A common motivation for the creation of unofficial patches is missing technical support by the original software developer or provider.
While unofficial patches are most common for the PC platform, they can also be found for console games e.g. in context of the emulation community.
If a software development kit (e.g. for modding) is available, fixes to the content can be easily produced, otherwise the community would need to create their own tools.
The case of Galoob v. Nintendo found that it was not copyright infringement by a user to apply an unauthorized patch to a system (while the scope was very specific to the Game Genie).
On the other hand, the case Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. found that user-generated maps were derivative works of the original game.
[26] An article of Helbraun law firm remarks, in the context of fan translations, that while redistributing complete games with adaptions most likely does not fall under fair use, distributing the modifications as a patch might be legally permissible; however, that conclusion has not been tested in court.