Nintendo Switch Modder Receives Suspended Sentence in Japan
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- Japanese court issued a suspended sentence to a man found guilty of modifying a second-hand Nintendo Switch and then selling it online.
- Besides two years in prison, suspended for three years, the defendant was issued a fine of ¥500,000.
- Modified consoles, which were preloaded with 27 pirated titles, were sold for ¥28,000 (around $180) each.
The Kōchi District Court issued a suspended sentence to a man found guilty of violating the Trademark Act by modifying second-hand Nintendo Switch consoles to enable them to run pirated games and then selling them online.
As reported by Gaming.News on Jan. 15, 2025, when Japanese authorities made their first-ever arrest related to selling modded consoles, they accused the suspect of modifying second-hand Nintendo Switches by welding altered components onto their circuit boards, allowing them to run pirated games. The consoles, which were preloaded with 27 pirated titles, were sold for ¥28,000 (around $180 USD) each. The suspect has admitted to the charges.
According to the report from NTV News, at the sentencing hearing on April 14, 2025, the 58 year old Fumihiro Otobe (乙部文裕) was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, and a fine of ¥500,000 (approx. $3,500 USD).
Game piracy remains a significant challenge for companies such as Nintendo, which has consistently pushed for stronger measures to safeguard its intellectual property. In 2024, Nintendo managed to take down 8,500 copies of the Switch emulator Yuzu, claiming it enabled the piracy of popular games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo’s flagship game reportedly faced over one million instances of piracy before its official launch.
