Image via Nintendo

Nintendo is well known for coming downwardly hard on piracy and the other perceived infractions confronting its intellectual property, wielding the iron fist of litigation confronting those accounted guilty of hacking their consoles. The nigh contempo (and near aptly-named) example of this has to be that of Gary Bowser, a member of the hacking group Squad Xecuter, which adult and sold devices and software designed to hack various consoles.

Bowser, a Canadian national who was living in the Dominican Democracy, was arrested after a federal investigation into the group was launched dorsum in 2022. Since and so, he'southward pled guilty to the charges of marketing and selling "circumvention devices" and wrangled with a concurrent civil lawsuit leveled against him by Nintendo. Today, he was finally sentenced to 40 months in prison for two federal felonies. This is on top of the $4.5 million he is required to pay in restitution to Nintendo of America, every bit well every bit the reported $10 meg payout from the civil lawsuit.

Neither of the two other Squad Xecuter members named in the indictment, French national Max Louarn and Chinese national Yuanning Chen, are currently in federal custody, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's function. No doubt the Attorney's part and Nintendo are keen to find them to consolidate their joint action against tech piracy.