US prosecutors allege the team spearheaded the sale of devices for hacking popular consoles.
Two alleged leaders of the Team Xecuter game piracy group, known for selling methods to hack and homebrew consoles, have been arrested. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Friday that Max Louarn and Gary Bowser were arrested abroad. Bowser, a Canadian national, was deported from the Dominican Republic, and extradition is being sought for Louarn, a French national, to stand trial in the US. Chinese national Yuanning Chen, another alleged member of the group, has also been charged. Charges have been filed in the US District Court in Seattle. See also: DOJ indicts two Chinese hackers for attempted IP theft of COVID-19 research Team Xecuter is known for developing devices and software designed to hack Nintendo consoles, including the Switch and 3DS. There is a long-standing community of hackers and gaming enthusiasts focused on jailbreaking consoles — such as Nintendo handhelds, the PSX, and PS Vita — and this usually requires the active exploit of vulnerabilities via software. When a console is hacked in this way, users may load emulators and ROMs from various consoles, and they may also load pirated games, circumventing the need to pay for titles. Team Xecuter offered the SX Pro dongle for boosting a homebrew OS, for example, as well as licenses to use the custom firmware.
