Nintendo Switch hardware modder hit with a fine and 3-year suspended sentence after allegedly modifying and selling consoles that could run pirated games
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
A 58-year-old man previously arrested in Japan under suspicion of violating trademark law by modifying and selling Nintendo Switch consoles has been given a fine and a two-year prison sentence, suspended for three years.
Reported by Japanese outlet NTV News (and spotted and translated by Automaton), the man was suspected of taking preowned Nintendo Switch consoles and soldering modified parts onto their circuit boards. Allegedly, these modded consoles were able to run pirated games, and Automaton previously reported that the man also offered a bundle of 27 pirated games to go with the devices.
The devices themselves were apparently sold for 28,000 yen each (the equivalent of roughly $195), which is cheaper than a new one from Nintendo. For reference, it currently costs 32,978 yen (around $229) to order a standard Switch (with customizable Joy-Con colors) from the Japanese My Nintendo Store, so these modded devices were a comparatively affordable option.
It was previously reported that this was the first man to be arrested in Japan over allegedly modding and selling Switch consoles. Now, he's been dealt a three-year suspended sentence, as well as a fine of 500,000 yen (around $3,487).
That's a significantly smaller amount of money than we've seen in the past with certain other Nintendo cases. In 2023, a man named Gary Bowser was released from prison after 14 months of a 40-month sentence, after he previously pleaded guilty to piracy charges (specifically, "conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices," and "trafficking in circumvention"). In total, he was ordered to pay $14.5 million to Nintendo (thanks, The Guardian).
Last year, the developers of the Switch emulator Yuzu reportedly agreed to pay a $2.4 million settlement to Nintendo. Shortly after, the devs released a statement saying that the team had "always been against piracy," but acknowledged that "because our projects can circumvent Nintendo's technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy."
Nintendo's IP manager admits "you can't immediately claim that an emulator is illegal in itself," but "it can become illegal depending on how it's used."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Verge
10 hours ago
- The Verge
The Nintendo Switch 2 is an awesome upgrade for parents like me
I wouldn't have preordered a Nintendo Switch 2 just for myself. The price is high, there's no new Smash Bros. or Metroid Prime (yet), and I've got a perfectly good original Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck that keep me plenty busy. At first, I could only justify the $450 because I write about gaming tech for The Verge. But two weeks in, I can almost justify the cost one additional way: the Switch 2 is turning out to be an upgrade for my whole family. I'm not primarily talking about hand-me-downs, though yes, you could absolutely hand your original Switch down to a kid while basking in the glory of the Switch 2's larger, faster screen. Mom and dad always get the best seats in the house, right? But no: I'm talking about how Nintendo's new features are helping me share the delight of gaming with my 8-year-old kid like never before. We bought my daughter a Switch Lite last Christmas, with Animal Crossing and Let's Go Pikachu, and that's pretty much all she played. All other gaming monopolized the living room TV, where she and her younger sister often clash over what to watch next. But two weeks ago, my eldest suddenly realized that we could now magically beam any of my old purchased digital games from my Switch 2 to her Switch Lite, lending them out like a library for two weeks at a time. While I played Mario Kart World for the Switch 2, she practiced her skills in my old copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; soon, I'll play the gruesome Cyberpunk 2077 while she tries Stardew Valley. And in both cases, I don't need to worry whether she'll lose a cartridge. Then we found GameShare, a feature that lets a Switch 2 beam its entire screen and controls to a second Switch, giving a second person their own screen and control for a selection of multiplayer games. We began playing Super Mario Odyssey as daughter and dad, alternating between who controlled Mario and who controlled his sentient flying hat, Cappy. Since each of us effectively had our own portable TV, she didn't shove her head between me and the screen like she sometimes does when we're reading bedtime books. And since neither of us was monopolizing the TV, the younger kid got to keep on watching her YouTube videos of intricately animated stop-motion Lego food factories. When it was time for me to fly across the country last week, my eldest begged me to let her keep playing Mario Odyssey while I was gone. Virtual game cards came through once again: five quick taps, and a game download magically appeared on her Switch. She did have to start the game from scratch, since I couldn't find a way to sync a save game between two different consoles with two different Nintendo accounts… but it turns out that was her plan all along. Apparently 8-year-olds enjoy repetition much more than us adults! Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of physical media, and I especially worry that Nintendo will pull the rug out from under our digital purchases given its track record of closing eShops. I think Nintendo could do a lot more to make the Switch and Switch 2 better for parents, too. For one, I wish the company hadn't arbitrarily locked its webcam-enabled GameChat to the new Nintendo Switch 2, as I would have loved to play Mario Kart with my daughter during my business trip. The original Switch and Switch Lite might not have the horsepower for simultaneous four-player screen sharing and video chat like the Switch 2, but surely they have enough for the webcams alone? It's also awkward that there's still no obvious way to merge the save games from the offline 'kid' profile on my original Switch to my daughter's Nintendo account. But most of all, I fear the two-screens-for-one-game GameShare may not get the attention or adoption it deserves. It's such a clever way of repurposing cloud gaming technology, but the initial list of GameShare-compatible games is vanishingly short and doesn't yet include obvious wins like Mario Kart World or Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the newest mainline entry in the series and one that's great to play with kids. It's been nearly 25 years since Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance let you hook up four portable consoles to play limited multiplayer, even if only a single person had a copy of the game. Mario Kart DS did the same thing 20 years ago over Wi-Fi, again offering single cartridge multiplayer, with 'DS Download Play.' But it required conscious effort from game developers to create new single cart mulitplayer modes for their GBA and DS titles, and not every deserving game had one. GameShare shouldn't have that problem: since it's just streaming a screen and controller inputs, it should theoretically work on any game you'd play on a single screen today. And yet for some reason, Nintendo hasn't turned it on for many games at once. If Nintendo can make GameShare standard for the Switch's many fabulous third-party couch games, like Overcooked 2, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, and Lego Star Wars, while enabling its own titles, like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Donkey Kong Country, and Luigi's Mansion 3, it could make the Switch 2 an easier choice for parents who want to play together with their kids. And that would play right into Nintendo's end goal for the past seven years. As Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto laid out in 2018: 'Our ultimate ambition is for a Nintendo Switch to be owned not just by every family, but by every single person.' Personally, I now have a Switch 2, a Switch, and a Switch Lite in our house. We are almost Nintendo's dream family.
Engadget
10 hours ago
- Engadget
Engadget review recap: Switch 2, Playdate games and a Framework laptop
The Nintendo Switch 2 has been all the rage around the Engadget HQ for the last few weeks. Even the editors who didn't write the official review have had their hands glued to their new toys. Of course, we've been testing other things too, mainly a repairable laptop that's design for student use. Read on to catch up on the reviews you might've missed over the last two weeks. With the Switch 2, Nintendo improved everything we liked about the original while retaining its sleek and portable design. $449 at Walmart Nintendo Switch 2 finally made its way to gamers this month and several of us have been putting the portable console through its paces. Senior reviews reporter Sam Rutherford wrote our full review, noting that the company managed to take everything that make the original model so good and make it better. However, there's still room for improvement, especially with regards to battery life. "The Switch 2 has everything that made the original so great, but now there's more of it to enjoy," he said. "Granted, Nintendo's latest console commands a higher price, but as the successor to the iconic system that revived handheld gaming, this thing is worth it." The Switch 2 Pro controller is clearly the most refined gamepad Nintendo has ever made. It's just a shame that it's so expensive and doesn't have Hall effect sticks. $85 at Best Buy A new Switch means a new Pro Controller, so senior reviews reporter Devindra Hardawar took a deep dive on Nintendo's new accessory. Despite being "the most refined gampad" the company has ever made, he took offense to the price and the lack of advanced design features. "As much as I like the Switch 2 Pro Controller, it's undoubtedly an extravagance at $85 when 8Bitdo's Ultimate gamepad offers even more features for $50," he explained. "But if you're a dedicated Nintendo fan, or you just can't accept third-party controllers, it's also