Nintendo sues streamer who teased it by broadcasting pirated versions of Switch exclusives

Japanese publisher and developer Nintendo sued the streamer in an American court for repeatedly broadcasting pirated versions of unreleased Switch exclusives launched using emulators.

Image source: Nintendo

According to the Polygon portal, Jesse Keighin, known on online platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Discord, TikTok and Kick under the pseudonym Every Game Guru, has fallen out of favor with Nintendo.

According to the lawsuit filed last week, since the beginning of 2022, Keigin has provided “unauthorized gameplay demonstrations” of more than 50 Nintendo games, including “at least” ten that were not yet released at that time.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree and Mario & Luigi Brothership are among the latest “victims” of Keigin

Nintendo also accuses Keigin of distributing instructions to his audience to gain early access to the company’s games and circumventing technological protections that prevent piracy.

As part of the fight against the enthusiast, Nintendo sought to block his channels on various platforms, but he opened new ones. Keigin boasted to the company that he had “thousands of disposable accounts” and “could do this all day long.”

According to Nintendo, the damage caused amounts to “millions of dollars.” The company wants to achieve the termination of Keigin’s activities (with the confiscation of emulators and hacked consoles), and also to recover from him:

• $150,000 for each alleged infringement of Nintendo’s rights under the Copyright Act;
• $2.5 thousand for each alleged violation of the provisions of the Copyright Act regarding circumvention of technical software protection measures.

In a comment to Polygon, a Nintendo spokesperson confirmed the lawsuit and said, “Nintendo is passionate about protecting the work of the developers and publishers who spend so much time and effort creating games that make everyone smile.”