“Pokémon Sun” and “Pokémon Moon” are finally hitting shelves this week. It took months of waiting for many fans of the franchise, but the highly anticipated pair of Pokémon-branded games will officially be released this Friday. To most fans, especially to those who enjoyed the demo version, the arrival of the full version means hours of quality gaming. For some, however, this serves as a reminder that they shouldn’t do something sneaky under Nintendo’s nose.

Earlier today, word about Nintendo’s ban on players who obtained “Pokémon Sun and Moon” illegally spread like wildfire in the gaming community. The origin of the story is from players who shared on Reddit, 4Chan and other sites what happened to them after obtaining the games ahead of their release.

According to Polygon, a player shared that after accessing the Wonder Trade feature in “Pokémon Sun and Moon’s” Festival Plaza multiplayer mode, the player received a notice from Nintendo that said, “This device’s access to online services has been restricted by Nintendo.”

Apparently, this ban appears to affect other players based on the comments they leave on the online discussion sites. An angry Reddit user said, “What the f—k was Nintendo thinking? I AM BANNED I CAN”T ACCESS ANYTHING NOT EVEN THE ESHOP. I will never buy anything from Nintendo again.”

Meanwhile, other players are unsympathetic about the ban on some players knowing that the early versions of “Pokémon Sun and Moon” were obtained illegally. One Reddit user wrote, “You're f—king whining about the fact that you can't get online on your 3ds anymore, after you practically steal a game without paying for it & think nothing will happen to you after you go online with it before release date, because you thought it'd be fun to try & find the few other people who have the game with ya.”

Though the ban does not appear to be permanent, it certainly is a big issue for affected players because this also means that they cannot access the general eshop to buy or re-download previously bought titles. Thus, this could force people to purchase a new 3DS, according to Kotaku.

The news about the ban comes weeks after links containing the leaked version of “Pokémon Sun and Moon” circulated on the web early this month. It isn’t known how many are affected by the ban as of late, since Nintendo has yet to break its silence and confirm the presumption gamers made.

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