Pirated Pokemon Sun and Moon players sees 3DS banned from Nintendo servers

Nintendo has handed out a severe punishment to those who have pirated Pokemon Sun and Moon.

Kotaku reports that many players who had downloaded a pirated version of the RPG that has been doing the rounds have suddenly found themselves left with an offline-only 3DS.

The ban doesn’t just pertain to Pokemon. Once blacklisted, a user’s device is prohibited from accessing any Nintendo online service, including the eShop. This means that any digital games owned but not installed at the time of the ban will remain unavailable.

As a result of a number of Nintendo 3DS users using unauthorized versions of several games, and connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service, these users’ Nintendo 3DS systems that stored the unauthorized game code have been banned from Nintendo’s online network effective immediately,” the platform holder confirmed.

The only way around it? Buy another 3DS. Nintendo’s bans are linked to hardware, not accounts. Still, the need to buy a whole new machine – and a legitimate copy of the game – will surely result in a few lessons learned.