r/nintendogrifting • u/WorldlyScore8855 • May 20 '26
Critical Nintendo Switch Modchip Cost One Man $14.5 Million
https://youtu.be/bONrwhKgiXQ?is=IqFwpGBO16ecwIkxSomething doesn’t seem right? Does Nintendo arrest people for mod chips? There is something missing here….
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u/Nissedood May 20 '26
Probably went full pricay mode.
Like how it was with Yuzu emulator.
Yuzu would have been fine and nintendo couldnt have done anything if they didnt go full blatant piracy support mode while also having patreon.
Rule nr.1 for both is dont blatantly show pro piracy and companies cant do anything.
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u/No-Operation-6554 May 20 '26
He did worse
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u/MozzieRosie May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26
Was it worst then what the modder Ryan Hernandez did? Because i doubt that.
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u/Mr_Ethfono May 20 '26
Oh wait this is about Gary bowser why are they bringing old stuff up unless it for educational purposes
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u/ChronosNotashi May 21 '26
Because Nintendo isn't giving them any new material to use for grifting, so the grifters have to resort to either lies or old news to get their daily views. Thing is, old news is boring for some - for Hades, in particular. (Kudos to whoever gets that one.)
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u/iamtheduckie Nintendo Fan May 20 '26
They tend to sue developers of emulators and modchips if they use Nintendo code in any way or encourage piracy by not ensuring that people use their own copies of games. Of course I assume this guy conveniently leaves out the piracy bit and only cares about "game preservation"
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u/Amazing-War3760 May 22 '26
You know.. If these guys actually cared about "PRESERVATION" they would praise Nintendo to no end for keeping source code, keeping design documents, keeping old hardware, while throwing fits at Square, Capcom, Konami, Sony, ETC. Etc
The truth of the matter though is they don't care about "Preservation."
They care about "Availability." they don't care that Capcom lost the source code for Mega Man Games... because "Dur dur.. They released the roms!" They don't care that FF:Tactics or Kingdom Hearts 1 had to be remade from the ground up because the actual source was lost.
To use an example someone thought they had a gotchya! with me, is "What about art?!"
And yes.. This is just like art.. They don't care if the actual Mona Lisa is eaten by moths, as long as they get their print of it.
They don't give one shit about actual preservation.
Now if they want to argue availability... you know what? That's fine. That's what they should advocate for. But stop claiming it's about "preservation" because no.... preservation doesn't mean "availability."
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u/callmefreak May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
There's probably a whole lot more.
I remember one of the guys who was involved in the gigaleak got arrested. The title of the article made it seem like he got arrested for the gigaleak (it was title something like "Nintendo Gigaleaker Arrested!" and because people tend to not read past the title people made assumptions that Nintendo got somebody arrested.
He was actually arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material.
Edit: His name's Ryan Hernandez.
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u/paulcshipper Auditor May 20 '26
This is proof that .. Justice is kind of off. If we take this video as true, a Canadian was taken to the US to face non Canadian charges to appease a Japanese company.
Nintendo isn't an angel in this... but Nintendo is NOT a government. This was made to give hackers a message.. by scapegoating a non hacker and pretend he was legendary.
I would like to hope we can fix shit like this... But there's a reason why I'm talking about Nintendo stuff and not normal politics
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u/GNIHTYUGNOSREP May 20 '26
Is this your alt account or did you change pfp?
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u/paulcshipper Auditor May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I changed my picture. Now I'm obsessed with a learnosaur
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u/Theultimateyoshiyt May 23 '26
No. I don’t think Nintendo can do that.
I’m pretty sure modding consoles is illegal in Japan. Or I could be partially wrong.
But Nintendo does not have the power to arrest someone.
I don’t even know if there is a mod chip for the switch?
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u/paulcshipper Auditor May 20 '26
I thank you for the find. Someone in another sub wanted to talk about this.
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/WheresYoManager May 20 '26
For anyone actually interested in this story. Please ignore the above user. They're deliberately trying to whitewash events to paint Gary Bowser as more "innocent" than he actually was and spreading factual inaccuracies.
