Pokemon are no laughing matter. Just assome monsters are rare and sought afterin the in-game and animePokemonuniverses, others are coveted and desired here in the real-world. From Pokemon with special abilities, moves, forms, or competitive stats, players everywhere will spend the time and/or money necessary to ensure they get a leg up on their competition or in their personal collection.
For years, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company have had to bring down the ban-hammer on players using modified or hacked Pokemon in both online and in-person tournaments. In fact, The Pokemon Company just recently came out witha statement cautioning playersin possession of “altered” Pokemon, and now, it seems that one man in Japan is already facing a harsh penalty for selling some hacked monsters inPokemon SwordandShield.
A 23-year-old man from Nagoya, Japan has been arrested by residents of Aichi Prefecture for violating the country’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act for illegally modifyingPokemon SwordandShieldsave data in order to sell players altered Pokemon. It seems that the suspect modified the abilities of some Shiny Pokemon, and also allegedly sold a hacked Sobble to a Kyoto man for 4,400 Japanese yen, or approximately $42.
RELATED:Pokemon Sword and Shield Are Now the Third Best-Selling Pokemon Games
The hacked Sobble was reportedly sold to the Kyoto office worker back in April of 2020, and it seems that the suspect has been selling hacked Pokemon for about a year now, reportedly earning 1,150,000 yen, or about $10,000, in sales. The desktop PC used by the suspect to re-write the games' save data was shown by the prefectural police at a press conference today. According to Asahi News, the 23-year-old man has reportedly confessed to the crime. Among other provisions, theJapan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Actboth is meant to protect against both the illegal modification of video game save data and the selling of illegally re-written save data to others.
It seems that the release ofPokemon Home, a cloud-based Pokemon storage service for mobile phones and the Nintendo Switch, has allowed some players to get more creative with the ways in which they modify hacked Pokemon. Additionally, just a few weeks ago,Niantic won a lawsuitagainst development team Global++ for the creation of aPokemon GOcheating application, so it looks like The Pokemon Company is dead-set on weeding out cheaters in any of its games.
While the The Pokemon Company may be busy cracking down onPokemoncheaters everywhere, it likely still has its hands full with preparations forPokemon’s 25th anniversary celebration this year. While things like amusic program headlined by Katy Perryhave been announced for the anniversary, fans can be sure to expect more as Pokemon Day approaches later this month.
Pokemon SwordandShieldare available on the Switch.
MORE:Established Pokemon Leaker Denies Diamond and Pearl Let’s Go Remake Rumors
