{"id":66539,"date":"2026-05-13T16:25:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66539"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:25:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:25:53","slug":"yo-kai-watch-developer-level-5-issues-warning-against-piracy-over-activities-in-certain-online-communities-threatens-legal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yo-kai-watch-developer-level-5-issues-warning-against-piracy-over-activities-in-certain-online-communities-threatens-legal-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Yo-kai Watch developer Level-5 issues warning against piracy over activities in \u201ccertain online communities,\u201d threatens legal action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese development company Level-5, known for the Inazuma Eleven and Yo-kai Watch series, issued a statement regarding piracy of their video games on May 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have posted an official notice regarding the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of our game software without our permission. Please refer to the attached image or the URL below for further details.<br><br>We would also like to ask our community to refrain from downloading or\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HWYDeUutdl\">pic.twitter.com\/HWYDeUutdl<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30ec\u30d9\u30eb\u30d5\u30a1\u30a4\u30d6 (@LEVEL5_times) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LEVEL5_times\/status\/2054429209230258194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the announcement, the company has recently confirmed instances of unauthorized reproduction and distribution of their games across \u201ccertain online communities,\u201d warning that it would take legal action against any acts that constitute copyright infringement. This includes reproduction, modification, editing, distribution or selling of Level-5\u2019s game software without permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the company doesn\u2019t give any further details on the copyright violations in question, many suspect the announcement could be related to a fan made project which recently made rounds on X, attracting the attention of both international and Japanese fans. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BlastersESP\/status\/2053565893905469822\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Announced<\/a> via a now defunct account on May 10, the project was supposed to be a full unofficial Spanish remake of Yo-Kai Watch 2 for Switch, mobile, PC, and VR, created from scratch in Unity. However, the announcement was met with harsh criticism from the Japanese side of the community due to legal implications. Judging by Level-5\u2019s recent statement and the removal of the original poster\u2019s account, it seems very unlikely that development of the remake will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/making-it-technically-work-and-making-it-actually-enjoyable-as-a-game-are-different-things-japanese-devs-weigh-in-on-why-retrofitting-live-service-games-with-offline-suppo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>\u201cMaking it technically work and making it actually enjoyable as a game are different things.\u201d Japanese\u00a0devs\u00a0weigh in on why retrofitting live-service games with offline support is harder than gamers think\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/piracy-of-japanese-games-and-anime-has-tripled-over-the-past-3-years-government-acknowledges-need-to-expand-legitimate-global-distribution-channels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Piracy of Japanese games and anime has tripled over the past 3 years. Government acknowledges need to expand legitimate global distribution channels<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yo-Kai Watch developer Level-5 issued a statement regarding the illegal reproduction and distribution of their games on May 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":50221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-66539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Yo-kai Watch developer Level-5 issues warning against piracy over activities in \u201ccertain online communities,\u201d threatens legal action - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yo-Kai Watch developer Level-5 issued a statement regarding the illegal reproduction and distribution of their games on May 13.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yo-kai-watch-developer-level-5-issues-warning-against-piracy-over-activities-in-certain-online-communities-threatens-legal-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yo-kai Watch developer Level-5 issues warning against piracy over activities in \u201ccertain online communities,\u201d threatens legal action - 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