ESA flags retro console maker Anbernic for inclusion on US government's Notorious Market List

Key Points:

• The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has recommended adding retro console maker Anbernic to the US government's Notorious Market List due to its role in facilitating hardware-based piracy.
• Anbernic, a Chinese company, produces handheld devices that emulate retro gaming systems and are often sold with removable memory cards preloaded with thousands of unauthorized copies of copyrighted games.
• The ESA argues that these devices normalize piracy, shift enforcement costs to publishers, bypass technological protections, and pose security, privacy, and safety risks to consumers.
• The ESA also calls for the inclusion of other piracy-related entities on the Notorious Market List, such as cracked game sources, torrent sites, unauthorized digital goods marketplaces like G2A, and commercial cheat markets.
• To combat these issues, the ESA has proposed seven measures for governments and market operators to implement, although the specific steps were not detailed in the report.