Game industry asks the US to list Anbernic as a notorious piracy market, calling its handhelds superfakes

The ESA has nominated Anbernic.com for the US notorious markets list, saying its handhelds often ship with cards full of unlicensed games. The US Trade Representative decides.

AI-drafted from 3 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the US trade body for video game publishers, has nominated Anbernic.com for the US Trade Representative's 2026 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. Its submission, dated 7 October and reported by TorrentFreak on 12 October, puts Anbernic at the top of a short section headed "Piracy Devices". No other handheld maker is named.

The ESA says Anbernic's devices "are routinely offered or shipped with removable memory cards preloaded with hundreds or thousands of unauthorized copies of copyright-protected video games published by ESA members". It adds that sales through Amazon and eBay give the products "the indicia of legitimacy associated with established retail channels".

Why "superfakes"

This year the US Trade Representative chose high-quality counterfeit goods, known as superfakes, as the review's issue focus. The ESA argues that plug-and-play consoles and handhelds sold with preloaded game libraries are the games industry's version of the problem: polished hardware whose commercial appeal, in its words, "rests solely on a concealed memory card or internal drive" of unlicensed games. It says Anbernic "normalizes hardware-based piracy by delivering illicit catalogues through a polished consumer product".

To show scale, the filing says Anbernic has operated for about nine years, releases eight to ten new models a year, sells them for roughly $40 to $200, and that Anbernic.com received about 1.4 million visits in August 2026. It also cites a 2024 seizure by Italy's Guardia di Finanza in Turin of around 12,000 Anbernic devices, which it says held more than 47 million pirated copies of games.

The ESA asks governments and marketplaces to treat preloaded libraries as evidence of commercial-scale piracy, inspect bundled and separately shipped storage, make sellers prove they are licensed for included games, and suspend repeat sellers and linked storefronts rather than single listings. The rest of the submission nominates the Denuvo cracker voices38, repack sites including FitGirl, RuTracker, key and account marketplaces such as G2A, and the cheat device seller Cronus Zen.

What could happen

The submission is a nomination. The US Trade Representative decides what goes on the final list, and TorrentFreak notes the previous edition came out in March. A listing carries no penalty of its own, but it is used to press governments and platforms to act.

Retro Handhelds speculates that if the designation were adopted it could put Anbernic's US sales at risk, including through US warehouses, Amazon and eBay, and says it is unclear whether that would reach every device or only those sold with games loaded. The site's writer argues Anbernic "should really consider discontinuing the sale of their devices with pre-loaded pirated games". The timing matters for Anbernic, which has just shown its dual-screen RG DDS. Neither report carries a response from Anbernic.

Sources

• Game Industry Asks U.S. to Flag Denuvo Cracker ‘voices38’ as Notorious Piracy Threat * TorrentFreak (TorrentFreak)
• Discussion: Game Industry Asks U.S. to Flag Denuvo Cracker ‘voices38’ as Notorious Piracy Threat * TorrentFreak (Reddit)
• Bootleg Cards, Big Trouble: ESA Takes Notice of Anbernic (Retro Handhelds)

Image: Anbernic, via Retro Handhelds