Tag: Legal - Page 4
News US Law Firm Opens "Switch Joy-Con Drift" Class Action Investigation
Calling on users experiencing issues
Anger over Joy-Con drifting issues appears to have finally boiled over, with a US law firm reportedly preparing to file a class action lawsuit against Nintendo. Details about this come straight from Chimicles, Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith – the firm currently looking into the possibility of a such a...
Random Nintendo Shuts Down Its Anti-Piracy Website
Farewell, angry Mario
Like many other video game companies, Nintendo does not tolerate piracy. Over the past year, we have heard about the Japanese publisher and developer taking action against individuals selling modified systems and sharing ROMS online. This has resulted in a number of legal battles and some hefty fines. As part of its measures...
News Security Researcher Avoids Prison After Hacking Into Nintendo's Network
And Microsoft's servers
Nintendo and Microsoft are once again making headlines together, but this time around it's not exactly what you might expect. 24-year-old security researcher Zammis Clark – also known as Slipstream or Raylee online – has pleaded guilty in London's Crown Court to hacking into Nintendo and Microsoft networks. The former...
News BadLand Breaks Its Silence Regarding Delayed Wii U Version Of Axiom Verge
"All this is part of a defamation campaign"
Who would have thought that a Wii U game could cause so much drama in 2019? We recently reported on the news that Limited Run Games is finally releasing the Wii U version of Axiom Verge after a costly legal tussle with the Spanish company BadLand Games. The two firms had signed a deal back in 2017 to...
Random Tokyo's Unofficial Mario Kart Service Really Wants You To Know It's "Unrelated To Nintendo"
Stickers solve everything
Nintendo might have won the lawsuit against Tokyo's Mari Mobility company - formerly known as MariCar - but somehow the go-kart business continues to bite back. Even though the company was required to pay 10 million yen (roughly USD$88,000) in damages last year and immediately stop wearing Mario-themed outfits, it's now...
News It Is Now Illegal To Sell Unauthorised Game Keys In Japan, Save File Editors Also Banned
No more cheating
Japan has revised its Unfair Competition Prevention Act, introducing several changes which will significantly affect the modding scene and, potentially, several wider gaming circles, too. Essentially, game save editors and console-modding services are now declared illegal, with offenders potentially facing fines of up to five...
News Bethesda's Fallout Shelter Lawsuit Against Warner Bros. Has Now Been "Amicably Resolved"
Official statement released today
You may remember that in June last year, Bethesda filed a lawsuit against Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros. over the new Westworld mobile game. Over half a year later, Bethesda and Behaviour Interactive have now stated that the lawsuit has been "amicably resolved". Originally, Bethesda argued that Behaviour...
Random Backpack Kid Suing Epic For Inclusion Of Floss Dance Move In Fortnite
Join the club
Yesterday, we found out Alfonso Ribeiro - who played Carlton Banks in the early '90s television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - would be suing Epic Games for adding his character's dance move to its popular free-to-play multiplayer title Fortnite. Ribeiro is not the first famous person to take legal action against the video game...
News Nintendo Will Be Taken To Court Over Its "Illegal" eShop Pre-Ordering System
The story continues
As regular readers of the site may remember, earlier this year Nintendo found itself in a spot of bother with the Norwegian Consumer Council over its digital pre-order system. Currently, Nintendo refuses to offer cancellations or refunds on pre-orders made through the eShop, even when games are purchased months before their...
Random Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Actor Suing Epic For Adding Carlton Dance Move To Fortnite
The price of success
The success of Fortnite has unsurprisingly placed it in the firing line on a number of occasions. It's been accused of promoting violence and gambling to children and has been targeted for copyright infringement. The developer PUBG Corp - known for Player Unknown's Battlegrounds - even tried to take legal action against the...
News Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against California Man For Selling Hacked Systems
Laying down the law
In recent months, Nintendo has taken a strong stance against video game piracy worldwide. In an effort to continue the good fight, Nintendo is now taking legal action against a man located in Orange County, California who has allegedly been selling hacked consoles, pirated versions of the company's games and tools to help users...
News Chinese Bureau Receives Plaque From Nintendo For Enforcing Copyright Laws
A job well done
Nintendo is serious about protecting its intellectual properties. Recently, the Japanese company has cracked down on trademark and copyright infringement in different locations around the globe. In an attempt to spread the message far and wide, it has now awarded a plaque to the Shenzhen Bureau for "protecting copyrights" and the...
