After over 160,000 player accounts were hacked in early April, Nintendo has stopped allowing users to sign into its network services using a Nintendo Network ID.
Compromised account information included dates of birth, player’s home country and region, gender and email addresses. Nintendo U.K. said in a statement that the breach didn’t extend to other areas of its global gaming network.
“While we continue to investigate, we would like to reassure users that there is currently no evidence pointing towards a breach of Nintendo’s databases, servers or services,” Nintendo said. “As one action in our ongoing investigation, we are discontinuing the ability to use a Nintendo Network ID to sign in to a Nintendo Account.”
Affected users will have their passwords automatically reset by Nintendo and are encouraged to activate two-factor authentication if not already doing so, the company said. In a Friday statement originally published on its Japanese-language website, Nintendo said users should also monitor their payment history, as the “balance and registered credit card / PayPal may be illegally used.”
“We apologise for the inconvenience and concerns caused to our customers, and we will continue working hard to safeguard the security of our users’ data,” Nintendo U.K. said.
Nintendo also encouraged users to set different passwords for each of its accounts, particularly the Nintendo Shop store, where some users found their credit cards made unauthorized purchases.
“We continue to strongly encourage users to enable two-step verification for their Nintendo Account,” the company said
The Nintendo Network ID was developed when the company’s Wii systems launched. It is the company’s precursor to the Nintendo Account login system, which debuted in 2017 shortly before the Switch console. “All other options to sign-in to a Nintendo Account remain available,” Nintendo clarified.