Nintendo Sues Man Who Allegedly Streamed Games Weeks Before Release Date

Nintendo is suing a man who allegedly streamed himself playing emulated Nintendo games, including The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, long before their official release dates. 

According to the court filing, first reported by 404 Media, Jesse Keighin streamed at “least ten different Nintendo games” before they were released to the public, on at least 50 different occasions. 

Keighin, who was known online as EveryGameGuru allegedly streamed himself playing Mario & Luigi: Brothership on October 22, roughly 18 days before its official release date.

He also allegedly streamed The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on YouTube five days before that title received an official release.

Nintendo also claims the Colorada-based man continued to stream the pirated content on YouTube and Twitch after its attorneys filed “dozens” of takedown notices.

The streamer also allegedly included a link to his CashApp during the broadcasts to receive donations from his fans, which Nintendo claimed counts as profiting off of piracy.

 “All of these streams were unauthorized and all compromised Nintendo’s legitimate prerelease marketing,” read the filing. “They also promote and encourage downloading of pirated copies of unpublished games.” 

Nintendo’s legal team also alleges that he encouraged his fans to download and use Nintendo Switch emulators hosted on sites like GitHub, providing direct links to these.

The gaming giant is seeking damages of $150,000 per case of copyright infringement, which if 404 Media’s estimates are correct, could add up to total damages of $7.5 million.

The streamer even taunted Nintendo’s team in response to the warnings, claiming he had “a thousand burner channels” and that he could “do this all day” if the court filing is accurate.

Infringing on Nintendo’s intellectual property has had severe financial consequences for many individuals in the past.

Gary Bowser at one point owned Nintendo $14 million dollars as a result of his work with Team Xecuter, a group that manufactured hardware that was used to bypass anti-piracy measures on Nintendo consoles. 

Nintendo also announced this month that it is set to lock horns with PocketPair, the developer of Palworld.

The Pokemon giant claims that Palworld, which also allows gamers to collect animal-like creatures and make them battle, infringes on its intellectual property.