Nintendo Orders ROM Site To Destroy Games Or Face Legal Action

RomUniverse, a website where folks could download pirated copies of various Nintendo games and even pay a premium to get faster downloads, was sued into oblivion back in May of this year. But Nintendo wasn’t done after suing the site for $2.1 million. In new court docs, a judge has ordered the owner of the site to destroy all of his Nintendo ROMs or face legal consequences.

RomUniverse was first sued by Nintendo in 2019 for what its lawyers called “brazen and mass-scale infringement.” Nintendo won that lawsuit in May and was awarded $2.1 million dollars in damages, which would be paid by RomUniverse owner Matthew Storman in $50 monthly payments. At least, in theory. However, in July, Nintendo returned to court after Storman failed to make his first $50 payments. The game publisher requested a permanent injunction against Storman as it feared he might be willing to bring the site back online. And now there’s more.

As spotted by TorrentFreak, the judge has now granted Nintendo’s injunction after taking another look at the case and the ongoing actions of Storman.

The court has now ordered Storman to “permanently destroy all unauthorized Nintendo games or other unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s intellectual property including movies, books, and music.” The judge has given Storman until August 17, 2024, to comply and until August 20 to file a declaration with the court verifying he has followed the judge’s orders. If he fails to do so he could face perjury charges.

Also a result of this new injunction, filed late last week in US District Court, Storman can no longer distribute, copy, sell or even play unauthorized Nintendo ROMs. He is also barred from using any Nintendo trademarks or logos. Truly, the website cannot catch a break from Nintendo, huh?

G/O Media may get a commission