Gamer Sent Nintendo a Letter Boasting He Had ‘A Thousand Burner Channels’ to Stream Pirated Games From and Could ‘Do This All Day’ — Now Nintendo Has Sued Him for Millions of Dollars

Nintendo has sued a gamer for streaming pirated Nintendo games such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom before their official release date.

As reported by Polygon, Nintendo filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against Jesse Keighin, aka Every Game Guru, accusing him of not only streaming 10 Nintendo games before they came out, but telling his viewers how to obtain them. The list includes The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

According to the lawsuit, Keighin obtained and streamed leaked Nintendo games at least 50 times since 2022, and provided links to the Yuzu and Ryujinx emulators for viewers. Nintendo alleged these actions amounted to “trafficking” in illegal “circumvention devices,” and insisted they caused “millions of dollars” worth of damage through “lost video game sales.”

The lawsuit reads:

“Streaming leaked games prior to their publicationnormalizes and encourages prerelease piracy — Defendant is signaling to viewers that they too should acquire a pirated copy and play the gamenow, without waiting for its release and without paying for it. Prerelease piracy harms law-abiding Nintendo customers who may have been waiting for a particular game release for months or years, and then may see gameplay and spoilers online that ruin their own surprise and delight when experiencing the game. In turn, prerelease piracy causes Nintendo tremendous harm, including millions of dollars of monetary harm from lost video game sales both of Nintendo’s and its licensees’ copyrighted games, and loss of goodwill.”

Apparently multiple takedown notices from Nintendo failed to prevent Keighin from continuing to stream the company's games on the likes of YouTube, Twitch, and Kick. His YouTube and Twitch channels are now offline as a result of copyright strikes.

What’s more, the lawsuit alleges Keighin sent a letter to Nintendo in late October "boasting” he had “a thousand burner channels” to stream from and threatened to continue to use them, saying he could “do this all day.”

In addition to the seizure and destruction of emulators and devices in Keighin's possession, Nintendo wants $150,000 in damages for each alleged violation of Nintendo’s rights under the Copyright Act, and $2,500 per violation arising from violations of the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Copyright Act. With over 50 alleged incidents in two years, the potential damages could reach $7.5 million. Or, Nintendo could take "actual damages" to be proven at trial.

Nintendo told Polygon: "We can confirm that we filed a lawsuit against an individual who has engaged and continues to engage in clear infringement of Nintendo's IP rights, as well as violations of our Game Content guidelines.

"Nintendo is passionate about protecting the creative works of game developers and publishers who expend significant time and effort to create experiences that bring smiles to all."

This is yet another lawsuit in Nintendo’s long-running war against emulators. Earlier this year, Yuzu developer Tropic Haze agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in a settlement, and last month Ryujinx reportedly ended development after Nintendo had a word. And how can we forget the fate of Gary Bowser, who was sentenced in 2021 to 40 months in prison and a $14.5 million fine for his role in Nintendo hacking group Team Xecuter? The infamously litigious Nintendo is also in the middle of suing Palworld maker Pocketpair for alleged patent infringement.

Photo by Valeria Mongelli/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].