Man accused of selling modified Switch consoles arrested

summation

  • Console modding for piracy is illegal in Japan.

  • A man has been arrested on suspicion of modifying and selling Nintendo Switch systems.

  • There have been previous arrests in Japan on charges of modifying games.

Japanese man arrested on suspicion of modding nintendo switch console. It's the latest crackdown on people who try to modify consoles like the Nintendo Switch and/or games and then sell them on the open market.

Console modding is a popular hobby and has been for almost as long as consoles have existed. Whether it's using simple cheat devices like the GameShark on the original PlayStation or jailbreaking consoles so they can play illegally downloaded games, gamers and tinkerers have come up with ways to alter hardware to do things it wasn't programmed to do. For many years. Japan has previously shown that it doesn't take things like this lightly, and now another game modder is behind bars as a result.

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According to Japan's NTV News, a man named Fumihiro Otobe (58) was arrested in Japan on charges of violating trademark law by modifying and selling the Nintendo Switch system. The report claims the man modified the device by altering its circuit board. By welding together modified parts, he was able to make any pirated game playable on the device, and he also included 27 pirated games with each sale. He was using a used Switch console for this, which he was selling for around $180 USD. The news outlet said this is the first time an arrest of this nature has been made involving a Switch.

Game piracy is taken seriously in Japan.

Most system modders can ignore this if it limits modifications to their system, but trying to sell that system is another matter. Previously, news stories emerged that an individual had been arrested on suspicion of alterations. pokemon game, adding animals to the title that were not actually captured by the player. This is nothing new, as a 44-year-old man was arrested in Japan in 2020 for allegedly modifying a PS3 to copy inserted games so he could return or resell the discs.

Currently, the lawsuit against the Switch modder is still under investigation. But he has already admitted to the crime and said others would think he was “amazing” if he did such a thing. It remains to be seen what kind of punishment he will receive depending on how many systems he has modified and distributed. Four units were discovered in his home and have now been confiscated, in addition to everything he had already sold.

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