Bowser Now Owes $10M More to Nintendo

Bowser was already set to pay for his crimes, but now he will be paying even more. Gary Bowser, the Canadian hacker who pled guilty to criminal modding, was already on the hook to pay Nintendo $4.5 million as a result of a federal lawsuit. Now, Eurogamer is reporting that he owes Nintendo an additional $10 million on top of that in a civil lawsuit, and he may still face up to 10 years in prison.

NEW: Gary Bowser agrees to pay Nintendo $10 million in video game piracy civil lawsuit. This follows Bowser's guilty plea in October in the federal criminal case against him (where he agreed pay Nintendo $4.5 million in restitution.) https://t.co/zohn0SPHnH pic.twitter.com/KMJro3l8Zw
— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) December 6, 2021

What was Gary Bowser’s specific crime, though? He worked as part of a criminal modding team since 2013. He specialized in modding gamers’ consoles and making it easy for them to play pirated games, effectively causing financial losses that range from $65 million to $100 million.

Bowser maintains that he only made $320,000 from these activities as well as advertising revenue. It seems clear that Nintendo is using this case as an example to scare off potential future pirates, especially those trying to profit from piracy.

Ultimately, this case makes us long for the good old days. Back when the Bowsers of the world were stuck with stealing princesses instead of intellectual property!