Nintendo Settles Lawsuit With ROM/Emulator Sites

Given all that video games are, and aren’t, you might be surprised to hear just how intense and impactful the companies can be when they think you are violating their games in one way or another. Cheating is one thing, but hacking the game is another. And it’s also another thing to illegally sell versions of their titles, as that costs them money. Nintendo has actually gotten quite a history of going after people who make ROMS and emulators and selling them online, or even just giving the games away for free, and they’ve actually gotten another victory in this area.

Earlier in the year, the company decided to sue website LoveRETRO and LoveROMS because they were giving away copies of their games, and they didn’t like that, not one bit.

“The LoveROMs website alone receives 17 million visitors each month. Such visitors are drawn to the website by the widespread availability of free, unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games and other highly valuable intellectual property. The resulting popularity of Defendants’ LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites has allowed Defendants to reap substantial ill-gotten gains, including through donations and the sale of advertising on the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites.”

It is indeed illegal to give out such roms for free, and because of that, Nintendo went at them full force. And now, it’s being reported that not only has Nintendo won the case via settlement, but the sum of the “damages” being paid to Nintendo is also staggering.

“Plaintiff is hereby awarded judgment against all Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $12,230,000”.

A $12 million dollar settlement is huge, and while Nintendo likely takes no joy in dishing out that much to a married couple (they were the ones who ran the site), they are no doubt happy about the sites being shut down. And are likely hoping that other such sites see this and retract their own actions.