Nintendo Hacker Gary Bowser Completes 40 Month Sentence

Gary Bowser, a Canadian member of the hacking group Team Xecuter, was released early from a 40 month United States prison sentence for selling devices that bypassed Nintendo's copy protection systems.

He had pleaded guilty in February 2022 to charges tied to Team Xecuter, which profited by selling modchips and custom firmware that let pirated games run on Nintendo consoles.

Bowser walked free on March 28, 2023 after serving just over a year, credited partly to good behavior, and was held in Washington while immigration authorities processed his return to Toronto.

His legal troubles are far from over, as he owes Nintendo roughly 10 million dollars in restitution and had paid only 175 dollars through 25 dollar monthly installments earned on prison wages.

Nintendo can garnish 25 to 30 percent of his gross monthly income going forward, and he has about six months before mandatory payments resume.

Bowser said he intends to stay out of trouble and hopes to earn a legitimate income managing Airbnb properties to chip away at the debt.

Bowser was the warning shot; the campaign that followed has outgrown him. He told Nintendo Life in May 2024 that his conviction was "a blessing," living on savings, disability payments and a GoFundMe while 20 to 30 percent of any surplus income goes to Nintendo for years to come. The company has since settled with Yuzu, closed Ryujinx, rewritten its user agreement to make a modded console "permanently unusable," and in September 2025 taken a $2 million judgment off Ryan Daley, who fought without a lawyer. Modders keep losing and forks keep appearing: TorrentFreak counted seven DMCA notices clearing more than 400 GitHub repositories in one day in August 2026, so watch for the next wave when the mirrors resurface.