Nintendo has asked a US court to award $4.5 million after accusing a Reddit moderator of operating large-scale pirate shops that distributed pirated Nintendo Switch games and the tools to play them. Court papers name James Williams, known online as Archbox, as the central figure behind multiple pirate communities.
Court documents, spotted by OatmealDome, indicate that Williams was a leading moderator of the SwitchPirates subreddit, which grew to approximately 190,000 members, and that he posted thousands of messages promoting piracy and requesting donations of eShop gift cards to purchase games for redistribution. Filing materials claim Williams ran or helped operate at least four so-called Pirate Shops and took part in others, offering paid “Pro” tiers that granted access to additional games. Complaint excerpts describe Williams as the primary representative of Missing Dumps, a group allegedly established to purchase missing titles using donated gift cards, thereby keeping pirate libraries complete.
Complaints allege that Williams also helped create and share circumvention software needed to run pirated Switch titles, and that he assisted in locating foreign mirror sites to evade takedowns. Nintendo reportedly contacted Williams in March 2024 and requested that he shut down the pirate operations immediately. According to the filing, Williams initially acknowledged that his conduct violated Nintendo of America’s rights but later denied aspects of his involvement and refused to put a written promise in place. After failing to comply with a final demand, Nintendo filed suit in June 2024 on counts including copyright infringement, circumvention, and trafficking in circumvention devices.
Nintendo says only one contact occurred after the suit, a January 2025 communication from Williams’ lawyer, and that no further engagement followed. Because Williams did not defend the case, Nintendo has requested that the court enter a default judgment in its favor and impose a permanent injunction barring the activity. Statutory damages under US copyright law can reach $30,000 per work or $150,000 if willful. Rather than pursue every alleged infringement, Nintendo focused on 30 first-party titles that it says Williams distributed, seeking $150,000 for each, which produces the $4.5 million figure.
Filing excerpts quote messages attributed to Williams, including one that reads most of the people who hacked their Switchs “are… pirates and aren’t going to give Nintendo $50 for a game,” which Nintendo uses to argue willfulness. The company also states that it chose not to pursue additional statutory damages related to alleged trafficking in circumvention tools, even though those amounts could be substantial. A motion asking the court to enter default judgment is scheduled for hearing on October 24.
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