It has been a busy year for Nintendo’s legal team. From shutting down multiple emulators to suing Pocketpair for patent infringement, the latest to feel the legal might of the Japanese gaming mogul is Jesse ‘EveryGameGuru’ Keighin. The streamer is notorious for streaming upcoming Switch games days before the official launch using emulators.
According to the report, Keighin has previously dismissed Nintendo’s takedown notices and cease-and-desist orders. The Japanese gaming mogul accused Keighin of streaming “pirated video games on several online platforms, including platforms like YouTube, Discord, Twitch, TikTok, Trovo, Kick, Vaughn, Dlive, Picarto, Nimo, Facebook, and Loco,” according to the lawsuit which was filed in the United States District Court of Colorado.
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“Starting in as early as 2022, Defendant has streamed unauthorized gameplay of at least ten of Nintendo’s leaked games before their publication, and more than fifty times in total.
“Nintendo has submitted dozens of takedown notices pursuant to Section 512 of the Copyright Act to have Keighin’s unlawful streams removed, and recently multiple platforms, such as YouTube and Twitch, shut down his channels because of copyright strikes.1 Despite these immense efforts by Nintendo to enforce its rights short of litigation, Defendant continues to unlawfully stream Nintendo’s copyrighted works and thumb his nose at Nintendo and the law.”
The Japanese gaming giant alleged that Keighin had sent a letter to them on October 24, 2024, after several of his unlawful streams were taken down boasting that he has “a thousand burner channels” and “can do this all day”.
To prove that the streamer benefits from streaming pirated materials, Nintendo alleged that after the streamer’s monetized YouTube channel was taken down, he started adding CashApp handles to his streams, “continuing to seek to profit off of his unauthorized streaming of Nintendo’s games.”
The Mario maker also alleged that the streamer advertises his streams of pirated copies as “First Look” or “Early Release”. According to the lawsuit, the streamer has done this at least fifty times in the last two years.
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“All of these streams were unauthorized and all compromise Nintendo’s legitimate prerelease marketing. They also promote and encourage downloading of pirated copies of unpublished games,” the Japanese game publisher said.
The Japanese video game maker is seeking $150,000 in damages for each infringement committed by the streamer which could add up to $7.5 million according to estimations.
Piracy continues to be a huge problem in the video game industry and the Japanese game maker/publisher is doing everything it takes to make sure those who profit from piracy feel the full weight of the law.
But do you think the Mario maker’s legal fireworks is necessary? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
