The Entertainment Software Association has asked the US Trade Representative to add retro handheld maker Anbernic to the Notorious Markets List, accusing the Chinese manufacturer of shipping devices with thousands of pirated games preinstalled.

The filing, reported by VGC, doesn't mince words. The ESA claims Anbernic "normalises hardware-based piracy by delivering illicit catalogues through a polished consumer product," and argues that selling through ordinary retail channels "shifts monitoring, investigation, notice, and remediation costs to publishers and marketplaces."

Anbernic builds handheld emulation devices for retro platforms from Nintendo, Sony's PlayStation line, and Sega. The company suspended US shipments last year after tariffs took effect. Now it faces a naming-and-shaming mechanism that carries real commercial weight: the annual USTR list identifies markets that "engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy."

What does the ESA actually allege?

The core claim is preloading. Anbernic devices are "routinely offered or shipped with removable memory cards preloaded with hundreds or thousands of unauthorised copies of copyright-protected video games published by ESA members," the filing states. Those copies "enable immediate play without a lawful purchase or license and reflect the unlawful circumvention of technological protection measures."

In other words: the SD card is the product. The ESA notes sellers commonly advertise the illicit library as a key selling point, and the price reflects it. Marginal cost of duplicating a catalogue across a production run is, as the filing puts it, negligible.

The trade body frames the broader category of "illicit plug-and-play consoles and handheld devices" as "the functional equivalent of superfakes." One device can substitute for lawful purchases across multiple publishers and console generations — diverting sales from authorised games, compilations, subscriptions, remasters, and licensed retro hardware.

Beyond lost sales, the ESA flags secondary harms: the devices "create security, privacy, and financial risks," "bypass important player and child-safety protections," and "distort competition and burden governments as well as rights holders."

Who else gets named?

Anbernic isn't alone on the ESA's wishlist. The trade body recommends the USTR also list:

• Cracked game sources, repackers, and linking sites
• Torrent and piracy-coordination markets
• Unauthorised digital goods marketplaces
• Commercial cheat markets

Key marketplace G2A appears under the digital goods heading. The ESA's complaint is specific: "G2A previously represented that it did not permit sales of in-game accounts or items, but the marketplace facilitates account and digital item sales at scale."

What is the ESA asking regulators to do?

The filing proposes seven enforcement steps for governments and market operators:

• Treat preloaded unauthorised game libraries as core evidence of commercial-scale piracy
• Inspect bundled and separately shipped storage media
• Require sellers to substantiate authorisation for included games and protected branding
• Suspend repeat sellers and linked storefronts, not merely individual listings
• Preserve seller, payment, shipment, and advertising records for enforcement
• Improve customs targeting for devices and components tied to preloading operations
• Coordinate action against manufacturers, exporters, importers, fulfilment providers, and marketplaces that knowingly facilitate these products

Two of those matter most for platform holders and marketplace operators: suspending repeat sellers rather than delisting individual items, and record-preservation requirements that would make enforcement actions cheaper to mount.

The economics explain the urgency. Retro handhelds have grown into a sizeable hardware niche, and each preloaded unit potentially displaces sales across multiple catalogues — including the licensed retro reissues and subscription tiers that Nintendo, Sega, and Sony now sell directly. The ESA's argument is that piracy has industrialised into a mainstream consumer purchase; the remedy it wants is customs enforcement and marketplace accountability to match.

The USTR's next Notorious Markets List publication — and whether Anbernic makes the cut — is the signal to watch for anyone selling or distributing retro hardware in the US.

By Amara Osei