Players who downloaded pirated copies of Pokemon Sun

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"As a result of a number of Nintendo 3DS users using unauthorized versions of several games, and connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service, these users’ Nintendo 3DS systems that stored the unauthorized game code have been banned from Nintendo's online network effective immediately."

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As spotted by Kotaku , users with pirated Pokemon copies began posting to online forums like 4Chan claiming that after playing online for some time, they were unable to play Pokemon Sun or Moon online. They also said that general online functions for the system, like connecting to the Nintendo eShop, were also not working.The network-wide nature of the ban was then confirmed by an official Nintendo statement:This effectively prevents people with pirated copies from accessing any online functionality, even in games they legitimately own, which would also seemingly render their systems unable to re-download any digital copies of games they may have previously deleted. Nintendo has not specified a length of time for these bans.Last month, datamining of the Sun and Moon demo led to a host of details about the game being uncovered ahead of its November 18 launch.

Vincent Ingenito is IGN's foremost fighting game nerd. Follow him on Twitter and help him sort out his Street Fighter 5 character crisis.