Nintendo Wins $4.5 Million In Damages From Reddit Moderator Who Pirated Switch Games

Nintendo has scored another victory in their crusade against Switch piracy.

As reported by TorrentFreak, a US District Judge has ruled in favor of Nintendo in their case against Archbox, a former lead moderator on the SwitchPirates subreddit. Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Archbox back in 2024, alleging that he operated “pirate shops” to sell pirated Switch games, and used the SwitchPirates subreddit as a means of promoting them as well as helping users install “circumvention software” to play them. Archbox did not respond to Nintendo’s suit, and they requested a default judgment.

The US District judge granted Nintendo’s request in full, allowing them to seek $4.5 million in damages from Archbox, as well as a permanent injunction preventing him from continuing to sell pirated games. This figure was arrived from Nintendo requesting the maximum of $150,000 per title for 30 games, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and more.

That said, Archbox has already deleted his reddit account and shut down all of his “pirate shops” as of this writing, having seemingly done so in the interim between Nintendo filing the original suit in 2024 and now. It will also be difficult for Nintendo to claim damages from him since he is unresponsive to the suit. Even so, Nintendo’s likely main goal with these lawsuits it to serve as an example to discourage others from pirating their games, although whether or not it does so is debatable.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.