FBI seizes popular website used by Nintendo Switch players
The war against video game piracy just escalated as federal investigators have shut down one of the most notorious sites for downloading illegal Nintendo Switch games.
The FBI's latest operation has taken aim at a network of websites that were costing the gaming industry millions of dollars in lost revenue.
As reported by Kotaku, Nsw2u, had become a go-to destination for people wanting to download pirated Switch games.
The site hosted what are called ROMs - digital copies of games that users could then play on hacked Nintendo Switch consoles or PC emulators.
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Similarly, websites like ps4pkg.com hosted a library of PlayStation games that users could download illegally.
However, this popularity also made the site a major target for law enforcement and game companies who were losing substantial revenue to the illegal downloads.
Now, when users go onto the website they will be met with a notice confirming the seizure, which the FBI says is in accordance with a warrant issued by the United States District Court in Georgia.
"Between February 28, 2025, and May 28, 2025, records indicate a total of 3.2 million downloads occurred on these sites from the most used download service," the FBI's official website reads. "These actions resulting in an estimated loss of $170 million."
It continued: "As part of the actions announced today, the FBI has obtained authorization to seize the domain of multiple sites, to include nsw2u.com, nswdl.com, game-2u.com, bigngame.com, ps4pkg.com, ps4pkg.net, and mgnetu.com.
"These domains hosted and facilitated access to the pirated video games. Anyone visiting these sites will now view a seizure banner that notifies them the domain has been seized by federal authorities."
The FBI added that the crackdown was assisted by law enforcement in the Netherlands.
The European Union had already flagged Nsw2u as a problem, adding it to their Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List back in May.
Nintendo has been waging an aggressive campaign against game piracy for several years now.
Back in 2019, the Japanese company sued the illegal ROM-sharing site RomUniverse, which offered unlimited downloads of both new and old Nintendo games for an annual subscription fee.
Last year, the company filed a lawsuit against streamer EveryGameGuru, accusing them of broadcasting footage of pirated Switch games, including some that hadn't even been officially released yet.
Then, in 2024, the makers of Yuzu (a popular Switch emulator) agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million to settle charges filed by the company.
As of 5 June, Nintendo has inserted new clauses into the Nintendo Switch User Agreement that essentially give them the power to permanently disable your console if it's found to be running illegal emulators or pirated games.