It’s clear that Nintendo ain’t playing around. The Japanese video game giant recently dropped the sledgehammer on a hacker named Gary Bowser. Yep, you read that right. The guy’s name is Bowser. Anyway, the company decided to make an example of the hacker by suing him for an insane amount of money and jail time.
Gary was then thrown in prison for three years. He was part of a team that would manufacture chips that allowed pirated games to be played on the 3DS and even the Switch. Nintendo is not about that life and decided to really make an example out of the guy. And as far as I am concerned, fair enough.
Gary was then released from prison earlier this year and has to now pay Nintendo $10 million in damages. A Canadian citizen, Bowser was incarcerated at the Northwest Detention Centre in Washington. After he is released, Gary Bowser will then be allowed to go back to his home in Canada. Again, this just means that he’ll have to pay Nintendo $10 million from up North.
Mario ain’t letting this one go so easily. He will have six months as a grace period, after which he will have to start paying Nintendo back. From what we've read, it seems that even if Gary finds a job, 25 to 30% of his salary will be deducted in order to pay off Nintendo.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, Bowser stated that Nintendo can take between 25% to 30% of his monthly gross income. As of right now, Gary has paid Nintendo about $175. He has a long, long way before even scratching the surface of the actual amount that has to be repaid.
As a part of Team Xecutor, Gary and his friends manufactures chips that could circumvent Nintendo’s firewalls and allow users to load pirated games. We can all see why Nintendo did this and while we’re all cheering for the little guy, this just feels right. You can’t steal and augment a company’s hardware.
Look, Nintendo is not messing about here so if you’re thinking of nudging them, be ready to face a Kamikaze bombing run by the Japanese.