The United States Department of Justice has shared some news regarding Team-Xecuter, which doesn't appear to be a good sign for the company. Gary Bowser, known on GBAtemp as garyopa, Max Louarn, and Yuanning Chen have all been arrested in Seattle, Washington. The US Government classifies these men as "leaders of one of the world's most notorious videogame piracy groups", and will be facing a federal indictment charge, for the selling of illegal hardware that facilitates piracy.

“These defendants lined their pockets by stealing and selling the work of other video-game developers – even going so far as to make customers pay a licensing fee to play stolen games,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran for the Western District of Washington. “This conduct doesn’t just harm billion dollar companies, it hijacks the hard work of individuals working to advance in the video-game industry.”

The FBI has also been involved, with each defendant to be charged under 11 felony counts, ranging from wire fraud, trafficking circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. One of the defendants, Louarn, has not yet been extradited, though Bowser has, where he was seen in the court hearing that took place today.

In September 2020, Louarn and Bowser were arrested abroad in connection with the charges in this case. The United States will seek Louarn’s extradition to stand trial in the United States. Bowser was arrested and deported from the Dominican Republic, and appeared today in federal court, in New Jersey.

Each defendant is charged with 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Source

 

[guitarheroknight]

A sad day for TX though they did sell piracy tools, but an even sader for Atmosphere who've done nothing wrong. It's a shame Nintendo doesn't give a fuck.

 

[the_randomizer]

@lolcatzuru & @the_randomizer

To my knowledge only SXOS had cracked the V2 switches and lites Atmosphere doesn't seem to be capable of doing it. So in a way for V2 and switch lite support if evreything is true only 10.2.0 CFW will be the last firmware for it (the same as PS4 6.67 CFW) I'm just making an educated guess lets just say Nintendo hits Atmosphere with a cease and desist order basically the switch scene will be like the PS4 Scene

again this is only speculation but I am 100% positive Nintendo is coming after Atmosphere. I can also see Atmosphere disabling all sig patches in their future CFW.

I don't plan on ever hacking my Switch, I never felt the need to. That said, I have zero regrets ever having downloaded ROMs and emulators because there are still many that can't be legally obtained on NSO, eShop, etc. Why? Because screw Nintendo.

 

[titan_tim]

This sucks pretty hard. I used to use xecuter products back when the x360 scene started. They were good to their customers.

Anyone enjoying their arrest are simple minded in their views and hurt the scene with their tribalism.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Actually emulators like Yuzu is even worst, you don't even pay for the hardware to play Switch games. CEMU for example plays Wii U games better than the Wii U, BotW in 60fps with over 1080p and even better visuals, and you don't even need a really fast PC for that.

 

[gregory-samba]

The nerve of some people on this forum. Basing Xecuter for creating software to pirate games with and then they go and play pirated games.

With that said I wonder who's next on Nintendo's hit list? Now that Maxconsole.com is gone that only leaves a couple of sites one of them being this site.

 

[DaniPoo]

so now the team x is out of the picture wonder about atmos now?

Atmosphere doesn't allow piracy on it's own. Even more important they are not selling it.
They are playing it much safer, safe enough? I don't know?

 

[wartutor]

But why is it only about SX OS trying to make money if you're going to take this stance shouldn't you just be 100% anti-piracy and THEN say the same thing "How about putting that money to the game devs instead of pirating" Piracy you're stealing, they're stealing, it's all stealing. It's funny how some of you try to discriminate but I'm honest about it I steal from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. I do buy games as well but I do pirate. Most people here act like they're innocent when they're not.

I didnt say anything about anti piracy i said you shouldnt give money to some shady fuck stealing code to do it. Do i pirate...no...have i in the past...yes doesnt make it right but its wrong to steal code and charge for it. Either nintendos or atmospheres. Your paying for a device that removes drm and adds it at the same time. You want to pirate then pirate...you dont then dont but the only ones making money off it should be devs not shady code stealing fucks.

 

[The Minecrafter]

@lolcatzuru & @the_randomizer

To my knowledge only SXOS had cracked the V2 switches and lites Atmosphere doesn't seem to be capable of doing it. So in a way for V2 and switch lite support if evreything is true only 10.2.0 CFW will be the last firmware for it (the same as PS4 6.67 CFW) I'm just making an educated guess lets just say Nintendo hits Atmosphere with a cease and desist order basically the switch scene will be like the PS4 Scene

again this is only speculation but I am 100% positive Nintendo is coming after Atmosphere. I can also see Atmosphere disabling all sig patches in their future CFW.

