by Key Takeaways
- Jesse Keighin, a streamer from Colorado, is being sued by Nintendo for illegally streaming unannounced Switch titles.
- It is alleged that Keighin, also known as “EveryGameGuru” online, encourages Nintendo Switch piracy and points users to emulators.
- Nintendo is requesting up to $7.5 million in damages for alleged copyright infringement on a number of platforms.
Jesse Keighin is a video game broadcaster who allegedly streamed unpublished Nintendo Switch titles without permission. Nintendo has filed a federal complaint against Keighin in Colorado.
Keighin, also known online as EveryGameGuru, allegedly streamed pirated versions of well-known games, such as Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The most recent legal action in Nintendo’s continuous fight to safeguard its intellectual property is this one.
Alleged Piracy, Illegal Streaming, and Monetization by the Company
According to reports, Kevin streamed these games on a variety of websites, including YouTube, Twitch, Discord, and TikTok. He persisted in transmitting Nintendo content without the gaming company’s consent in spite of many copyright takedown requests.
Nintendo asserts that since 2022, Keighin has webcast illegal gameplay more than 50 times and actively urged his viewers to play unlicensed games on PCs using emulators rather than Nintendo hardware.
According to the lawsuit, Keighin went beyond streaming by reportedly advising his followers on how to get around Nintendo’s hardware limitations and pointing them to Nintendo Switch emulators like Ryujinx and Yuzu.
Keighin allegedly made fun of the company in a supposedly correspondence with it, bragging of having “a thousand burner accounts” in order to get around platform prohibitions.
Additionally, he allegedly made money off of his activities, first by using YouTube and then by showing a link to CashApp for donations from viewers.
For each claimed copyright violation, the business is requesting damages of up to $150,000, which could total $7.5 million. Nintendo’s continuous efforts to discourage piracy are shown in this large amount.
Nintendo’s anti-piracy initiatives and a broader context
Individual streamers like Keighin are not the only targets of the company’s latest legal actions. The company is suing the game developer Pocketpair as part of its ongoing efforts to safeguard its intellectual property. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing Pocketpair for allegedly violating multiple Nintendo patents with their game Palworld.
Nintendo and its partner are now requesting damages for alleged infringement-related losses of five million yen, or about $32,846 USD. Since the first jailbreak of the Nintendo Switch in 2018, which took use of a flaw in the hardware of the console to enable customers to install emulators and play pirated games on their PCs and other devices, the company has maintained a strong stance against piracy.
Even though the hardware flaw was eventually fixed, it sped up emulator development and increased the accessibility of unlicensed content.
