Modded hardware: Nintendo to receive 2 million US dollar

Nintendo has reached an out-of-court settlement with the operator of the ModdedHardware.com platform, which distributed several hardware tools for Nintendo's Switch game console. According to the agreement, the operator named Ryan Daly must pay Nintendo a sum of 2 million US dollars. In addition, the operator must refrain from marketing or selling hardware for Nintendo consoles in the future. The domain https://www.moddedhardware.com/ is to be revoked.

Nintendo's lawyers and the operator of ModdedHardware.com have now submitted the agreement to the competent court in Seattle, as court documents show. Daly has agreed to Nintendo's conditions and thus waived his right to take the legal dispute to court.

On ModdedHardware.com you could buy various pirated hardware. This included the MiG Switch: a freely playable cartridge that can be used to play black copies on the Nintendo Switch. Mod chips were also available on the platform, which could be used to load unauthorized firmware onto the Switch console.

Legal dispute without a lawyer

Nintendo sued the operator of ModdedHardware in June 2024. The man from Michigan denied the allegations—and made headlines by not hiring a lawyer. Instead, he represented himself in court.

According to Nintendo, Daly had already been given the opportunity to discontinue ModdedHardware's business activities in March 2024 to avoid a lawsuit. Daly apparently agreed to this proposal, but the platform's business operations continued unchanged. Even a further warning did not change this. In the end, Nintendo sued.

Nintendo regularly sues providers of piracy hardware, leakers, and emulator developers. Last year, for example, the developer Tropical Haze withdrew the Switch emulator Yuzu and the 3DS emulator Citra from circulation following a Nintendo lawsuit.

(dahe)