If you are a fan of Nintendo games, you may have heard of Gary Bowser, a notorious hacker who was involved in a scheme to sell devices that could hack Nintendo Switch consoles and allow users to play pirated games. In this article, we will explore Gary Bowser Wikipedia.
Gary Bowser is a Canadian national and a member of a notorious hacking group called “Team Xecuter”.
Bowser was allegedly involved in hacking Nintendo’s systems, stealing confidential information, and selling pirated games and other copyrighted material.
He was also accused of leading the operation that developed and marketed the SX line of Nintendo Switch hacking tools.
Gary Bowser Wikipedia – What Did He Do?
Gary Bowser is not related to Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo of America, or Bowser, the archenemy of Mario.
He is a Canadian hacker who was part of Team Xecuter, a hacking group that sold mod chips and jailbreaking devices for various game consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, NES Classic Edition, and more.
Team Xecuter was controversial among console hackers, who usually share their tools and exploits for free and educational purposes.
Nintendo President Doug Browser sued Gary Browser for the piracy of games. (Source: The sun)
Team Xecuter sold their products for profit, often using stolen or leaked code from other hackers. They also claimed that their devices were for legitimate purposes, such as homebrew and backups, but they also enabled piracy and cheating.
Bowser was the public relations and marketing manager of Team Xecuter, who handled their website, social media accounts, and customer support.
Nintendo sued Team Xecuter in 2020, along with several resellers of their devices, for violating their intellectual property rights and circumventing their technological measures.
They also worked with law enforcement agencies to arrest and indict three members of Team Xecuter: Gary Bowser, Max Louarn, and Yuanning Chen.
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Gary Bowser Age – how old is he?
Gary’s exact date of birth is yet to be known but he is 54 years old as of 2024.
Bowser was charged with 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and traffic in circumvention devices, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He was accused of designing and selling “circumvention devices”, such as the SX Pro and the SX OS, that could bypass Nintendo’s security measures and enable users to run unauthorized software on their Switch consoles.
Gary Bowser Arrest details
Bowser was arrested in September 2020 in the Dominican Republic and was deported to the U.S., where he faced federal felony charges.
In November 2021, Bowser pleaded guilty to two charges related to the distribution of Team Xecuter’s devices, agreeing to pay a $4.5 million penalty.
He agreed to cooperate with authorities in their ongoing investigation of Team Xecuter in exchange for dropping the other nine charges against him.
Gary Bowser owes millions of dollars to Nintendo for the damages caused due to piracy. (Source: Nintendo Fandom)
In February 2022, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
In addition to the criminal case, Bowser also faced a civil lawsuit from Nintendo, which sued him for three counts of copyright infringement, seeking damages of $2500 per trafficked device, and $150,000 for each copyright violation.
In December 2021, Gary agreed to pay Nintendo $10 million to settle the lawsuit.
However, Bowser was released from prison early in April 2023 due to his age, medical condition, and nationality.
He returned to Canada, where he said he would have to pay Nintendo 25% to 30% of his monthly gross income as part of the restitution agreement.
Gary also said he was unlikely to have to pay the $4.5 million fine imposed by the court. So far, he had paid Nintendo only $175 from his prison earnings.
Gary Bowser’s case is one of the most high-profile examples of Nintendo’s aggressive stance against hackers and pirates.
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