Nintendo Wins £1.5m In Switch Hacking Case

Nintendo has won $2m (£1.5m) in a legal battle against a website that sold tools allowing people to play pirated games on its Switch console.

Uberchips was accused of selling hardware and software that let users install and play games for free.

The Settlement

As part of the settlement, it must destroy all its stock and hand over its domain name to Nintendo.

The tools it sold were made by hacking group Team-Xecuter, which Nintendo had also wanted to sue.

When that effort failed, Nintendo targeted stores that offered its tools for sale instead.

According to the lawsuit, Team-Xecuter designs and manufactures an unauthorised operating system called SX OS and offers tools that install it.

Its chips work on all Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles.

Uberchips was run by Ohio-based Tom Dilts Jr and was one of a handful of stores that sold the tools.

After the action began, the site went offline with a message to visitors reading: “An unfortunate set of events has happened.”

Team Xecuter

It cancelled all pre-orders for its SX products and offered refunds.

In June, Team-Xecuter spoke to piracy news website Torrent Freak, claiming it had the right to tinker with Nintendo’s devices.

It said its products could also be used to make back-ups of cartridges, expand the console’s storage and run open-source software on the device.

The settlement, which is pending approval from a judge, is not the end of the matter.

Nintendo has filed another lawsuit against eight other operators allegedly selling Team-Xecuter products.