Random Japanese Man Named Miyamoto Arrested For Selling Modded Super Famicom Mini
No, not that one
A 39-year-old man located in Japan has been arrested by police for selling modded Super Famicom Classic Mini consoles to three individuals in online net auctions. According to a report by Asahi via Nintendo Soup, the man added a total of five games to each of the modified systems and then resold them for approximately 61,500 yen...
News Nintendo Wins $12 Million From Trademark And Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
An expensive settlement
Earlier this year in July, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against two ROM and emulator websites at the federal court in the US state of Arizona for trademark and copyright infringement. The latest development is the owners and operators of these now-defunct websites - a married couple - have agreed to a settlement exceeding $12...
News Nintendo's Legal Tussle With Colopl Rumbles Into A Fourth Hearing
Legal eagles
Back in January, we reported that Japanese developer Colopl was being taken to court by Nintendo over five patents which the latter claims were violated in the game Shiro Neko Project (aka White Cate Project). This legal battle has been rolling on all year, with Nintendo adding a sixth infringement - regarding a system of connecting...
News Tokyo's Unofficial Mario Kart Service Continues To Dress Up Riders After Nintendo Wins Lawsuit
Perhaps a blue shell will sort this out
Even the law can't stop Tokyo's Mari Mobility company, formerly known as MariCar. After last month's reports the unlicensed Mario Kart business would be required to pay 10 million yen (roughly $88,000) in damages and immediately stop wearing Mario-themed outfits, it was believed Nintendo had finally got its...
News There Will Be No More Drifting Around Tokyo In Unlicensed Mario Karts, As Nintendo Wins Lawsuit
Game over
Japan can be both a weird and wonderful country at times with robot restaurants and cat cafes. You might have also heard about an unlicensed Mario Kart ride company located in Tokyo. Even the Australian actor Hugh Jackman, best known for playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies, has spotted these karts in action. Being a completely...
News Former Telltale Employee Takes Legal Action Following Mass Layoffs
No surprises here
Telltale Games has now been hit with a class-action lawsuit. A disgruntled former employee is suing the San Francisco-based company on behalf of himself and his fellow laid-off workers. In the filed complaint, Vernie Roberts said Telltale let go of the employees without cause and without providing them advanced notice in writing...
News Belgian Government Launches Criminal Investigation Into EA Over "Illegal" FIFA Loot Boxes
Could end up in court
The Belgian government has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into FIFA developer EA over a potential breach of gambling laws active in the country. Earlier this year, the country's Gaming Commission declared that loot boxes present in Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and EA's FIFA 18 would...
News Illegal Game Sharing Site Mocks Nintendo's Recent Legal Actions With Trolling Video
Introduces new retro emulation
If you're a regular reader of these very pages, you may well be aware that Nintendo has been on something of a takedown streak just lately; yesterday we saw that Nintendo of America had enforced the removal of a fan-made Pokémon project, and countless stories of emulation sites seeing a similar fate have been do
News Nintendo Enforces Takedown Of Fan-Made Game Creator Pokémon Essentials
Eleven years after it first launched
If you've been following our recent stories on Nintendo's battle against piracy, you'll likely be aware that the company recently filed a number of lawsuits against emulation sites, sparking the closure of a major player in the process. Continuing this, and sticking to its reputation of being unashamedly...
News Nintendo And ROM Website Owner Looking To Avoid Lengthy Court Proceedings
Hoping to settle matter as soon as possible
Since Nintendo filed a lawsuit at the federal court in the US state of Arizona last month against the owner of two notorious ROM and emulator websites, a series of wider events have unfolded. The latest update on the original matter comes in the form of a new court filing
"It's not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences"
Recently, we heard the news that Nintendo had filed a lawsuit in the US state of Arizona, calling out two ROM and emulator websites for unfair competition and copyright and trademark infringement. It appears that this has helped spark a new level of fear among such...
Feature What Does Nintendo's Shutdown Of ROM-Sharing Sites Mean For Video Game Preservation?
Is gaming history in danger of being lost?
The recent news that Nintendo is taking legal action against two sites which illegally distributed ROMs has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response, and rightly so. The individuals sharing these files online care little for the intellectual property rights of the developers who slave away to make...
