Nintendo is suing a streamer that allegedly leaked many games before release

Key things

• Nintendo is suing a Colorado resident for streaming pirated copies of Switch games.
• The company claims the content creator has streamed footage of unreleased Switch games on more than 50 occasions since 2022, even going so far as to mock Nintendo after some of its channels were taken down.
• Nintendo is seeking over $7.5 million in damages.

Nintendo is suing a small content creator who allegedly spent months live streaming pirated Switch games before their street date. Apart from sharing unauthorized footage from such people Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomthe streamer even mocked the Japanese gaming giant's legal team.

The Switch was first jailbroken in 2018, shortly after its one-year release anniversary, thanks to a physical vulnerability that has since been patched. This has accelerated the development of console emulators, and according to some legal arguments Nintendo has made in the past, it has been easy for pirates to distribute Switch games before they are officially released.

Some of those claims have now been reiterated in a new lawsuit filed by Nintendo against Jesse Keighin, a Colorado resident who runs a series of social media channels called Every Game Guru. The complaint, filed in federal court in Colorado on Nov. 6 and first noted by 404 Media, alleges that Keighin repeatedly infringed Nintendo's copyrights by live streaming unreleased Switch games. It continued to do so after the company's lawyers filed “dozens” of copyright takedown notices, and since 2022 a total of ten Switch games have been leaked on more than 50 occasions, Nintendo claims.

A streamer mocked Nintendo's legal team after its content was taken down

After this cat-and-mouse game had been going on for quite some time, Keighin even decided to taunt the Switch manufacturer. “Defendant also sent an email to Nintendo stating that he had 'a thousand burn channels' and that he could 'do it all day,'” the complaint states. In one of his last broadcasts, Keighin streamed Super Mario Party Jamboree via Kick at least six days before the game's official release on October 17, Nintendo claims. The company says it also found evidence that he was streaming the leaked version The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom via YouTube on September 21, five days before the title officially hits digital and physical store shelves.

The defendant also sent an email to Nintendo stating that he had “a thousand burn channels” and that he “could do this all day.”

Each gaming guru reportedly profited from their illegal streams

Nintendo claims that Keighin mostly streamed pirated copies of its games that were played through an emulator. In addition, he is accused of sharing links to Switch emulators such as Yuzu and Ryujinx as part of his streams, which Nintendo considers an act of actively encouraging piracy. The gaming giant said that after Keighin's monetized YouTube channel, with around 1,730 subscribers, was taken down, the content creator began including the CashApp control in his streams, signaling that he is adamant about continuing to profit from the live streaming of pirated Switch games.

Nintendo is now seeking millions in damages

Nintendo is seeking $150,000 for each count of copyright infringement Keighin is found guilty of. Since the plaintiff alleges that the defendant streamed unreleased Switch games more than 50 times, this would suggest that the total damages he is seeking exceed $7.5 million.

Source: Nintendo [PDF]