There aren’t many entities in the video game world that are more litigious than Nintendo. If you’re illegally distributing its games, Nintendo’s lawyers will find you, and they will not hold back. A Reddit moderator is the latest in a long line to find that out the hard way, as a court has ordered them to pay Nintendo a whopping $4.5 million in damages.
Nintendo filed a lawsuit against James Williams, who goes by Archbox on Reddit, in June 2024, reports Aftermath. Williams was reportedly the owner of several Pirate Shops through which they would illegally sell Switch games. Nintendo claims Williams’ distribution of these pirated Switch titles cost them $4.5 million, and the judge overseeing the case has agreed, ordering Williams to pay that amount to Nintendo of America.
The judge had no other option but to agree in this instance, since Williams has not responded to the lawsuit. That means Nintendo won the case via default judgment. Nintendo requested the amount Williams would have to pay should it win the case be $4.5 million in October 2025.
Nintendo is pretty savvy when it comes to taking down those who are illegally ripping and selling copies of its games, as well as making money from modded Nintendo hardware. In this case, it didn’t require much digging from Nintendo’s crack team of lawyers, with Williams leaving an incredibly obvious trail of breadcrumbs in their wake.
The subreddit Williams previously moderated is called r/SwitchPirates. I’m a little floored that such a subreddit exists considering how often Nintendo goes after people pirating its games. It’s effectively a place where they’re all gathered, taking the legwork out of trying to root out people pirating its games for Nintendo.
I'm getting real “come to the police station to pick up your free speedboat” vibes.
Williams doesn’t appear to be a moderator for the SwitchPirates subreddit any longer, and in fairness, that alone might not have been enough to make it easy for Nintendo. What made Williams so easy to track down was the alleged pirate sending his Switch to Nintendo for repairs. Nintendo connected the dots between Williams’ work on Reddit and the personal information attached to his Nintendo account, which the accused readily handed over, and proceeded with the lawsuit from there.
In the grand scheme of things, despite now owing Nintendo millions, Williams has got off lightly. The aptly named Gary Bowser remains the most prolific Switch hacker Nintendo has taken down. When it did, Bowser went to jail and was slapped with a $14.5 million fine that they’ll be repaying for the rest of their life.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/nintendo-switch-reddit-mod-pirate-lawsuit/
