In Japan, a pet fish playing Nintendo Switch runs up a bill on the owner’s credit card

CNN
–

This is something you don’t see every day. Pet fish play a video game in Japan I was able to log into the Nintendo Switch store, change its owner avatar, set up a Pay Pal account and collect a credit card bill.

And it was all broadcast apparently, in real time, on the Internet.

The fish in question belongs to a YouTuber known as Mutekimaru, whose channel is popular among the gaming community due to videos featuring groups of tetras “playing” video games.

Mutekimaru has previously installed sophisticated motion-tracking software in aquariums, allowing fish For a Nintendo Switch remote control.

But technology, and Fish’s apparent mastery of it, led to an unexpected turn of events earlier this month while Mutikimaru was livestreaming a Pokémon game.

Mutekimaru was walking away from a break when the game crashed due to a system error and the console returned to the home screen.

But the fish that were swimming, like the fish tend to do, seemed to keep controlling the remote from their tank.

Over the next seven hours, the fish reportedly managed to change the name of its owner’s Switch account before logging in twice to the Nintendo Store, where users can purchase games and other downloadable content.

They were also able to “check” the legal terms and conditions, download a new avatar and even set up a PayPal account from Switch – emailing their owner in the process, and video from the livestream appears to be showing.

But things did not end there. The fish was also seen adding 500 yen ($4) to Mutekimaru Switch’s account from his credit card during the live broadcast — exposing his credit card details in the process, the YouTuber revealed in a follow-up video about the episode.

By this point, thousands of comments were pouring in as viewers watched the inadvertent broadcast of the channel takeover, and the event went viral on Twitter, where thousands of Japanese users shared their amusement.

Mutekimaru later said that he contacted Nintendo to explain what happened and request a refund of 500 yen.

Nintendo declined to comment to CNN, citing client confidentiality.