Nine people have been arrested in Italy over their connection to a smuggling ring that trafficked in counterfeit retro video game consoles, in an operation that saw more than $50 million worth of counterfeit goods seized. Italy’s Guardia di Finanza — a militarized police force that deals with economic and financial crimes — announced on friday that it had arrested the Italian nationals and seized their collection of counterfeit video games.
The investigation, dubbed “Coin-Up 80,” was led by the Turin unit of the Guardia di Finanza but covered provinces across Italy and began in late 2023. The Guardia di Finanza said in a press release that it had seized approximately 12,000 video game consoles loaded with a total of more than 47 million pirated video games, with an estimated value of more than €47.5 million ($52.8 million). The details of the counterfeits were not detailed in the press release, but published photos of the massive haul show a host of fake Nintendo consoles, various handheld devices and what appear to be counterfeit fighting sticks. Polygon has reached out to the Guardia di Finanza for more information and we will update this story if we hear back.
Italian police said the consoles originated in China, with distribution from Italian companies involved in the smuggling ring. The consoles were also sold in physical stores. In addition to being counterfeit, the devices did not comply with European consumer safety standards. They were all destroyed by authorities in accordance with Italian law, the press release said.
Italy was once known as “a global hotspot for video game piracy,” according to Vice. Piracy certainly occurred elsewhere, but in Italy, video games weren’t protected in the same way as other forms of entertainment from the mid-1980s to the turn of the century — meaning that “properly registered companies with real employees and real financial statements” were openly pirating. Game makers tried to combat piracy in Italy, but they were “for the most part” “not at all successful,” Vice wrote. When Italy’s copyright law was overhauled in 2000, video games were given protections similar to those given to movies and music.