Breath of The Wild save files • Eurogamer.net

Japanese police have arrested a man allegedly selling modified The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild save files.

According to Broadcasting System of Niigata (BSN) (thanks, Dexerto), Niigata Prefectural Police arrested a 27-year-old Chinese man living in Tokyo on 8th July for selling the cheat saves.

The save files came with boosted character abilities and items it would normally prove tricky to obtain through standard gameplay, police said.

Zelda wasn’t the only game the man aleggedly sold modified save files for. The man was quoted as admitting to police to have made 10m yen (around £65,000) from selling save files via an auction website – charging 3500 yen (around £23) a pop – in just a year-and-a-half from December 2019.

According to the report, the auction listing advertised the modified save files as “the strongest software”.

According to BSN, the person’s activity potentially violated Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention law. This law deals with cases where secret company information is stolen or disclosed illegally.

This isn’t the first time Japan has cracked down on people selling modified game saves. In February this year, Japanese authorities arrested a 23-year-old man who allegedly made 1.1m yen (about £7100) selling thousands of modified Pokémon for Pokémon Sword and Shield.