Nintendo struck a deal with Uberchips.com, an online store it sued for offering Team-Xecuter’s Switch hacks and chips. Ohio-based Uberchips.com and its operator have accepted a $ 2 million judgment. The consent agreement, which has yet to be signed by the judge, also requires the store to destroy any remaining stock. Nintendo team is doing everything in their power to prevent the public from playing pirated games on the Switch console. Their main opponent is the infamous Team-Xecuter hacking group, which has released several “jailbreak” hacks for the game console.

After cracking Switch’s original technical protections in 2018, Team-Xecuter released a new product line this year. These SX Core and SX Lite chips work on all Switch classic and Lite consoles, while previous “hacks” were limited to a subset of devices.

Nintendo sues Uberchips.com

While Nintendo’s efforts to go directly after Team-Xecuter failed, the games company targeted several stores that instead offered these new hacks. They included Uberchips.com, which is operated by Ohio resident Tom Dilts Jr..

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Uberchips went offline, but the lawsuit has not gone away. The owner of Uberchips realized this and in June he responded to the court through his lawyer, denying virtually all the allegations.

After this first response, things calmed down, at least in court. Behind the scenes, however, the two sides got together to see if there was a way to resolve the issue. This week they came to an agreement.

Uberchips agrees to pay $ 2 million

In a joint filing, Nintendo and operator Uberchips submitted a final judgment proposal and a permanent injunction. As expected, Dilts is prohibited from selling Team-Xecuter chips or similar devices in the future. In addition, there is also a hefty indemnity of $ 2 million.

“The plaintiff is hereby convicted against all defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of US $ 2,000,000”, reads the proposed judgment, adding that both parties will cover their own costs. of justice.

It is not uncommon for settlements to be higher on paper than they actually are. We can’t say if that’s the case here, but given the magnitude of the award, it is certainly possible.

Permanent injunction

The permanent injunction agreed to by both parties prohibits the site operator from trafficking any circumvention device, including SX Pro, SX Core and SX Lite. Violation of Nintendo’s copyright in any other way is also not an option, and all remaining stock must be destroyed.

“The Court further orders […] the seizure, impoundment and / or destruction of all circumvention devices, all copies of SX OS and all other electronic materials or physical devices in the custody, possession or control of defendants … ”reads the proposed order.

Finally, Dilts can no longer maintain the Uberchips Facebook group or any associated type of social media, and must hand over the Uberchips.com domain name to Nintendo.

The proposed judgment has not yet been approved by the court. However, given that it was submitted with the consent of both parties, that shouldn’t pose much of a problem. Once signed, the matter will effectively end.

Lawsuit against eight other stores still ongoing

Uberchips was the only known operator of the “Team-Xecuter” stores that Nintendo was looking for. Another case, filed against eight operators of probably foreign sites, is still pending.

In this case, the gaming giant has so far not been able to identify the owners. Because of this, he recently applied for a permanent injunction so he could ask domain registrars and hosting companies to shut them down.

Team-Xecuter is not a party to any of these lawsuits but denies that they were a “hacking” group producing hacking tools. Instead, he accused Nintendo of censorship, monopoly control, and legal fear tactics.

Source: BBC