At this point, it’s well-known how much Nintendo disapproves of “illegal” emulation. The company doesn’t shy away from it and will use it for official products, including as a bonus for its online subscription service, but if you aren’t playing Nintendo games in a Nintendo-sanctioned manner, prepare for the lawyers to come knocking. That’s what happened to Jesse Keighin, otherwise known as EveryGameGuru, recently.
A new report from 404 Media details how Nintendo has brought up a lawsuit against Keighin for allegedly streaming emulated pre-release Switch games. Keighin dealt with all of the usual tactics, such as cease and desist orders and even YouTube/Twitch/Kick channel shutdowns, but would repeatedly create new channels to defy the Big N. Each time his channel was closed. He would also direct viewers to pirate Nintendo games when it happened. I suppose eventually, enough was enough and Nintendo got its lawyers out.
In its lawsuit filed on November 11, 2024, Nintendo explains how after having multiple channels taken down, Keighin sent a letter back to the company boasting about how he “can do this all day” and that he had “a thousand burner channels” at his disposal. According to the lawsuit, once Keighin’s monetized YouTube channel was shut down, he started adding his CashApp handle to streams in an effort to seek donations from viewers.
Until recently, it was possible to emulate Switch games before the official release as the security on Nintendo’s latest console is exploitable at a hardware level (at least on older units). People would get early copies, dump the ROMs, and upload them online for circulation. Keighin likely used a similar method of acquiring early games, though that isn’t expressly clear. What is clear is that in response to a C&D sent by Nintendo on October 17, 2024, Keighin responded saying he “will actively help people find newer and updated copies of Ryujinx and Yuzu.”
In one of his public posts, Keighin can be seen boasting, “LOVE YA’LL. CAPITALISM IS CANCER! MY CHANNEL IS BEING DELETED FOR SHARING GAMEPLAY VIDEOS! THIS IS YOUR REWARD!” Nintendo wasn’t targeting Keighin for streaming unreleased games, in general, but specifically Nintendo games, including the recently released Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Keighin had it roughly two weeks before release.
“On at least fifty occasions in the last two years, Defendant has streamed gameplay footage of pirated copies of at least ten different Nintendo games without authorization,” reads the lawsuit. “All before those titles were released to the public.” The company is seeking $150K per infringement of copyright, which if we use the lawsuit’s claim of at least fifty occasions, would total around $7.5 million.
Related
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
