Reddit Moderator Has to Pay Nintendo $4.5M After Lawsuit
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Published Sep 24, 2026, 12:23 PM EDT
Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon, and as a reporter at The Verge. Hernandez specializes in Pokémon TCG, Nintendo, and offbeat internet culture stories.
The Redditor is accused of running Nintendo Switch piracy shops
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Nearly a year after Nintendo filed a motion against a Reddit moderator who oversaw a Switch piracy forum, a verdict has been returned in the lawsuit. The proceedings did not go in the defendant's favor — which is unsurprising, given that the Reddit moderator didn't even bother showing up to court.
Why does a Reddit moderator owe Nintendo millions?
Aftermath reports that Nintendo was officially awarded $4.5 million in damages after accusing Redditor James "Archbox" Williams of copying, distributing, and promoting Nintendo Switch piracy to the public. Nintendo further alleged that Williams created, operated, supported, and promoted piracy websites that allowed users to download extensive libraries of Nintendo Switch games. Back in October 2025, when the motion was initially filed, Nintendo argued that the damages it was seeing were "nowhere near an amount that would compensate NOA for the seriousness of the Defendant's conduct." According to the House of Mario, it could have easily sought "several million dollars" in statutory damages for DMCA violations. Since Nintendo did not seek those damages, the company characterized its actions against Williams as "reasonable."
Prior to the release of the Switch 2, Nintendo faced a major piracy problem with its 2017 portable. Nearly every major release on the platform, from The Legend of Zelda to Pokémon, was available to download well ahead of their intended release dates. Nintendo met this threat aggressively over the years with an increasing number of lawsuits. The company has gone after piracy websites, hardware hackers, pirate software sellers, and fans who livestream pirated games. At one point, the company even worked with the FBI to tackle its piracy problem. The litigious approach was underscored by Nintendo's estimation that it has suffered $170 million in lost game sales.
A Washington court ordered Williams to immediately disable access to the online shops that he allegedly ran. Meanwhile, the Switch piracy community at the center of the lawsuit is washing its hands of Williams.
"Dude was a moron for selling this shit," reads one top-voted reply to the news. "Bro was asking to get fucked."