ESA calls preloaded retro handhelds 'superfakes' and nominates Anbernic for USTR's Notorious Markets review

The US game industry’s trade group wants Washington to treat retro handhelds sold with pirated games as counterfeits, and it has named a company. In a comment filed on October 7 to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the Entertainment Software Association nominates Anbernic.com for USTR’s annual review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy (comment USTR-2026-0529-0010, posted October 8, in docket USTR-2026-0529).

That is a nomination, not a listing. USTR reads the submissions and publishes its own list later. No date has been announced.

“Superfakes”

USTR’s 2026 review focuses on high-quality counterfeits it calls superfakes. ESA argues games have their own version: “In the video game sector, illicit plug-and-play consoles and handheld devices are the functional equivalent of superfakes.” It calls such a device “a turnkey piracy product that presents visually and commercially to consumers as legitimate devices,” one that, in ESA’s words, can “divert sales from authorized games, compilations, subscriptions, remasters, and licensed retro hardware.”

What ESA says about Anbernic

Under the heading “Piracy Devices”, ESA says Anbernic’s handhelds “are routinely offered or shipped with removable memory cards preloaded with hundreds or thousands of unauthorized copies” of its members’ games, sold through Anbernic’s own site and on Amazon and eBay. Ars Technica and GamesRadar+ note that Anbernic does not appear to sell preloaded games on its own site; third-party sellers do.

All of the following figures are ESA’s: Anbernic has operated for “approximately nine years”, releases “eight to ten new models annually” priced at “approximately $40 to $200”, and its site drew “approximately 1.4 million visits” in August 2026. ESA also cites a 2024 seizure by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza in Turin of “around 12,000 Anbernic devices, containing more than 47 million copies of pirated video games”, per a Reuters report it footnotes.

Anbernic had not publicly responded to the filing.

ESA asks USTR to press for seven steps, including treating preloaded libraries as evidence of commercial-scale piracy, inspecting bundled storage media and improving customs targeting. The same filing nominates crack groups, torrent sites and cheat markets; TorrentFreak led on that part. VGC and GamesRadar+ picked up the handheld angle.

Hardware isn’t the target

ESA’s text is about unauthorized preloaded copies, not emulation hardware itself. That distinction matters to retro players, for whom these handhelds are often the easiest way to play games that were never re-released. Our longform Out of print looks at why so many old games can’t be bought at all, and who decides what stays playable.

What to watch: whether USTR’s final list includes Anbernic.com, and whether the company responds.