The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized the domain names of several websites associated with pirated games. Notably, NSW2U[.]com, which Nintendo has been battling for many years, was shut down.
According to TorrentFreak, the operation was conducted in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, including the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (a unit of the country’s Tax and Customs Administration, Belastingdienst). It is still unknown whether the operation was limited to domain confiscation or if arrests were made and charges were filed.
The FBI has seized several domain names associated with well-known piracy sites, including NSW2U[.]com, Game-2u[.]com, Bigngame[.]com, ps4pkg[.]com, mgnetu[.]com, and nswdl[.]com.
Law enforcement officials report that from February 28, 2025, to May 28, 2025, these sites facilitated 3.2 million downloads. The estimated losses for the rights holders are valued at 170 million USD.
Visitors to these sites are now greeted by a law enforcement banner notifying them of the domain seizures. Additionally, DNS servers have been updated to point to fbi.seized.gov, a domain that has previously been used in a similar manner.
The publication notes that NSW2U[.]com was added to the list of notorious pirate sites by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) at the beginning of 2025, while the three other domains were mentioned in documents as “related sites.”
Usually, in such matters, the USTR relies on the opinions of rights holders. In this case, these domains were pointed out by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) — an American association of software and computer game producers. In its recommendation, the ESA mentioned that NSW2U links to game-2u[.]com, ps4pkg[.]com, and BigNGame[.]com, which also provide access to pirated games.
Journalists report that the connection between the domains is quite real. The fact is that NSW2U mainly focuses on releases for the Nintendo Switch and was associated with other domains specializing in different platforms.
According to the ESA, which represents the interests of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, NSW2U hosted thousands of links to pirated games. Among them were many well-known titles, whose leaks occurred before their official release date.
“This kind of ‘pre-release’ piracy is particularly harmful to ESA member companies, as it allows site users to download pirated copies of video games before consumers have the opportunity to select and purchase a legitimate copy,” stated representatives of the association.
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