Recently, the ecosystem of game decompilation has been completely upended. Players can now use AI to roughly handle coding, easily disassemble game binary files and convert them into C++ code, porting console-exclusive games to Windows and Linux platforms.
Recently, there has been an influx of such major ports, with fan-made PC versions already available for Super Mario Galaxy and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. With technology advancing to its current state, older games like Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Halo: Combat Evolution can even run directly in web browsers.
Of course, most of these port projects distribute unauthorized copies of games, which is a direct violation of copyright law. If players were required to provide their own game ROMs, it might fall into a legal gray area, but the vast majority of port projects do not have this prerequisite.
Developers have clearly noticed this phenomenon, with Nintendo, known for its aggressive rights protection, acting the fastest. Recently, it launched a new round of DMCA takedowns, removing four major fan-made port projects.
Nintendo's legal prowess is well-known in the industry. Although its lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld, has not progressed smoothly, it has rarely lost when cracking down on hackers, ROM uploaders, and related resource sites, and this time is no exception.
According to reports, four major recompilation/decompilation projects have been removed from code repositories, clearly as a result of pressure from Nintendo. The delisted projects are: "Project Concatenation" for Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, "Power Moon" for Super Mario Odyssey, the MTF recompilation project for Mario Tennis Aces, and "Sky Recompilation" for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.
It's not hard to guess that Nintendo's legal team issued legal warnings to the project uploader. The creator of "Power Moon" posted on Reddit explaining that the project had been taken down, adding: "I can't go into details, but suffice it to say I don't plan to appeal or fight back."
But the core dilemma Nintendo faces is that once these port resources leak online, they spread rapidly. It's like the Hydra effect: cut off one head, and two more grow back immediately, which is exactly what's happening now.
Just hours after "Power Moon" was taken down, another user uploaded an optimized new version, claiming to have added "major improvements." This has turned into an endless game of cat and mouse—Nintendo strikes to take down listings, but new versions keep popping up, making enforcement increasingly difficult.
Thanks to Claude's generative capabilities, poorly made game ports will become increasingly common, meaning Nintendo's legal team will face a significant increase in workload. However, Nintendo has clearly started taking action, tackling the issue at its source. As we reported yesterday, Claude now refuses to respond to prompts containing Pokémon-related content. Moreover, after the update in late October, the difficulty of using AI to generate game port content has already increased substantially.