The FBI has seized Nintendo Switch piracy site, Nsw2u, as “part of a law enforcement operation.”
The site – which hosted illegal Switch ROMs for players using emulators and hacked Nintendo systems – now sports a banner that states it was “seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in accordance with a seizure warrant issued pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 2323 issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia as part of a law enforcement operation and action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation” (thanks, Kotaku).
Dutch organization the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) – a government agency of the Netherlands responsible for investigating financial crimes – was also involved in the seizure.
It follows similar legal action from Nintendo against similar sites like Yuzu and Tropic Haze.
Last month, Nintendo reportedly banned Switch 2 players from using its online services after using the MIG Switch, a flash cartridge that can store pirated game files.
In May, Nintendo revised its Account Agreement and Account Privacy Policy to tighten the rules on emulation and piracy. The new guidelines, which reflect over 100 changes between the last version and this update, went into force on May 7.
Before the changes, US players had to agree that they “are not allowed to lease, rent, sublicense, publish, copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble all or any portion of the Nintendo Account Services without Nintendo’s written consent, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by applicable law.” This section has since been greatly extended in the new US agreement.