Atmosphere doesn't ship with sigpatches, or any way to run pirated games out of the box. You have to get those from a third party. The atmosphere team should be protected legally, because they don't allow any talk about a leaked SDK, or anything to do with piracy. If someone talks about that, they get banned. TX got nabbed because they were selling devices that enabled piracy out of the box, with no effort.

 

[gregory-samba]

Atmosphere doesn't ship with sigpatches, or any way to run pirated games out of the box. You have to get those from a third party. The atmosphere team should be protected legally, because they don't allow any talk about a leaked SDK, or anything to do with piracy. If someone talks about that, they get banned. TX got nabbed because they were selling devices that enabled piracy out of the box, with no effort.

Except the homebrew SDK, like all before it, is based on the official stolen SDK. It wasn't long ago that the people behind all of these homebrew Nintendo SDK's would admit they created them by sourcing copyrighted IP, but they've lost their balls and now it's just an open secret. Libnx, which I believe Atmosphere uses is based on a stolen official Nintendo Switch SDK. So there is an avenue to take to get Atmosphere nuked. Dirty little secrets .... Dirty little secrets ....

 

[StrayGuitarist]

I’ve caught wind of some controversy regarding TX, but I really only remember their efforts in the original Xbox modding scene, like the Aladdin chip and stuff. I don’t know more about them than that.

This is a bit concerning, though. It makes me wonder what the future of projects like ODEs, modchips, and the like will become. Not to mention TX’s general monopoly on the modchip scene in general.

But this is another reason why I don’t mod new consoles. I don’t really think Nintendo is gonna go C&D on (what’s left of) Team Twiizers, or the folks behind LumaCFW anymore. Nor do I really have to worry about people throwing a legal fit over UnleashX or XBMC4Xbox.

 

[Bladexdsl]

i remember the wii days you downloaded the usb loader, put the games on your hdd, started it up, click, play. boom done. it'll never be like that on the switch now. fucking nintapple

 

[lafleche]

In the original article
"From approximately June 2013 through August 2020, Team Xecuter used a variety of product names for its devices, such as the Gateway 3DS, the Stargate, the TrueBlue Mini, the Classic2Magic, and the SX line of devices that included the SX OS, the SX Pro, the SX Lite, and the SX Core."

1. I did not know that gateway3ds and Stargate were also a team xecutor product. They did not advertise them on their xecutor website (and dropped support!!)
2. You must admit that seeing their products, some very good and technical programmers were part of that team ( yes I know they also used code from others)....

Shame they got to greedy and did not stay more underground /less public

 

[SG854]

This is why you don't deal with illegal stuff and download illegal games.

 

[ertaboy356b]

Atmos this, Atmos that, in the end, it all still goes to piracy. Who the fuck would hack their switch if not for piracy, maybe 0.001% will not hack for piracy but still.

 

[Bimmel]

This is why you don't deal with illegal stuff and download illegal games.

Well.. I'm here for the cup cakes. How about you? :-)

 

[ertaboy356b]

Sad part is those who mods their later consoles or slims are screwed when a new nintendo update comes.

AFAIK, the Geniune boot will still work although emunand will definitely not be updated. A 'REFOOD' option like the Vita will probably exists in the future.

 

[RedHunter]

That's sucks, let's just hope the Switch hacking scene won't die.
Rest of the scene is too politically correct to rely on, or simply not even close to TX skill level.

 

[godreborn]

AFAIK, the Geniune boot will still work although emunand will definitely not be updated. A 'REFOOD' option like the Vita will probably exists in the future.

actually, afaik, ref00d can't be used if a newer key is introduced. it's just doing what the ignore firmware option is doing but for the vita.

 

[lafleche]

AFAIK, the Geniune boot will still work although emunand will definitely not be updated. A 'REFOOD' option like the Vita will probably exists in the future.

What do you mean by genuine boot will still work? Ofw?

 

[Localhorst86]

Now, I don't have any sympathy for them. But I don't like where this might lead to.

I just expected them to bail out and run at some point (like they did with gateway)