Nintendo’s war against modders and ROM distributors has seen some brutal takedowns over the years, dishing out extraordinary punishments against those who make it possible for people to pirate Nintendo games. The latest to fall foul of the Japanese behemoth is Ryan Daly, who for the longest time looked like he was attempting an incredibly optimistic and clearly naive attempt to fight back. That’s over now as the MIG switch modder has settled for $2 million and an agreement to never touch a mod again in his life.
Ryan “Homebrew Homie” Daly had run Modded Hardware, a site that sold modded Switches able to install homebrew or pirated versions of Switch games, and sold the tools with which others could do the same. Nintendo also claimed the site would return Switches with pirated games pre-installed. Back in March 2024, Nintendo threatened to sue Daly over the site, and the two parties agreed that Daly would stop his naughty behavior and the whole thing would go away. Daly said he would, then absolutely didn’t. So in June, Nintendo went to court.
Daly continued to make surprising choices. Rather than rush to settle, the entrepreneur instead opted to respond to the complaint denying all wrongdoing, and even more wildly, did this without the advice of any lawyers. He even denied being responsible for the Modded Hardware business, but then given how blatant the site was about its actions, he’d have to.
As reported by TorrentFreak, Daly’s legal response wasn’t exactly stunning legal work. He essentially quoted the accusations and wrote “ANSWER: Denied” underneath them. However, despite all the denials, Daly representing himself added “affirmative defenses” which included fair use, and even accusing Nintendo of a “lack of unclean hands,” a legal doctrine that suggests Nintendo had acted unethically or dishonestly.
Well, surprisingly enough this didn’t work out so well. This weekend the Seattle District Court released the details of a settlement, in which Daly agrees to pay Nintendo $2 million, as well as hand over the URL of his site, and even agree to the seizure of all his technology that might contain the means to infringe the agreement. It also comes with the most astonishingly strict list of requirements based on what Daly is and isn’t allowed to do for the rest of his life, which goes on for pages and pretty much amounts to never touching another MIG switch or modding tool so long as he lives.
Whether Daly can afford to pay the $2 million is largely irrelevant to Nintendo. The company gleefully bankrupted Gary Bowser over his association with a ROM-selling site in 2021, with a $10 million ruling the man will never be able to pay off, along with a gruesome 40 month prison sentence.