Nintendo wins $4.5 million piracy judgment after former Reddit moderator fails to defend himself in court

Nintendo sued James Williams, also known online as Archbox, in June 2024 over claims he was the operator, overseer and driving force behind several Pirate Shops. Williams was a leading moderator of the r/SwitchPirates subreddit, which had nearly 190,000 members.

The judgment

US District Judge Lauren King granted Nintendo's motion on September 23. The $4.5 million figure comes from the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each of 30 copyrighted games, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The court found the infringement was willful.

The permanent injunction bars Williams from distributing pirated Nintendo games and circumvention software, or encouraging others to obtain them. It also requires him to disable access to any shops he operates or controls that offered pirated Switch games, and to disable accounts used to distribute or promote the infringing material.

Default

Nintendo won by default when Williams did not answer the complaint in court. According to the court order, Williams hired a lawyer specifically to respond to Nintendo's subpoena to Google, but that involvement never extended to answering the complaint, leaving Nintendo's allegations uncontested.

How Nintendo found him

Investigators connected his Reddit activity to a Nintendo account used for hardware repairs. The company had shipped repaired hardware to his address just days before sending its cease-and-desist letter.

Related case

Nintendo also sued Modded Hardware on the same day in June 2024, targeting a business that sold modified Switch consoles and offered modding services. That separate case ended in 2025 with its operator agreeing to a $2 million judgment as part of a settlement.

Collection

Whether Nintendo actually collects $4.5 million is uncertain. Archbox's Reddit account is already deleted and the shops named in the complaint closed long ago, most after Nintendo's March 2024 warning.