Nintendo has finally caught Bowser.
No, not that Bowser.
The man in question is not a King Koopa, but a person--Gary Bowser, a Canadian hacker who led the massively profitable hacking group Xecuter, which sold Nintendo piracy tools.
After initially denying his involvement, Bowser has now pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and piracy, reports PCMag. But aside from serving up to 10 years in prison, he has also agreed to pay Nintendo a massive $4.5 million fine.
Bowser's hacking group has had a long, troubled history with Nintendo and also made a mint for him. According to court documents, it was revealed that Xecuter was making "tens of millions of dollars" from selling piracy devices.
Bowser allegedly took around $320,000 every year for himself.
The piracy devices that Xecuter sold were basically custom firmware that enabled people to play pirated games on Nintendo consoles like the Switch, writes PCGamer.
Aside from allegedly leading Xecuter, Bowser was also the head guy behind the website MaxConsole.com. The website was, according to the original PCMag report, known for reviewing hacking tools used on Nintendo consoles and games.
But it's not just him that's going to the slammer for video game piracy. Other Xecuter members were also indicted, notably French national Max Louarn and Chinese national Yuanning Chen.
The trio is still awaiting sentencing as of this writing.
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How Did Nintendo Catch This Guy?
As previously mentioned, Nintendo has long been aware of Xecuter's business and just how much damage it is causing the company for every sale of video game piracy tools.
Nintendo initially sued the guy back in April for one count of copyright violation and two counts of trafficking for Xecuter's sales of hacking goods.
Aside from making a lot of money out of it, the sales of these piracy-enabling hacks were not doing Nintendo any favors. IGN Southeast Asia reported that for every tool sold, they were doing around $2500 in damages.
As for their copyright violations, they were causing roughly $150,000 in damages for every single one they made.
Nintendo's STRICT Anti-Piracy Crackdown
If there's one thing you should know about this long-running Japanese game publisher, it's that they absolutely hate pirates. The company has been doing its own anti-video game piracy crusade for years, and Gary Bowser isn't the only big fish they've caught.
Back in June, it was reported that the company won a $2.1 million lawsuit against the website ROMUniverse, which purportedly distributed pirated Nintendo games available for anyone to download.
The guy who ran the site was Los Angeles resident Matthew Storman, who made the biggest mistake of representing himself in court, according to PCGamer.
By doing so, he basically sealed his fate in court against a multi-billion-dollar company. ROMUniverse's roughly two-year romp ended abruptly, which robbed Storman of his income--an average of $30,000-$36,000 a month from Premium ROMUniverse memberships.
Nintendo just doesn't play around when dealing with pirates at all.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
