The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents the interests of leading game publishers including Nintendo, has called on the US government to step up enforcement against manufacturers and distributors of handheld retro consoles loaded with pirated games.
"Superfakes" of the gaming industry
In its annual report to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the organization proposed adding the market for such devices to the "Notorious Markets" list. This refers to numerous handheld consoles (such as popular devices from Chinese brands) sold on international marketplaces pre-loaded with thousands of retro games without authorization from copyright holders.
The ESA compared these gadgets to high-quality fashion brand replicas:
- These consoles exploit the popularity of classic titles for illicit profit;
- The devices often copy the designs of classic consoles, such as the Game Boy or Nintendo DS;
- The bundled memory cards contain gigabytes of copyrighted content—from NES and SNES games to releases for the PS1 and Nintendo 64.
Gaming companies emphasize that the open sale of such systems on major e-commerce platforms creates an illusion of legality and directly undermines the growth of official digital retro services.
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