Breath of the Wild
A Chinese hacker living in Japan, Ichimin Sho, was arrested for selling counterfeit saves of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of the Nintendo Switch's most valuable exclusives.The sale of what Sho called in his ad the "definitive bailouts" for the Nintendo game started in April of this year, so a few weeks ago. Using them resulted in improvements to Link's characteristics and more rare items. The price of these bailouts was not cheap at all, as we were talking about 3,500 yen (about € 30), but our hacker still managed to attract a couple of customers ... in addition to the Nigata prefecture police.
Some might argue that modified bailouts do no harm to anyone, especially in a single player game. True, but Sho has still violated a Japanese law that prevents providing services that help overcome the technical limitations set by the rights holder.
This is the second case in a few months of hackers being arrested in Japan for selling counterfeit material. In January, it was the turn of a man from Naogya who was sent to prison for selling custom Pokémon for Pokémon Sword and Shield.
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Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Hacker Arrested For Selling Modified Save Data
We've heard in the past about crackdowns on street sales of modded Nintendo hardware and games, but this story is slightly different. Back in April, Tokyo-based Chinese national Ichimin Sho posted an advertisement on a Japanese e-commerce site selling 'ultimate save data' for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
In reality, this ultimate save data was actually just modified data, and Sho was offering to make any changes buyers requested - such as boosted stats and abilities for the price of 3,500 yen (around $32.00 USD). One of the interested parties was actually the Niigata Prefectural Police and the 27-year-old man was arrested earlier this week under violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act in Japan.
Sho admitted to the charges and further revealed how his sale of hacked save data dated back to December 2019. In that time he's earned around 10 million yen. His specific violation was providing paid services to circumvent technical restrictions placed on the Switch by Nintendo. The data alteration though was done by an unidentified accomplice.
If we hear any updates about this story, we'll be sure to let you know.