Switch Piracy Subreddit
Nintendo tracked down an alleged Switch pirate earlier this month by using a combination of Reddit posts and repair orders. The Japanese company then sued James "Archbox" Williams, who is from Surprise, Arizona.
This was for allegedly violating its digital copyrights by selling pirated copies of Switch games.
The pirate shops that the defendant was supposedly involved with include Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop, and NekoDrive. All of these will shut down following a cease-and-desist order in March.
Nintendo has now told a federal court in Washington State that several other members of the piracy subreddit were involved in the pirate shops as well. The company is asking permission to subpoena business records from a number of platforms, according to IGN.
These platforms include Reddit, Discord, and Google and the subpoena will help identify Williams' supposed associates. Nintendo stressed that its main goal with all of this is to pursue infringement claims against the individuals.
Lawyers representing the Japanese company said that Nintendo has reason to believe that there are other accounts active in the SwitchPirates subreddit that were also being controlled by the defendant. These could also be individuals who worked alongside Williams.
Continuous Legal Efforts
Nintendo noted that the subpoenas would be "limited in scope" but would help it acquire information that confirm or identify the account holders it is looking for. They would also help the company find the sources of any payments made and other details, Games Radar said.
The situation comes as the studio previously made efforts to take down Switch emulator Ryujinx and the latter's website is now in the former's control.
Ryujinx was taken down in early October 2024 and was the last remaining open-source and community-driven Switch emulator.
Some people speculate that Nintendo used legal pressure similar to what it had done with other Switch emulators. Others believe that it offered Ryujinx's head developer a payout in exchange for shutting down the emulator project altogether.
An announcement was posted on the Ryujinx Discord noting that the head developer was "offered an agreement" to stop his work on the project. This follows the situation that led to the shutdown of the Yuzu Switch emulator in March 2024, according to XDA.
