Judge orders Reddit moderator Archbox to pay Nintendo $4.5 million in Switch piracy case

Nintendo of America has won a $4.5 million default judgment against a Reddit moderator accused of operating online shops that distributed pirated Nintendo Switch games. A federal judge in Washington entered the ruling on September 23, 2026, ordering James C. Williams, known online as Archbox, to pay the damages and to immediately disable access to the piracy shops he controlled. The order also bars him from distributing, advertising, marketing, selling, reselling, uploading, downloading or otherwise disseminating Nintendo software and hardware.

The decision closes, at the trial court level, a copyright case that Nintendo filed in 2024, when the company accused Williams of running what its lawyers described as Pirate Shops. Nintendo filed the suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in June 2024, more than two years before the judgment. The company's complaint portrayed Williams as the operator, overseer and driving force behind several of those shops, which it said offered extensive libraries of unauthorized Switch downloads.

Williams was described in Nintendo's complaint as a leading moderator of r/SwitchPirates, a subreddit that reported nearly 190,000 members. According to the company, he used that position to steer users toward websites offering unauthorized downloads and to solicit donations of Nintendo eShop gift cards and copies of Switch games that could then be copied and distributed online. Nintendo also alleged that he provided tools and technical help for bypassing the Switch's protections, and that he trafficked in circumvention software.

Because Williams never answered the complaint, the court entered the judgment by default and found the infringement was willful. That left Nintendo's allegations uncontested and allowed the company to collect the full sum it had requested in filings made in October 2025. The ruling came roughly two years after the case began, and it arrived with an injunction attached that reaches well beyond a simple payment.

Key Facts

The Verge reported on September 24 that Nintendo won its $4.5 million lawsuit against Williams, a Reddit moderator accused of distributing pirated Switch games. US District Judge Lauren King issued the default judgment on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, and also ordered Williams to shut down the online stores that allegedly housed libraries of pirated Switch games. The award covers 30 copyrighted titles and reflects the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each work.

The $4.5 million total represents $150,000 per violation across 30 copyrighted games. Titles named in the case include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi's Mansion 3, Pikmin 4, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The default judgment filing was written by Washington court clerk Joshua C. Lewis and deputy clerk Natalie Wood, according to Aftermath.

GamesIndustry.biz reported on September 25 that the court entered the default judgment because Williams did not respond to the lawsuit. The filing requires him to disable access to all online shops that he operates or otherwise controls which have offered to the public extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for download, and to close any social media accounts linked to piracy. He is prohibited from distributing, advertising, marketing, selling, reselling, uploading, downloading or otherwise disseminating Nintendo software or hardware. Nintendo of America said it has been, and continues to be, damaged as a direct and proximate result of Williams's conduct, and that the activity harmed the business and intellectual property rights of its development and publishing partners.

TechSpot reported on September 25 that the court found the infringement was willful. According to the order, Williams hired a lawyer specifically to respond to Nintendo's subpoena to Google, but that lawyer's involvement never extended to answering the complaint itself, leaving Nintendo's allegations uncontested. The permanent injunction bars him from distributing pirated Nintendo games and circumvention software, or encouraging others to obtain them, and requires him to disable accounts used to distribute or promote the infringing material.

Nintendo tracked Williams down after investigators connected his Reddit activity to a Nintendo account used for hardware repairs, according to TechSpot. The company had shipped repaired hardware to his address just days before sending the cease and desist letter that eventually led to the lawsuit.

Analysis

What this really means is that Nintendo has once again used the default judgment mechanism as a relatively inexpensive route to a large, public figure. A defendant who does not appear cannot contest either the allegations or the damages calculation, so the $4.5 million total, built from the statutory maximum of $150,000 for each of 30 works, stands largely unchallenged. The figure is a maximum award rather than a measure of proven losses, and courts routinely enter such sums when a defendant stays silent.

Aftermath reported on September 24 that Nintendo's victory was a default judgment entered after Williams did not respond in court, which meant the company won the amount it had requested in its October 2025 filings. The clerk's language in the injunction, ordering Williams to disable access to the shops, tracks closely the remedy Nintendo asked for. That alignment is typical when no defense is offered: the plaintiff's requested order becomes the court's order with little modification.

Collection, however, is a separate matter. As TechSpot noted, Williams's Reddit account has already been deleted and the shops named in the complaint closed long ago, which raises the possibility that the $4.5 million figure will remain largely symbolic. Even a determined plaintiff can struggle to recover money from a defendant whose visible online presence has vanished, and Nintendo has not described any assets that could satisfy the award.

The bigger picture here is that Nintendo is pursuing several kinds of targets at the same time, from individual moderators and sellers of circumvention tools to storefronts operating across borders. A courtroom win of this size serves as much as a public deterrent as it does a financial remedy, and the company appears to be spending on litigation with an eye on that message rather than on the recovery itself.

Why It Matters

The judgment gives Nintendo a clear legal statement that moderating and promoting piracy communities can carry direct personal liability. The court's finding that the infringement was willful also raises the stakes for anyone who assumes that anonymous online activity will shield them from a lawsuit filed in a United States district court. The case shows that a paper trail built from account records, repair orders and public posts can be enough to identify a defendant.

Nintendo's damages theory matters for future cases as well. By stacking the maximum statutory award across 30 separate works, the company produced a headline number far above any realistic estimate of lost sales. That approach, combined with a permanent injunction, gives Nintendo a template it can reuse against other alleged operators without having to prove the scale of each individual infringement.

There is also a consumer facing message. Nintendo said its guidance to players is to avoid purchasing or using circumvention devices, circumvention software or unauthorized copies of video games. The company's enforcement efforts abroad, including its action over modding kits in the Netherlands, show that it intends to press that message in multiple markets rather than treat piracy as a problem confined to a single community.

Next Up

Nintendo's broader campaign is unlikely to slow down. In June 2024, on the same day it sued Williams, the company also filed suit against Modded Hardware, a seller of kits used to mod Switch consoles; that case ended in 2025 with a $2 million judgment as part of a settlement. The pattern suggests Nintendo will keep pairing individual enforcement actions with cases against businesses that sell the tools of piracy.

In September, the District Court of The Hague in the Netherlands ruled that selling Switch modding kits, including MIG Switch and similar devices, is illegal in Europe. With that decision on the books and the Washington judgment now entered, Nintendo has fresh precedents to cite as it weighs its next round of enforcement, even if the money from the Archbox case is never collected.