Since the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, the company has generally been proactive to assure its intellectual property in both hardware and software is legally protected.
While publications like Engadget describe these actions as "within [Nintendo's] right", the company's hostile stance is much maligned within the video game community.
Nintendo took a step to create its "Nintendo Seal of Quality" stamped on the games it made to dissuade consumers from purchasing these bootlegs, and as it prepared the Famicom for entry to Western regions as the NES, incorporated a lock-out system that only allowed authorized game cartridges they manufactured to be playable on the system.
[5] A unique exception was the Christian video game developer Wisdom Tree, which was an offshoot of unlicensed game developer Color Dreams who previously published NES titles without Nintendo's approval, resorting to workarounds such as a voltage spike to temporarily knock the CIC chip offline, bypassing the NES's security.
[8] Unlike most developers of unlicensed NES games, Nintendo remained reticent and did not take legal action against Wisdom Tree, likely due to fears of a public relations backlash from parents and religious groups.
[9] In 2021, Gary Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison and order to pay $14.5 million in restitution for his role in a Nintendo hacking scheme.
[10] Critics claim that the punishment was excessive, while others argue that it was necessary to send a message to deter other hackers and protect intellectual property rights.
[11] Bowser's recent release from jail has brought attention to the impact that the massive amount of money he owes in restitution may have on his life and livelihood, as he claims to have only been able to pay off a small fraction of the fine so far.
[14] The defendant in the second claim failed to show up for initial court hearings, causing Nintendo to seek subpeonas for other members of the r/SwitchPirates group, including through Discord and Google records.
[19] In a related action, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to the organizers of the 2020 The Big House Super Smash Bros. tournament that was held entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year.
Nintendo continued to issue DMCA requests to remove source repositories as well as Discord servers established by these users to discuss their forks' development.
[38] An "ambitious" Metroid-based fan game, Metroid Prime 2D, which had been in development for 15 years, was taken down by Nintendo in August 2021, four months after a demo was released.
[41][42] Around the same month, Relic Castle, an unofficial Pokémon forum website has been taken offline after being allegedly received a DMCA takedown notice.
The game's creator Garry Newman made a post telling users that they may have noticed certain Nintendo-related contents removed.
Despite Nintendo's assertions that they are protecting their copyright, their common takedowns of free, not-for-profit games have been described as legally unnecessary, as they are normally used as a "last line of defense" against those seeking to profit from another's IP.
[30] Kyle Orland of Ars Technica remarked on this as well, saying that while cease-and-desist letters were nothing new in the gaming industry, Nintendo's stance was "wide-ranging" and "hardline".
Stephen McArthur, the "video game lawyer", was interviewed for the piece, and noted that most major publishers had rules for fan-created content that incorporates their IP.
He stated that, while publishers reserve the right to shut something down for any reason, blanket prohibitions on fan works are "legally unnecessary and also a terrible business and marketing policy".
While saying that Nintendo's lawyers have a "job to do" and that they should not be blamed, he still expressed his opinion that "the letter of the law can and does suck", and that the company was failing to distinguish between "things that are trying to steal from them" and "homages to their legacy".
[64] In 2023 Joshua Furr of DualShockers opined that "Nintendo's hypersensitivity at anyone who dares to mess with their IP without going through the official red-taped front door" made them a "villain" in the eyes of the gaming community, believing that the company's aggressive behavior towards perceived copyright infringement is concerning and unnecessary.
While Nintendo is likely to have agreed to a smaller fine in private, the large amount was seen as a deterrent to prevent similar sites from sharing ROM images.
The first leak began in May, and it included source code, designs, hardware drawings, documentation, and other internal information primarily related to the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii.
[89][90] The leak has the source code to several Nintendo 64 games including Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the console's operating system.