News Former Tiny Metal Staffer Retracts Accusation Of Kickstarter Embezzlement
"Please allow me to apologize again for my actions"
Towards the end of last year, there was controversy surrounding the funding of the Advance Wars-esque turn-based strategy title Tiny Metal. The issues stemmed from Project
News Nintendo Shuts Down JavaScript GBA Emulator Hosted On Development Platform
Serious action
News recently emerged Nintendo had filed a lawsuit against two ROM and emulator websites owned by the same Arizona-based company. Now, in related but separate news, Nintendo has shut down a repository on the developer platform GitHub - which allowed users to access Game Boy Advance games through a JavaScript-based emulator...
News Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against Two Notorious Arizona-Based ROM Websites
Serious business
Nintendo has reportedly filed a lawsuit at the federal court in the US state of Arizona earlier this week, with the publisher calling out two ROM and emulator websites - allegedly owned by the same Arizona-based company - for unfair competition as well as copyright and trademark infringement. Nintendo is requesting statutory damages...
News Japanese Man Arrested By Police For Selling Modified Pokémon GO Plus Accessories
Says he didn't realise it was illegal
Japanese authorities have reportedly arrested a 37-year-old man from Japan's Chiba prefecture for selling Pokémon GO Plus modification services. Despite claiming that he didn't know his activities were illegal, the man was arrested for violating Nintendo’s trademark by offering a Pokémon GO Plus...
News Germany Bans Retailers From Listing Video Game Pre-Orders With Vague Release Dates
A win for consumer rights
There’s currently plenty of commotion regarding micro-transactions in video games, and now a ruling by German courts means vague release dates for pre-orders of video games are no longer allowed. According to Heise, and verified by Eurogamer.de, the ruling came after a local consumer protection group raised the issue...
Much-needed clarification
When Japanese mobile developer, Colopl, announced a new White Cat Project game (also known as Shiro Neko Project) for the Switch last week during its 4th anniversary live stream, there was widespread confusion as to how it even got the go-ahead. At the start of this year in January, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against this...
News Nintendo's "Illegal" Pre-Order System Issue Has Been Passed On To German Authorities
In breach of EU consumer law?
Norway's authorities have claimed that Nintendo is in breach of EU consumer law, asking Germany (the home of Nintendo of Europe) to take action. Earlier this year, the Norwegian Consumer Council argued that four major online gaming stores had broken the Norwegian Consumer Act by employing...
News Warner Bros. Hits Back At Bethesda's Fallout Shelter Lawsuit, Describes Claim As "Baseless"
How will things unfold?
Just last week we reported on the news that Bethesda had filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive over the new Westworld mobile game. The studio claimed that the game uses code that was originally created for Fallout Shelter, and there seemed to be some pretty fishy evidence to back...
News PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Creator Drops Lawsuit Against Fortnite
Victory legale
About a month ago PUBG Corp - the company behind the incredibly successful "Battle Royale" title PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - issued a copyright violation lawsuit against Epic Games, makers of Fortnite. In case you've been living under a rock for the past year, Fortnite is currently one of the biggest...
News Epic Is Suing Former Employee For Leaking Major Fortnite Details Before Release
Claims a non-disclosure agreement has been breached
A former employee of Epic Games is reportedly being sued by the company for leaking details surrounding Fortnite's fourth season, sharing information on its themes and plot points before its official release. As the game's third season was coming to a close, excitement began to rise amongst...
News Bethesda Sues Warner Bros. Claiming Fallout Shelter Code Has Been Stolen
New Westworld mobile game looks suspicious...
Fallout series developer and publisher Bethesda is reportedly suing Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive over the new Westworld mobile game, claiming it uses code originally created for Fallout Shelter. Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play game which recently arrived on Nintendo Switch, tasking...
News Federal Government Is Officially Investigating Nintendo For Possible Patent Infringement
Switch sales may be put on hold
Following accusations from accessories company Gamevice that Nintendo violated its patent on a “Combination Computing Device and Game Controller with Flexible Bridge Section”, the US Trade Commission has now officially launched an investigation into the complaint. While Gamevice’s initial lawsuit filing last...
News Nyko Is Being Taken To Court Over A Bricked Switch Console
You could say the company was "in the dock"...
Switch owner Michael Skiathitis has filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. district court of central California against peripheral manufacturer Nyko after one of the company's docks bricked his console. Nyko's docks proved popular upon release as they were smaller and cheaper than the real thing, but...
