A US federal court has sentenced Canadian hacker Doug Bowser to 40 months in prison for his involvement in the hacking group Switch Team Xecuter, Department of Justice. announced on Thursday. Not to be confused with the president of Nintendo of America Doug Bowser (or Mario’s nemesis, for that matter), Bowser is part of a collective that develops and sells devices that people can use to play pirated games on their consoles.
FBI Bowser arrested in 2020. A year later, he agreed to pay $10 million to Nintendo to settle a civil privacy lawsuit and another $4.5 million in compensation to the company. Prior to today’s sentencing announcement, Bowser faced 10 years in prison. According to the Department of Justice, video game publishers have lost more than $65 million thanks to Team Xecuter’s performance. The Homeland Security and FBI are still trying to catch Bowser’s accomplices.
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