Nintendo Switch Hacker Wants To Settle The Case With $10 Million Fine

The Canadian hacker Gary Bowser has agreed to pay a sum of around $10 million in order to achieve the settlement of a lawsuit brought against him by Nintendo. Nintendo had sued him on various allegations of piracy.

As reported by Eurogamer, among others, the 51-year-old Canadian has agreed to pay around $10 million to the Japanese games company as part of an agreement with Nintendo. Bowser is a member of the so-called “Team Xecuter”, which had set itself the task of developing mod chips or jailbreaks for various Nintendo consoles.

Among other things, Bowser and his colleagues had developed a USB device called the SX Pro that enables illegally copied games to be used on the Nintendo Switch. The man had made a business out of selling console mods in order to earn money with the various hacks and measures to bypass copy protection functions in Nintendo products.

Total fine $14.5 million

Bowser was arrested in 2020 and later charged with the US government accusing him of a number of illegal activities, including commercializing switch hacks and the resulting copyright infringement. He was also later fined approximately $4.5 million. With the agreement that has now been reached in civil law proceedings, the sum that the man is supposed to pay to Nintendo increases to a total of $14.5 million.

Nintendo is known for its aggressive approach to manipulation attempts around its console hardware and illegal downloads of the games available for its devices. The company takes very rigorous action against providers of ROMs or emulators. The Japanese don’t stop at fan projects either.