one of the best gamepads you can buy today." Framework's 12-inch laptop is an alternative to low-cost laptops, but it is too expensive to compete. $799 at Framework The Framework Laptop 12 takes the company's familiar spin on modular, repairable machines and puts it in a smaller body with students in mind. However, the price is an issue and overall performance isn't good enough. "The limited performance and battery life here gives me pause and I'm not sure a machine that, right now, needs a stretch to run Fortnite would be too popular," senior reporter Dan Cooper wrote. "My gut tells me Framework had intended to sell this for less before tariffs pushed the prices up beyond what made sense." Weekend editor Cheyenne Macdonald recently proclaimed that there haven't been any flops at the halfway point of Playdate Season Two. The two newest additions are Long Puppy and Otto's Galactic Groove!!, two games that are fun but still offer a challenge. You can also revisit her thoughts on The Whiteout and Wheelsprung or the initial column on Fulcrum Defender and Blippo+.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hurricanes and sandstorms can be forecast 5,000 times faster thanks to new Microsoft AI model
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A new artificial intelligence (AI) model can predict major weather events faster and more accurately than some of the world's most widely used forecasting systems. The model, called Aurora, is trained on more than 1 million hours of global atmospheric data, including weather station readings, satellite images and radar measurements. Scientists at Microsoft say it's likely the largest dataset ever used to train a weather AI model. Aurora correctly forecast that Typhoon Doksuri would strike the northern Philippines four days before the storm made landfall in July 2023. At the time, official forecasts placed the storm's landfall over Taiwan — several hundred miles away. It also outperformed standard forecasting tools used by agencies, including the U.S. National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It delivered more accurate five-day storm tracks and produced high-resolution forecasts up to 5,000 times faster than conventional weather models powered by supercomputers. More broadly, Aurora beat existing systems in predicting weather conditions over a 14-day period in 91% of cases, the scientists said. They published their findings May 21 in the journal Nature. Researchers hope Aurora and models like it could support a new approach to predicting environmental conditions called Earth system forecasting, where a single AI model simulates weather, air quality and ocean conditions together. This could help produce faster and more consistent forecasts, especially in places that lack access to high-end computing or comprehensive monitoring infrastructure. Related: Google builds an AI model that can predict future weather catastrophes Aurora belongs to a class of large-scale AI systems known as foundation models — the same category of AI models that power tools like ChatGPT. Foundation models can be adapted to different tasks because they're designed to learn general patterns and relationships from large volumes of training data, rather than being built for a single, fixed task. In Aurora's case, the model learns to generate forecasts in a matter of seconds by analyzing weather patterns from sources like satellites, radar and weather stations, as well as simulated forecasts, the researchers said. The model can then be fine-tuned for a wide range of scenarios with relatively little extra data — unlike traditional forecasting models, which are typically built for narrow, task-specific purposes and often need retraining to adapt. The diverse dataset Aurora is trained on not only results in greater accuracy in general versus conventional methods, but also means the model is better at forecasting extreme events, researchers said. Related stories —Google's DeepMind AI can make better weather forecasts than supercomputers —Is climate change making the weather worse? —What is the Turing test? How the rise of generative AI may have broken the famous imitation game In one example, Aurora successfully predicted a major sandstorm in Iraq in 2022, despite having limited air quality data. It also outperformed wave simulation models at forecasting ocean swell height and direction in 86% of tests, showing it could extract useful patterns from complex data even when specific inputs were missing or incomplete. "It's got the potential to have [a] huge impact because people can really fine tune it to whatever task is relevant to them … particularly in countries which are underserved by other weather forecasting capabilities," study co-author Megan Stanley, a senior researcher at Microsoft, said in a statement. Microsoft has made Aurora's code and training data publicly available for research and experimentation. The model has been integrated into services like MSN Weather, which itself is integrated into tools like the Windows Weather app and Microsoft's Bing search results.
