Italian police seize $52.8M in fake video game consoles from trafficking ring

Nine people have been arrested in Italy for their connection to a trafficking ring dealing in fake retro video game consoles, in an operation that seized more than $50 million in counterfeit goods. Italy’s Guardia di Finanza — a militarized police force that deals with economic and financial crimes — announced Friday that it had arrested the Italian nationals and confiscated their collection of fake video game goods.

Dubbed “Coin-Up 80,” the investigation was led by the Guardia di Finanza’s Turin unit but spanned provinces across Italy and began in late 2023. The Guardia di Finanza said in a news release that it seized approximately 12,000 video game consoles on which a total of more than 47 million pirated video games were loaded, with an estimated value of more than €47.5 million ($52.8 million). The specifics of the counterfeits were not detailed in the release, but photos published of the massive haul show a bevy of fake Nintendo consoles, assorted handheld devices, and what appear to be counterfeit fight sticks. Polygon has reached out to the Guardia di Finanza for more information, and we’ll update this story when we hear back.

Italian police said the consoles originated from China, with distribution from Italian companies tied up in the trafficking ring. The consoles were also sold in physical stores. The devices, beyond being fake, were not compliant with Europe’s consumer safety standards. They were all destroyed by the authorities in accordance with Italian law, according to the news release.

Italy was once known as “a global hotspot for video game piracy,” according to Vice. Piracy certainly occurred elsewhere, but in Italy from the mid-’80s to the turn of the millennium, video games were not protected the same way as other entertainment — meaning that “properly registered companies who had real employees and real financial statements” were engaging in piracy right out in the open. Game makers tried to fight piracy in Italy, but they were, “for the most part,” “completely unsuccessful,” Vice wrote. When Italian copyright law was revised in 2000, video games were granted similar protections to movies and music.