Switch modder Bowser released from prison, likely owes Nintendo for rest of life

Enlarge / One of the chips Team Xecuter offered for sale to alter the Switch's boot process, allowing for custom firmware and, yes, piracy. (credit: Team Xecuter)

Gary Bowser, a member of the notorious Team Xecuter Switch modding group, will soon be allowed to return to his home country of Canada. He will not, however, be able to avoid the $14.5 million in repayment Nintendo will likely be pulling from him for the rest of his life.

Bowser, a key figure in the nominative determinism hypothesis, is often described as a "hacker" but mainly worked in sales and promotion for Team Xecuter (or TX) as "kind of a PR guy." The group developed and sold jailbreaking devices dating back to the original Xbox under various brand and release names. While these devices opened up systems for homebrew, Linux, and other uses, they also made it simple to load pirated ROMs onto devices. Team Xecuter benefited from the open source work of Switch hackers, sold devices at a profit to help others hack their Switches, and were far more explicit about the piracy aspects of their exploits than other groups.

That's why the arrest of Bowser and other TX members shocked the console hacking scene when their indictments came down in October 2020. The Department of Justice arranged for the arrest and extradition of Gary "GaryOPA" Bowser in the Dominican Republic and Max "MaxiMiLiEN" Louarn in France (eventually found in Tanzania but not yet extradited), and it pursued Yuanning "100+1" Chen in Shenzen, China. Charging for products—and being brazen about their piracy uses—seemed to spur Nintendo to action, which in turn pushed the DOJ.