Infamous Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser denies involvement with new flash cart project

Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has denied being involved in a new flash cart project claimed to allow Switch users to play back-ups of their owned games.

The MIG-Switch flash cart, officially, is a “third party back-up and development device for the Nintendo Switch” according to the device website, that's not endorsed nor licensed by Nintendo of Japan. While the idea behind the device is players can back up games they own legally, it also opens the door for piracy and for people to potentially play roms of games they do not own.

However, Bowser – who was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and exit of piracy-enabling devices back in 2022 – said he was “not involved” in any aspect of the MIG-Switch. Rather, the hacker reportedly said he had been the “subject of DNS poisoning attack on [his] nameservers” (thanks, VGC).

In a post on Discord, Bowser wrote: “I repaired the damage and changed all my passwords, but sadly people will talk, not what I needed just before Christmas… And also just a day after someone was threatening me via Skype, demanding I send them $1,000 per month for the next 40 months, or they would leak a bunch of shit.”

I have finished: “I am not going to engage the trolls or comment on it.”

The hacker also proclaimed his lack of involvement on X (formerly Twitter). When asked directly if he was part of the flash cart project, Bowser bluntly replied: “I am not involved with this stuff.”

The accusations come after Bowser's website, along with mentions of other members of hacking group Team-Xecuter, was allegedly discovered in the DNS records of AfterTimeX.com, the website where videos of MIG-Switch first appeared, as explained in a video by Modern Vintage Gamer.

Bowser himself was released from prison last year. However, despite this relative freedom, he will remain in debt to Nintendo for the foreseeable future, due to his aforementioned actions against the company.

Speaking in April last year, Bowser explained that Nintendo is now able to recover 25-30 percent of his personal income for the rest of his working life.