Nintendo has announced its victory in court against file-sharing service Dstorage, a move that the company sees as significant not only for itself but for the entire video game industry, Eurogamer reports.
Nintendo's victory means that European file-sharing companies are now required to remove content at the request of the companies without the need for a court order, as was previously the case. If the file-sharing company refuses to comply with the rights holder's request, it can be fined.
In 2021, the Paris Court ordered Dstorage to pay Nintendo €935,000 for hosting pirated copies of games. In 2023, Dstorage filed an appeal, which was rejected, and the company was ordered to pay Nintendo legal costs. However, the case did not end there.
Dstorage eventually appealed to France's highest court, arguing that a special court order was needed to remove the content from its hosting. This attempt also failed, permanently ending the long-running case.
Nintendo is one of the most vocal anti-piracy activists in the gaming industry. The most notable event was the shutdown of the Switch emulator Yuzu, whose creator agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in compensation. Shortly after, another popular Switch emulator, Ryujinx, disappeared from GitHub, with the developers writing that they did not want legal claims from the big N.
In November 2024, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against a streamer who regularly played pirated copies of Nintendo games before they were released, including The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood. The streamer claimed that he "could do this all day" because he had "1,000 accounts".