Nintendo has won a $4.5 million default judgment against James Williams, a Reddit moderator accused of running online “pirate shops” for Switch games. The case, decided by a Washington federal judge, centers on Williams’s role in the r/SwitchPirates community, where Nintendo alleged he solicited games and gift cards to build libraries of pirated software.
Because Williams did not respond to the lawsuit, the court granted Nintendo’s request for a default judgment. The award reflects $150,000 per violation across 30 copyrighted games, and the order also requires Williams to immediately disable access to the stores and any social media accounts used to distribute pirated games.
The ruling is the latest in a string of copyright victories for Nintendo. Another recent win in the Netherlands made it illegal to sell Mig flash cartridges, devices that let people play copied Switch games. The two cases together underscore how the company is pursuing both individual operators and broader hardware tools to curb Switch piracy.