Two members of video game piracy group Team Xecuter are now in custody facing charges in a US court.
Max Louarn, a 48-year old French national from Avignon, Yuanning Chen, 35, from Shenzhen, China, and Gary Bowser, a 51-year old Canadian from the Dominican Republic, were charged in a federal indictment unsealed on Friday.
The indictment alleges the defendants were leaders in an enterprise that developed and sold illegal devices that hacked video game consoles so they could play pirate games. Consoles hacked by the group include the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS.
Yes, that’s right. Bowser was arrested for hacking Nintendo Switch – a coincidence noticed by former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime (who was replaced by Gary Bowser’s namesake Doug Bowser).
I want the keys to the kingdom back, Bowser. 😂 @thetruebowser @NintendoAmerica https://t.co/Ae7WHoFddH
— Reggie Fils-Aimé (@Reggie) October 3, 2020
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“Imagine if something you invented was stolen from you and then marketed and sold to customers around the world,” said FBI Special Agent Raymond Duda.
“That is exactly what Team Xecutor was doing. This is a perfect example of why the FBI has made the prevention of the theft of intellectual property a priority. These arrests should send a message to would-be pirates that the FBI does not consider these crimes to be a game.”
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Team Xecuter is perhaps best-known for selling Nintendo Switch modchips, but it’s been operating for years, selling mod chips for consoles as far back as the original Xbox.
There are over a dozen members of Team Xecuter around the world, including developers, website designers, suppliers who manufacture the devices and resellers. Team Xecuter used a variety of product names for its devices, such as the Gateway 3DS, the Stargate, the TrueBlue Mini, the Classic2Magic, and the SX line of devices that included the SX OS, the SX Pro, the SX Lite, and the SX Core.