Gary Bowser

An enemy of Nintendo by the name of Bowser has just been freed from prison and no, it’s not who you think.

Console hacker Gary Bowser has been released from federal prison after spending close to two years incarcerated for fraud.

In an interview with YouTuber Nick Moses (@NickMoses05), Bowser himself confirmed that he has been released to a Washington detention centre in March. He’s now awaiting an expedition to Canada.

Bowser was originally arrested and charged with fraud in 2020 for taking part in Team Xecuter, a hacking group that would make and sell mod chips for consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, Sony’s PlayStation Classic, Nintendo’s 3DS and more. This would allow customers of Team Xecuter to play pirated games on the console.

Due to the now-infamous hacker living in the Dominican Republic at the time of his arrest, he was extradited to the United States in order to serve his 40-month sentence. Bowser says that he was released early due to good behaviour.

That said, good behaviour doesn’t erase his charges. He owes a whopping $10 million in restitution to Nintendo as part of a piracy lawsuit filed by the company. On top of this, the Nintendo modder will be forced to pay an additional $4.5 million to the video game giant as ruled by a separate federal court order.

According to Bowser, he’s managed to pay off $175 worth in $25 dollar increments thus far.

Source: @NickMoses05 Via: The Verge

Canadian Nintendo-modder, hacking tool creator and the reported leader of ‘Team Xecuter,’ Gary Bowser, has agreed to pay $10 million UDS (roughly $12.6 million CAD) to Nintendo to settle a recent lawsuit related to piracy charges, as first reported by EuroGamer.

Bowser and other members of Xecuter were arrested and charged with 11 felony counts in October 2020. Nintendo called the operation an “international pirate ring” and the lawsuit alleges that Bowser infringed on the company’s copyright by making and selling the console hacks.

NEW: Gary Bowser agrees to pay Nintendo $10 million in video game piracy civil lawsuit. This follows Bowser's guilty plea in October in the federal criminal case against him (where he agreed pay Nintendo $4.5 million in restitution.) https://t.co/zohn0SPHnH pic.twitter.com/KMJro3l8Zw

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) December 6, 2021

The most well-known product of Team Xecuter is the SX Pro, a USB device that allows users to bypass Nintendo Switch security measures and run pirated games. The lawsuit also says Bowser has been creating and selling hacking tools for Nintendo devices since 2013, when he created a device to hack the Nintendo 3DS.

It’s worth noting that Bowser’s Xecuter was a for-profit company. This made it unpopular in the modding and emulation communities, which typically prioritize open-source efforts and avoid selling products.

Nintendo has a history of actively hunting down illegal usage of its intellectual property, and it has targeted ROM sites that provide game downloads regularly. For example, Nintendo was recently awarded $2.1 million USD (roughly $2.5 million CAD) in damages after winning a lawsuit against RomUniverse, a pirated game and hack seller.

Via: EuroGamer