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Pirated Fire Emblem game focuses Nintendo’s ire on Chinese pirate sites
A gamer streamed the Switch game Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Douyu before its release, forcing a response from Nintendo
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Three days before the much-anticipated Nintendo Switch game Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released, one gamer in China was already showing off an exclusive early look on the country’s Twitch-like live streaming site Douyu. But this wasn’t an authorized tease of a hot new title. Viewers were quick to realize they were watching someone flagrantly play a pirated copy of an unreleased game.
How Douyu won the live-streaming war to become China’s Twitch
The streamer faced immediate backlash from the country’s myriad Nintendo fans. Eventually, Nintendo also appeared to respond. A screenshot of a cease and desist letter said to be from the company started circulating online. The letter was said to be sent to a number of Chinese websites where users were sharing pirated copies of Switch games.
We were unable to verify the authenticity of the letter, but some Chinese websites were quick to respond. Some websites and forums known for hosting pirated games have now stopped allowing users to download Nintendo Switch ROMs.
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One of those sites is the popular 91Wii site. Besides no longer offering downloads, the site administrator made a post bemoaning the closure of several other game piracy sites. The site now “has to think about what to do next,” the post said.
Switch Cracks Ba on Baidu Tieba (consider it something like a subreddit called Switch Cracks) also responded. The administrator posted an announcement asking members to stop making posts that openly request pirated games, adding that all such posts will be purged.
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Nintendo has a complicated relationship with China, which has long been a hotbed of game piracy. This isn’t even the first time a Chinese hacker has publicly flaunted a pirated Nintendo game ahead of its release.
Before the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon in 2016, Twitter user @3DSplayerChina tweeted at the producer of the games with a post bragging about Chinese gamers getting their hands on the anticipated titles early… and without paying.
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