With Red Shell, Nintendo is aiming for a SwitchPirates subreddit with 200,000 members

Nintendo is targeting the 200,000-member SwitchPirates subreddit after telling a federal court that it plans to subpoena the platform to identify members who worked with a suspected Switch pirate.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Nintendo had tracked down a suspected Switch pirate using a combination of Reddit posts and repair orders. As reported by Game fileNintendo sued James “Archbox” Williams of Surprise, Arizona, for allegedly violating his digital copyrights by selling pirated copies of Switch games. The pirate shops that Archbox was allegedly involved in include Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop and NekoDrive, all of which closed following a cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo in March.

As Game File reports, Nintendo has now told a federal court in Washington state that it believes other members of the SwitchPirates subreddit played a role in the pirate shops. Nintendo wants permission to subpoena business records from a number of platforms, including Reddit, Discord and Google, to help identify Williams’ alleged employees. The result of all this is the pursuit of infringement claims, Nintendo emphasized.

“Nintendo has reason to believe that other accounts active in the SwitchPirates community may also have been controlled by the defendant or may reflect other individuals who worked with the defendant,” attorneys representing Nintendo said in their notice to the court.

Nintendo ended up issuing a default judgment in its favor after Williams failed to present his case in court on time, but it’s clear that the company behind Mario will continue its war against pirates. As for users of the SwitchPirates subreddit, many remain defiant, but some fear for its future.

“It was a good run soldiers, goodbye,” Darkkef posted. “It’s time to put all those hours of watching LegalEagle in action into action lol.”

All new posts on r/SwitchPirates now require moderator approval before becoming visible in the subreddit. Examples of invalid questions include “How do I hack my Switch?”, “Which tinfoil stores work?”, and “Will I be banned if…?”

Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for ReedPop.

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].