We’ll hit each of these bullets one by one, starting with the illegality of tools that modify save games. Selling product keys and serials online without the software maker's permission “-Distribution of tools and programs for modifying game saves A December revision to the tiny island nation’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act has outlawed console modding and save game editors in one fell swoop.Īccording to Reddit user bparker06, who identifies themselves as a developer for RetroArch, the amendment has caused the following practices to become illegal: In most places, such modifications are a legal way to use a game maker’s hardware, but that’s not true in Japan any longer. Since PlayStations and Xboxes are little more than computers with fancy bodies, they can be repurposed to do anything that a computer can do if you’ve got the technical know-how.
It’s not a super common practice, but modifying consoles to do something other than what the manufacturer intended is definitely a thing that happens. In Japan, it is now illegal to modify your game consoles or save files in basically any way.
