Back in early 2022, Gary Bowser, a member of the hacking team known as Team Xecuter, was sentenced to 40 months of prison for providing and selling together with the team means to circumvent the Nintendo Switch's security systems and allow usage of pirated software. The Team Xecuter member is about to be released from prison, but he is apparently not done paying the cost of his actions.
As reported by TorrentFreak, Gary Bowser is about to be released from prison earlier than intended in part due to his good behavior, and is now waiting to be returned home to Canada. However, he was also sentenced to pay ten million dollars back to Nintendo, which he has yet to do and will highly unlikely ever be able to.
In a recent interview with Nick Moses, Gary Bowser confirmed that he was able to pay back $175 thanks to his prison job. If he will manage to get a stable source of income once back in Canada, the Japanese company will be able to take between 25 and 30 percent of the gross monthly income as part of the agreement, essentially meaning that Gary Bowser will have to pay Nintendo for the rest of his life.
Gary Bowser's role in the Team Xecuter operation was far from being central, as he was the man behind the MaxConsole website, which primarily focused on reviewing Team Xecuter hacking tools. French citizen Max Louarn, who was reportedly the leader of the entire operation, had a much bigger role in the operation but somehow managed to stay ahead of the authorities and avoid getting extradited to the United States, where he would face charges possibly worse than those that Gary Bowser did, as he apparently helped Team Xecuter make millions of dollars, way more than the "measly" $320,000 that Bowser made during his time with the operation.
Nintendo, like every other company, has never hesitated to go after people who hack their systems and try using its properties for their own personal gain, as it has demonstrated time and time again over the years. Will such a harsh sentence be a warning for other people in the future who may attempt to do the same in the future? Probably not, but only time will tell.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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