Nintendo wins $4.5 million from lawsuit over pirated Switch games

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Nintendo of America has been awarded $4.5 million in damages from a lawsuit brought by the company against an individual who allegedly sold pirated versions of Switch games. The target of the lawsuit was James Williams, known online by the handle Archbox and reportedly a moderator for the r/SwitchPirates Reddit community. The subreddit in question is still active, although Aftermath noted that Williams does not currently appear listed as a mod.

Nintendo claimed in its suit, originally filed in 2024, that Williams was the "operator, overseer and driving force behind several Pirate Shops." Although Nintendo has a big legal team that it has been known to deploy aggressively, the lawyers had comparatively less to do this time around because Williams did not respond to the suit in court, which granted the game company a win by default. Williams has still been ordered to "immediately disable access to all online 'shops' that he operates or otherwise controls which have offered to the public extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for download."