A federal court in Washington has ordered Reddit moderator James "Archbox" Williams to pay Nintendo $4.5 million in damages over alleged Nintendo Switch piracy. US District Judge Lauren King granted Nintendo's motion for default judgment in full on September 23, along with a permanent injunction barring Williams from distributing pirated games or circumvention tools. Nintendo filed the lawsuit in June 2024, accusing Williams of running a network of so-called "Pirate Shops" offering libraries of pirated Switch games to the public.

According to the complaint, Williams promoted these shops through the r/SwitchPirates subreddit, where he served as lead moderator, and allegedly solicited eShop gift card donations to fund additional pirated titles. Williams never responded to the lawsuit. The court noted he had hired an attorney at one point to contest a Google subpoena, but he did not answer Nintendo's claims. Since he failed to respond, the court treated the complaint's allegations as true, which is standard for default judgments rather than a ruling on contested evidence.The $4.5 million figure reflects the statutory maximum of $150,000 per title across 30 Switch games named in the suit, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This is not new territory for Nintendo either. Nintendo previously sued the Yuzu Emulator team for circumventing its software encryption and facilitating piracy. The order in this new judgment also requires Williams to shut down any remaining pirate shops and disable accounts tied to the case, including on Reddit, Discord, and Telegram, many of which already appear inactive.