The video game industry has become increasingly protective of its intellectual property, to the point where even possessing the wrong hardware can lead to serious consequences. That’s what happened to a video game reseller in the United Kingdom, who reportedly faced a police raid after purchasing a batch of Nintendo development kits that once belonged to SEGA Europe and were accidentally discarded.
According to a report from Time Extension, the situation began when the Video Game Preservation Museum sought to buy a lot of Nintendo dev kits and prototype cartridges, including hardware for the DSi, 2DS, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U. The goal was to acquire and preserve the items for research and documentation, preventing them from disappearing into private collections.
However, the deal took a sour turn when police officers arrived at the reseller’s home and detained him while seizing the Nintendo dev kits. Authorities claimed the arrest was part of a money-laundering investigation, though the timing and focus suggest the true target may have been the recovered hardware.
The reseller explained that the items were obtained from a scrapyard, where a moving company had allegedly disposed of them during SEGA Europe’s relocation from its former offices in Brentford to Chiswick Business Park. He claims that, shortly after showing interest in selling the items, he was approached by someone who later appeared to be an investigator tracing the consoles’ origin.
After being released, the reseller said police requested that he formally surrender ownership of the Nintendo hardware and software. He also alleges that the seized equipment was quietly returned to SEGA outside of standard legal procedures — and possibly destroyed afterward.
“My concern is that the police didn’t handle the property properly,” he said. “It feels like SEGA used the authorities to reclaim items they had disposed of negligently. The silence around this case makes me suspect the kits have already been destroyed.”
Neither SEGA nor the police have commented publicly on the matter.
