Even if the desire to present this news as the one where “Nintendo sends Bowser to prison” was strong, it is sufficiently unusual to make people smile, except perhaps for the convict responsible for the hacking of several of the firm’s products. Indeed, we know that Nintendo does not laugh with its properties.
So long Gary Bowser
Arrested in October 2020 by authorities in the Dominican Republic and extradited to the United States, Gary Bowser was part of a group (and was even a public figure) that developed chips and software for hacking many Nintendo consoles including the Nintendo Switch. A process of course illegal that allows you to play games downloaded from the web and install unofficial applications.
Among the 11 charges against him are also money laundering and online fraud. The man, however, pleaded guilty only to creating software and devices that circumvented official machine systems. While the US government wanted 10 years in prison against 19 months for his lawyer, justice finally condemned Gary Bowser to 3 years in prison and a fine of 14.5 million dollars.
His two accomplices, Max Louarn and Yuanning Chen, have not yet responded to his accusations since the first is awaiting extradition from France and the second is still at large. Besides the joke related to the name of the condemned, it is impressive to see how seriously hacking is taken so seriously in the land of Uncle Sam with very heavy penalties on the table.
The prosecutor, Nick Brown, has also declared that these practices would have caused more than 65 million dollars in losses to companies in the world of video games.. Damage that goes beyond business, still according to the person concerned, since these actions also have an impact on developers and independent studios.