In a Japanese first for the console, the Kochi District Court has delivered a guilty sentence for modifying and selling Nintendo Switch consoles. A 58-year-old transportation worker from Ryugasaki City, Fumihiro Otobe has been met with a fine and jail time for soldering and selling second-hand Switch consoles loaded with pirated software. Though these consequences seem like a slap on the wrist when compared to Nintendo's usual litigious tenacity.
TechSpot reports Fumihiro Otobe was arrested in January this year after his house was searched under the suspicion of modifying Switch consoles to run pirated games. Police found four modified Switch units which had their circuit boards soldered allowing them to run modified games. Though they likely didn't even need to look with Otobe confessing immediately upon being charged saying "I was curious if people would think I was great for selling modified machines."
Otobe does what Nintendon't.
While far from impossible, modifying Switch console hardware isn't easy. Even when using an also illegal premade modders chip, there's some super finicky soldering involved that most don't recommend consumers tackle by themselves. So, even if the police and Nintendo clearly aren't, I'm a little impressed by Otobe's efforts here.
After modifying, Otobe was selling these modified switches online for 28,000 yen or about $195 USD. They also came generously prepackaged with 27 pirated games which could be worth somewhere between nothing and $70 USD a pop. Given a brand new Switch is about $300 USD, and even a Switch 2 is only slated to be $450, that seems like a pretty good deal. Morally questionable, sure, but still a good deal.
What makes Otobe the great's work really impressive here is just how lightly he got away with it all. He's only been ordered to pay a 500,000 yen or around $3,500 USD fine, and his two-year prison sentence has been suspended for three years. This usually means as long as Otobe plays nicely for the next few years he might not have to serve any time at all. It seems fair given this we can assume his scale of operation was pretty small and you'd have to be one of a lucky few to score one of his consoles.
The small scale here is also why we see such a stark contrast in punishment when compared to other Switch hackers. In 2022 we saw one of the faces behind creating a slew of those Nintendo console modding chips we talked about earlier receive a 40-month sentence and a $14.5 million fine for his crimes. That 400,000% price hike on the fine is less ridiculous when you realise he was part of an operation that far exceeded the hobby tamperings of Otobe.
His last name is also Bowser, so it seems fair Nintendo wanted to make sure they got as many gold coins out of him as possible.
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