Nintendo’s fight against piracy has a new victory… and it’s not just any. We are talking about Gary Bowser, one of the key figures and the one who has given the Big N the most headachesin recent years.
Bowser, a 52-year-old Canadian citizen , was sentenced to 40 months in prison (more than 3 years) by the Seattle Justice. Specifically, Attorney General Nick Brown was in charge of passing sentence.
Who is Gary Bowser? Well, the visible face of Xecuter Team, a group of hackers who sold modified chips for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox, PlayStation Classic or NES Mini, among others.
The damage Bowser has done to the video game industry. According to Nick Brown’s sentence, it has caused losses of more than 65 million dollars to companies, especially Nintendo of America.
”But the damage goes beyond these businesses, harming video game developers and small creative studios whose products and hard work are essentially stolen when games are pirated”, says the ruling.
The The Xecuter team is made up of web designers, developers, marketing staff and more, for a total of more than a dozen employees. Bowser’s role was to manage these pages that sold modified products and chips.
In addition to the aforementioned Gary Bowser, the Seattle Justice also includes two other people in the accusation: they are Max Louarn, a 49-year-old French citizen, and Yuanning Chen, 36, a French citizen hino.
Needless to say, this isn’t the first time Bowser has faced justice. In September 2020, he was arrested in his native Dominican Republic. It agreed to pay $4.5 million to Nintendo America.
”When video games are illegally copied and when circumvention devices are readily available, the gaming industry video games, and the economy in general, are experiencing a negative ripple effect”.
What to do if your Nintendo Switch won’t connect to the Internet?
After this latest incident, Gary Bowser went further (he pleaded guilty to two felonies), negotiating a payment of 10 million dollars as compensation. Finally, the Seattle Court has found him guilty and he will have to go to prison.
After this latest incident, Gary Bowser went further (he pleaded guilty to two felonies), negotiating a payment of 10 million dollars as compensation. Finally, the Seattle Court has found him guilty and he will have to go to prison.As a result, Gary Bowser will spend the next 3 years (at least) behind bars . An exemplary punishment that represents a new legal victory for Nintendo. Which is not the first, of course, because the Big N has been harshly punishing these practices for decades.