Japanese police have arrested a 36-year-old man accused of illegally selling save files. We are talking about the game Pokémon Violet, and the law that was violated dates back to 2019.
Police found the man on April 9th. During the investigation, it was discovered that the suspect used illegal tools to create modified save data for Pokémon Violet in order to change the set of moves available to Pokémon in the game. The sale of this type of data is prohibited by the Prevention of Unfair Competition Act 2019, which is why the arrest was made.
It appears that the man was taking orders for rare customized Pokemon, making them and selling them for approximately $84. All this happened between December 2022 and March 2023 on a website dedicated to the sale of game assets and items. There were also special offers for purchasing kits, which shows how structured the business was.
The man who was arrested confessed to the crimes during the investigation, but tried to justify himself by explaining that he needs it to survive. He now faces up to five years in prison or a fine of approximately $32,000.