Nintendo is suing Streamer, which reportedly leaked many games ahead of launch

Important takeaways

• Nintendo is suing a Colorado resident for streaming pirated copies of Switch games.
• The company claims the content creator streamed footage from unreleased Switch games on over 50 occasions since 2022, even going as far as mocking Nintendo after some of his channels were taken down.
• Nintendo is demanding 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 dates. In addition to sharing illicit footage from the likes of 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 sped up the development of the console's emulators, and made it easy for pirates to distribute Switch games even before their official release, according to some legal arguments Nintendo has made in the past.

Some of those claims have now been reiterated in a new lawsuit Nintendo filed against Jesse Keighin, a Colorado resident who runs a number of social media channels called Every Game Guru. The complaint, which was filed in federal court in Colorado on Nov. 6 and first seen by 404 Media, alleges that Keighin has repeatedly violated Nintendo's copyright by live streaming unreleased Switch games. He continued to do so even after the company's lawyers filed “dozens” of copyright takedown notices, and in total has leaked 10 Switch games on more than 50 occasions since 2022, Nintendo claims.

Streamer mocked Nintendo's legal team after taking down his content

After this game of cat and mouse had already been going on for a while, Keighin even decided to mock the Switch manufacturer. “The defendant also emailed Nintendo stating that he had 'a thousand burner channels' and that he can 'do this all day,'” the complaint states. In one of his recent 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 streamed a leaked version of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom via YouTube on September 21, five days before that title officially hit digital and physical store shelves.

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

Each gaming guru was alleged to have profited from their illegal streams

Nintendo claims that Keighin mostly streamed pirated copies of its games played through an emulator. On top of that, he is accused of sharing links to Switch emulators like Yuzu and Ryujinx as part of his streams, which Nintendo sees as an act of actively promoting piracy. The gaming giant said that after Keighin's monetized YouTube channel with roughly 1,730 subscribers was taken down, the content creator began including a CashApp handle in his streams, signaling his determination to continue to capitalize on the live streaming of pirated Switch games.

Nintendo is now seeking millions in damages

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

Source: Nintendo [PDF]