News Niantic Settles Pokémon GO Fest Class Action Suit With $1.6 Million Payout
That's a lot of microtransaction revenue
Remember Pokémon GO Fest? It was supposed to be the crowning glory of Niantic's popular smartphone title, but it ended in chaos thanks to numerous technical problems which prevented many of the players present from even taking part. Despite efforts to smooth things over after the du
News That Japanese "Dragon Quest Law" Is Actually An Urban Myth
The creators behind the franchise spill the beans
Those of you versed in video game history will be aware of a story relating to the astonishing popularity of Dragon Quest, one of Japan's most beloved RPGs. Back when the series was just starting out on the Famicom, kids and adults alike would bunk off school or work to buy it and spend an entire day...
News The Games Industry Reacts To The White House's Violent Games Showreel
"Everyone associated with those games should be ashamed of themselves"
Last week, U.S. president Donald Trump held a meeting with industry executives to discuss the issue of violence in video games, a meeting which was viewed by many as a way of scapegoating interactive entertainment in relation to the recent spate of school shootings in the...
News White House Meeting With Industry Execs Focuses On Violence In Video Games
"This is violent, isn’t it?"
Yesterday, U.S. president Donald Trump held a meeting with video game executives regarding the issue of violence in video games, an event which was triggered by a recent series of high school shootings in the country. Trump himself has stated the opinion that the shooting in Parkland, Florida could have...
News Nintendo is Suing Mobile Game Company Colopl For $40 Million
Ouch!
Nintendo has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Japanese mobile game company Colopl, currently asking for a rather staggering $40 million in damages. According to an official statement from Colopl, Nintendo has claimed that five tech patent rights have been violated in the game Shiro Neko Project. One of these patents is said to involve...
News Tiny Metal Director Accused Of Scamming Kickstarter Backers To Fund Game
"Toxic employee" attacks Project Phoenix director
Remember Project Phoenix? It was a 2013 Kickstarter project which raised a whopping $1,014,600 from 15,802 backers off the back of the lofty promise that it would unite Japan's RPG talent to create the ultimate real-time strategy title. In 2015 director and project leader Hiroaki Yura...
News Nintendo Takes Down Super Mario 64 Online Videos And Creator's Patreon
But mod remains available for download
A short time ago we reported on Super Mario 64 Online, an ingenious mod which allows up to 24 players to inhabit the world of Super Mario 64. Its creator, Kaze Emanuar, was bullish about his chances of avoiding Nintendo's legal gaze, but it would seem that the Japanese giant has finally had enough. It has...
News Federal Court Says Police Sketch Patent Asserted Against Miis Should Never Have Been Granted
Another legal victory for Nintendo
Nintendo is a cash-rich company with plenty of unique ideas, so it should come as no surprise to learn that companies looking to make a fast buck in patent disputes target the Japanese veteran on a regular basis. However, Nintendo's deep pockets mean that it's quite prepared to fight such claims, and last week a...
News Fan-Made Zelda Title Breath Of The NES Gets Hit With Inevitable Takedown Notice
Development will continue, as planned
When we reported on Breath of the NES, Winter Drake's 8-bit take on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the indie developer made it clear that if Nintendo did decide to take legal action to prevent distribution of the game then production would co
News United States Appeals Court Rules In Nintendo's Favour In Tomita Technologies 3DS Patent Case
Another one bites the dust
It looks as if the saga of Seijiro Tomita's patent case against the Nintendo 3DS is finally coming to an end. The United States Appeals Court has just confirmed that handheld console does not use technology covered in a patent asserted by Tomita Technologies USA, Inc. and Tomita Technologies International, Inc, stating...
News Turns Out That Leaked Nintendo Switch Was Stolen And Illegally Resold
Those responsible "under investigation by local law enforcement"
Remember that Switch console which got opened up and recorded by NeoGAF user hiphoptherobot? Turns out it was actually stolen by an employee of a U.S. distributor in an "isolated incident", and was illegally resold. The individuals responsible are apparently "under investigation" and...
News Nintendo Shuts Down Another Pokémon Fan Project
"I'm sorry everyone, but Pokémon Prism is cancelled"
A short while ago Nintendo made the news for shutting down Pokémon Uranium, a fan-made title which gained so much positive press it was even nominated at the 2016 Game Awards this year - before it and Metroid II remake AM2R were
News NES Visual Compendium Dispute Comes To An End, Kickstarter Resumes For Final 24 Hours
A happy end
Bitmap Books appears to have come to some agreement with Nintendo of America regarding the intellectual property dispute on its NES: A Visual Compendium book. The publication - which is part of Bitmap's Visual Compendium range - had proved to be a massive crowdfunding success on
