Microsoft’s Edge extension store is believed to have hosted “illegal copies” of classic games such as Mario Kart 64, Super Mario brothers. and various other titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man and Tetris. Even the IP owned by Microsoft Minecraft was unofficial available.
According to The Verge, the developers behind these lists were not Microsoft, Nintendo or “any other” related parties. Although the pages were removed immediately, some user reviews for these game uploads are supposed to date back to October last year – which means that these records have gone largely unnoticed so far.
In addition, the official Twitter account “Microsoft Edge Dev” would have gone so far as to promote these “vintage” games. Here is an image, which seems to have been made before the tweet was deleted, appealing to all Mario Kart lovers:
A bold individual by name @olynative on Twitter he had a chance with the Mario Kart 64 extension and said he downloaded a ROM of the game.
Some of the listings that are no longer available have clarified that they had no affiliation with the gaming companies that made the titles. Obviously, this still doesn’t reduce it.
“IMPORTANT: This emulator is not affiliated with or approved by Nintendo. All graphics, games and other multimedia elements are copyrighted by their respective owners and authors. This game is for ALL Mario fans!”
Once again, action has been taken and most of these game lists have been removed. We doubt that Nintendo ninjas would have been too impressed if they had come across them. Crisis avoided.