In a Japanese first for the console, the Kochi District Court has delivered a guilty sentence for modifying and selling Nintendo Switch consoles. A 58-year-old transportation worker from Ryugasaki City, Fumihiro Otobe has been met with a fine and jail time for soldering and selling second-hand Switch consoles loaded with pirated software. Though these consequences seem like a slap on the wrist when compared to Nintendo’s usual litigious tenacity.
TechSpot reports Fumihiro Otobe was arrested in January this year after his house was searched under the suspicion of modifying Switch consoles to run pirated games. Police found four modified Switch units which had their circuit boards soldered allowing them to run modified games. Though they likely didn’t even need to look with Otobe confessing immediately upon being charged saying “I was curious if people would think I was great for selling modified machines.”
