Earlier today, Doug Bowser, the President of Nintendo America, announced the company’s intent to pursue a lawsuit against another Bowser who has been selling Nintendo Switch hacking products. However, this Bowser is not Mario’s arch-enemy intent on kidnapping Princess Peach but is the leader of Team Xecuter named Gary Bowser. In a lawsuit reported by Polygon, Nintendo is seeking $2,500 for each system sold illegally and expects the group to stop their distribution of hacked systems. They also asked for websites that make these products available to be shut down.
For almost an entire decade, Team Xecuter has been making and distributing modchips and jailbroken consoles since at least 2013. They began with the 3ds but over time gradually transitioned to the Switch console. Traditionally most console hacking is to learn more about the system and for personal use, but Bowser and his team sold their products for a price which has now led to an arrest and at least 11 charges against Gary Bowser with more pending for copyright infringement and trafficking counts. According to Nintendo, Bowse and others are a part of an “international pirate ring.” They estimate that these products put almost 79 million Switch and Switch Lites at risk for hacking.
In previous years, Nintendo has had very little tolerance for individuals or groups who use any game series or the Nintendo brand. They have filed several lawsuits just in the past few years and won most of them. While Nintendo is mainly focused on the illegal selling of consoles and products from hackers, some of the cases included an Only Fans account and a TikTok user. Both were sued over Pokémon merchandising.
So, while Nintendo will not be challenging Bowser the King Koopa, they will be pursuing lawsuits against Gary Bowser, a member of Team Xecuter. For more information, the lawsuit documents can be found on Polygon’s website.