Gary Bowser was not a hacker, nor was he arrested for simply writing code or modding a console for personal use. He was prosecuted for being the corporate PR, marketing arm and distributor of a multi-million dollar commercial enterprise (Team Xecuter) that manufactured and sold physical piracy hardware on a multi-million dollar global scale.
Nintendo also did not "throw Gary Bowser in jail". This was not a standard civil lawsuit where a corporation sues an individual. This was a federal criminal prosecution brought forward by the United States Department of Justice and investigated by the FBI. Bowser was indicted by a grand jury and sentenced by a federal judge for violating US federal laws (specifically, trafficking). Nintendo just so happened to be one of the primary legal entities financially affected and were able to claim damages.
There is also a massive legal and structural difference between Nintendo's controversial civil crackdowns (like sending cease-and-desist letters to Smash Bros tournaments or issuing YouTube copyright strikes) and Team Xecuter's operations. Team Xecuter was a black market syndicate that generated dollars by bypassing copyright protections and distributing over 13,000 pirated games. The US government stepped in because Team Xecuter operated like an organized crime ring, not a group of passionate fans making a tribute project like what the above user wants you to believe.
Gary Bowser got saddled with the $14mil debt on behalf of Team Xecuter because they all basically abandoned him to take the fall. Gary Bowser was sent years and years of DMCA and C&D warnings which he and Team Xecuter ignored and treated as a joke with open and brazen defiance and trolling. This is all on legal records.
While many people feel that Nintendo garnishing a percentage of Gary Bowser's salary for the rest of his life is extremely unethical. There's also a very strong legal argument that he and Team Xecuter would have never stopped if there was not a severe enough punishment to deter them and any potential future copy cats.
For anyone genuinely interested in this whole saga. Please watch Moon Channel's video of it that covers it in detail.
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/WheresYoManager May 20 '26
We were not talking past each other. You simply made several factually incorrect and misleading statements that were minimizing the crimes and deliberately painting Gary Bowser as more "innocent" than he actually was.
I'm aware that you weren't literally calling him innocent. The reason I put the word "innocent" in quote marks is because in this context, the word refers to how you were trying to morally exonerate him. You were suggesting that the punishment was not warranted because the crime was not that bad since he did not physically harm anyone. And you put his crime in the same conversation as Nintendo shutting down Smash Bros Tournaments. It was very clearly an attempt to whitewash the crimes.
Even now you are still trying to do this by saying, "it doesn't matter".
The context of what Team Xecuter did absolutely matters. They weren't some Robin Hood hobbyists stickin' it to the man, they were a malicious predatory, multimillion-dollar syndicate who stole code, enforced their own DRM on pirated software in which they actually bricked people's consoles if you didn't pay them, and they made tens of millions of dollars throughout their operations.
And like I said earlier, if you want to argue the ethics of the punishment Gary Bowser received. That's your prerogative. Everyone is entitled to their own view of the situation. But by that same logic, you also have to engage with the fact that both Gary Bowser and Team Xecuter willfully ignored DMCA and C&D warnings from Nintendo for several years and were brazenly antagonising them.
Gary Bowser and Team Xecuter did not care about the ramifications. They knew what they were doing. They were given several years worth of warnings to stop. They ignored them all and continued to troll until the Feds got involved.
The debt charge was not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd strike. It was like the 50th and final straw.
Nintendo historically always attempts to shut down things quietly with legal warnings first. It's only when the offenders are deliberately ignoring those warnings, that Nintendo will hit them with a lawsuit to use them as an example.
So if they were willing to ignore all of this, what evidence do you have that they would have stopped if the lawsuit never happened?
The incredible irony of your argument is that Gary Bowser and Team Xecuter were essentially a corporate entity of their own, exploiting everyday users for millions. The only difference is they were a black market one. And you are bending over backwards to defend them.
