Weblink, a distributor of Nintendo products in Taiwan, has put out a warning to all retailers ordering Nintendo products from them.

According to the message shared by a Taiwanese retailer, Weblink reminded all of their retailers to abide by the November 15, 2019 street date for Pokemon Sword and Shield. They claimed that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are monitoring online forums, and that the companies have found instances of users downloading the game illegally before its release date.

Weblink reminded retailers not to break the street date of the games, as it could affect the timely arrive of future Nintendo products in Taiwan. They also threatened legal action against retailers that “cause damage” to their company because of breaking the street date.

See the message below as translated by Jonathan:

Official notice

Dear merchants and partners, Pokemon Sword and Shield will be released on November 15th across the globe. After consideration, we have decided physical copies will be delivered to all merchants and partners on 15th November or earlier before the stores open. However, The Pokemon Company and Nintendo have been monitoring the Taiwanese forums and found out from a post that many players have already acquired the game (illegally I suppose) online. The Pokemon Company and Nintendo would like us to remind all merchants and partners not to break the street date and sell it before 15th November. Doing so will affect future game release dates or game stock in Taiwan in the future. To everyone who have ordered stocks from us, is equivalent to seeing the same opinion as us. If anyone is found to have breach the rule as described above, we reserve the rights for legal pursue. We thank everyone for their support, if you have any question, feel free to contact us. Best regards.

Another Taiwanese distributor, JustDan, forced retailers to sign an agreement promising that they will not break the street date for the games.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks, Brandon and Jonathan.