Level-5 issued a statement on social media and its official sites in English and Japanese addressing the issue of people turning to piracy and using roms to play the company’s games. It didn’t note which title (or titles) were being stolen. It noted it is aware of the behavior and threatened legal action if the theft continues.
Here is the full notice Level-5 shared regarding roms and people pirating its games:
“We want to address a serious issue we have recently observed: the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of our game software across certain online communities.
Except where specifically permitted under copyright law or other applicable regulations, reproducing, modifying, or editing our game software without our authorization, as well as distributing or selling such materials to third parties, constitutes copyright infringement regardless of the purpose or intended use.
We want to make it clear that we will continue to pay close attention to these activities. To protect our work, we will take necessary legal action against any such copyright infringement, including content removals and account suspensions.
We would also like to ask our community to refrain from downloading or using pirated copies of our games.
Thank you for respecting our work. We are working hard to ensure that everyone can enjoy our games safely and fairly.”
In many cases, some of Level-5’s games are permanently unavailable in certain regions or never appeared there in the first place. The Yo-kai Watch series offers some strong examples. The English physical release of Yo-kai Watch 3 ended up being a limited one and the eShop for the handheld is closed. As such, it’s currently around $899.99 on Amazon and around $500 on eBay. The fourth entry in that series never appeared outside Japan, despite showing up on the Switch and PS4 in that region.
The most recent Level-5 releases were Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time for the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road for the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Both appeared worldwide in 2026. One of its planned 2026 releases is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam for the Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and PC.
We may earn a commission if you purchase from certain links. Learn more here.