Nintendo just dropped a $4.5 million hammer on James "Archbox" Williams, the ex-moderator of r/SwitchPirates, after he ghosted their lawsuit over operating pirate shops that distributed cracked Switch games. The Washington federal court entered default judgment on September 23, 2026, awarding the full statutory maximum of $150,000 per title across 30 games including Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Williams, tracked via his own Reddit posts where he bragged about not paying $50 for games, hired a lawyer once to fight a Google subpoena but never answered the complaint itself.

Court documents show Nintendo accused him of running multiple "pirate shops," soliciting eShop gift card donations to fund more copying, and pushing circumvention tools since at least 2019. Judge Lauren King called the infringement "egregious" and issued a permanent injunction forcing him to shut down any shops, social accounts, or platforms linked to distribution. Nintendo's filing noted Williams once acknowledged issues in a cease-and-desist response but then got combative and kept operating.

The verdict closes another chapter in Nintendo's piracy crackdown that already nailed Gary Bowser and Yuzu's devs, but collecting the money remains doubtful since Williams never showed up to defend himself. Sources close to the case say the $4.5 million figure was framed as "reasonable" because Nintendo limited claims to 30 titles instead of pursuing hundreds more.