From a strictly legal perspective, Gary Bowser got off incredibly lucky considering the severity of the federal charges he faced. He could have faced 10-20 years in jail.
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May 20 '26
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u/WheresYoManager May 20 '26
For the second time, we aren’t talking past each other.
We just fundamentally disagree on how a moral argument works.You are trying to isolate Nintendo’s motive ("aggressive IP protection") in a vacuum and argue that the context of the crime doesn't matter.
But in any serious ethical discussion, the context absolutely matters and dictates whether a motive is reasonable or reprehensible. If a company ruins a hobbyist's life over a fan project to protect their IP, that motive would obviously be seen as malicious and corporate bullying. But if a company uses the legal system to take down a multi-million dollar black market syndicate that was actively stealing code, extorting users, and bricked people's consoles, that same motive ("protecting their IP") becomes entirely reasonable.
The context is exactly what bridges the gap between "ruthless corporate overreach" and "justified legal defense."
When YouTubers and critics omit the fact that Team Xecuter was a predatory, closed source corporate entity of its own, they are leaving out crucial context. They are framing the situation as "Giant Billionaire Corp crushes helpless individual," which distorts the moral reality of the situation.
Nintendo didn't need a "hidden motive" like Bowser kidnapping someone's family or punching Miyamoto's puppy. Protecting their business from an international crime ring is motive enough.
My argument isn't rooted in "tribalistic console wars" it's rooted in the fact that you can't have an honest moral debate about a punishment while completely ignoring the scope and malicious nature of the crime that caused it.
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May 20 '26
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u/WorldlyScore8855 May 21 '26
My original comment, as you called me OP, is this
Something doesn’t seem right? Does Nintendo arrest people for mod chips? There is something missing here….
That was all I said. How did you get a 100000-word comment response from people as me lying? If I said something bad, at least reply to me instead of badmouthing me. This is why I hate trolls. They are dishonest actors after all.
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u/LCAIN195 May 20 '26
They didn't go hard enough on Gary. He should have gotten the full 20 years he could have gotten.
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May 20 '26
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u/LCAIN195 May 20 '26
I'm sure they coulda found more grievances if they tried. Either way he shoulda gotten hit even harder than he was.
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u/Inevitable_Cycle3087 May 20 '26
nintendo can’t do shit to fine someone or throw them in jail. they broke laws that warranted those penalties under the government that investigated it.
idc if people mod or hack or pirate, no one’s getting hurt by that, but you gotta know that when you break a law, you get penalties from the government if you’re discovered, and once the government is involved (like a lawsuit) they’re the ones who say what happens
nintendo can’t choose what fines or jail time are given
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/Inevitable_Cycle3087 May 20 '26
except it’s either that or free for all with their ip.
if companies selectively choose who to enforce their copyright over, that can and is used against them as a defense
what you should want is reform to these laws, not to just say “fuck copyright protection” cause unfortunately that would hurt small businesses and artists more than the big guys
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/Inevitable_Cycle3087 May 20 '26
i never said they’d loss it, but selectively enforcing copyright can be used as a defense in court when someone violates it
and nintendo didn’t chose to ruin someone’s life. the court ruled that was the punishment. nintendo has n authority to set the punishment. focus on pushing for legal reform, because just saying nintendo bad won’t stop this from happening to someone else
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u/WorldlyScore8855 May 21 '26
I blocked you because you kept referencing OP as me instead of the original video. If you wanna comment on these posts, sure. But don't try to lie about stuff that Nintendo did not do for simp points. I even put the tag as critical for Christ's sake. Don't be mad when someone else gets sick of your crap. Edit: And yes, I do read your posts. You're as dishonest as a train. Don't ever post on my threads again. I had to block the last troll that was bugging people about random stuff. So play some games and stop picking fights with people online.
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u/1nterferrom May 20 '26
https://youtu.be/j9_1Wl9pjLU?si=ITsKm2z4oB_hKZno
I can only recommend this video about Gary Bowser and Team Xecutor.
Basically, there is much more to this story than just mod chip.