Hacker Gary Bowser Sentenced To Three Years In Prison, Nintendo Praises The FBI
Gary Bowser, the hilariously named hacker who was part of a team that produced modchips to allow pirated software to run on Nintendo's hardware, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. In a statement, Nintendo offered praise to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, US Attorney's Office, Department of Justice, and basically the entire US justice system from the top down.
Bowser was arrested in 2020 and pled guilty to multiple counts of trafficking in circumvention devices and conspiracy to circumvent technological measures. As part of Team Xectuer, Bowser helped mass-produce illegal modchips that allowed users to play pirated software on Nintendo consoles. The hacker team made tens of millions of dollars on sales of these modchips, while Nintendo said it cost the Mario publisher tens of millions more.
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“This piracy scheme is estimated to have caused more than $65 million in losses to video game companies,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown in a statement. “But the damage goes beyond these businesses, harming video game developers and the small, creative studios whose products and hard work is essentially stolen when games are pirated.”
Bowser had already agreed to pay a $4.5 million fine to the US government and $10 million to Nintendo in a separate civil case. However, the US Attorney also requested a five-year sentence calling Bowser the face of a criminal empire. Bowser's defense argued for a lesser prison sentence of 19 months, saying that the US Attorney's Office was merely using Bowser to set an example because they hadn't been able to catch the rest of Team Xecuter.
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of
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