Nintendo sued a streamer that allegedly leaked several games before release

Key takeaways

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

Nintendo A minor is suing a content creator who allegedly spent months live-streaming pirated Switch games before their street date. To share unauthorized footage from the likes Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomThe streamer also lashed out at the Japanese gaming giant's legal team.

The Switch was first jailbroken in 2018, just after its one-year release anniversary, thanks to a physical vulnerability that has since been patched. This accelerated the development of the console's emulators, and made it easier for pirates to spread Switch games before their official release, according to some legal arguments Nintendo has made in the past.

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court and first viewed by 404 Media, claims that Keighin repeatedly infringed Nintendo's copyrights by live-streaming unpublished Switch games.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

The streamer pulled Nintendo's legal team after his content was removed

After this game of cat and mouse had already been going on for some time, Keighin also decided to mock the Switch manufacturer. “Defendant also emailed Nintendo that he had 'a thousand Burner channels' and that he could 'do this all day,'” the complaint states. In his most recent broadcast, Keighin streamed Super Mario Party Jamboree At least six days ahead of the game's official release on October 17 via Kick, Nintendo claims. The company also said it found evidence that it had streamed the leaked version The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom via YouTube on September 21st, five days before that title officially hits digital and physical store shelves.

The defendant also emailed Nintendo that he had 'a thousand Burner channels' and could 'do it all day.'

Each game guru was allegedly profiting from his illegal streams

Nintendo claims that Kegin was often streaming pirated copies of games played through the emulator. On top of that, he has been accused of sharing links to Switch emulators like Yuzu and Ryujinx as part of his streams, which Nintendo sees as actively promoting piracy. The gaming giant said that after it removed Keighin's monetized YouTube channel with about 1,730 subscribers, the content creator began including the CashApp handle on his streams, signaling that he is committed to continuing to profit from live-streaming pirated Switch games.

Nintendo is now seeking millions in damages

Nintendo is seeking $150,000 for each instance of copyright infringement that Kegin is found guilty of. Since the defendant claims to have streamed unreleased Switch games on more than 50 occasions, this suggests that the total damages sought would exceed $7.5 million.

Source: Nintendo [PDF]