Lawsuit against game distributors who played pirated Nintendo games and emulators heats up, but damages amount may be significantly reduced
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against EveryGameGuru, a game distributor who streamed pirated games, including pre-release games, and shared links to emulators. Initially, damages of around 200 million yen were expected, but in its final court filing, Nintendo is seeking damages of $17,500 (approximately 2.5 million yen).
Nintendo Seeks Damages & Broad Injunction Against 'Pirate' Game Streamer * TorrentFreak
Nintendo filed a complaint in a federal court in Colorado in November 2024 against Jesse Keegin, who streams games under the name 'EveryGameGuru.' Keegin is a habitual pirate who 'obtains leaked pre-release games and streams them' on multiple platforms, including YouTube, Discord, and Twitch. According to the complaint, he streamed at least 10 pre-release games without permission a total of more than 50 times between 2022 and 2024.
Below is an example of illegal distribution cited in the complaint. Keegin illegally distributed the Nintendo Switch game ' Mario & Luigi RPG Brotherhood! ' in October 2024, before its release in November 2024. Although the distribution title states 'EARLY RELEASE/FIRST LOOK,' it was not an officially acquired game and was distributed without permission.
It has also been pointed out that, because illegally copied games cannot be played on the Nintendo Switch console, he has used emulators to circumvent technical countermeasures. In addition, he has been accused of distributing illegal content, such as by publishing links to emulators ' Ryujinx ' and ' Yuzu ,' which allow Nintendo Switch games to be played on PCs, distributing illegal software, and by posting repositories of pirated ROMs.
What is 'Ryujinx', an emulator that allows you to play Nintendo Switch games on your PC? - GIGAZINE
As a result, Nintendo has charged the parties with 'unauthorized public performance and copying,' 'accomplice infringement and inducement,' 'circumvention of technological measures,' and 'trafficking circumvention devices,' and has sought statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each pirated work, as well as $2,500 for each DMCA violation involving emulator circumvention and unauthorized tools.
Nintendo has tried to crack down on Keegin's piracy by sending DMCA takedown notices to the platforms and requesting YouTube and Twitch to suspend his channels. However, Keegin has made it clear that he will fight back against the lawsuits, posting on social media that 'I have hundreds of accounts (suspension of accounts is useless)' and commenting that 'I'm trying not to set a precedent here. I will make my name in video game history.'
Subsequently, Keegin destroyed evidence and avoided direct service of the complaint by Nintendo, so Nintendo filed a motion for default judgment with the court in April 2025. The new lawsuit documents list 10 titles for which the defendants are alleged to have willfully infringed copyrights.
In the original complaint, Nintendo sought damages of up to $1.5 million for ten games, but in the new complaint, it formally seeks damages for only one of the ten games, and has reduced that amount to $10,000, but still seeks damages for 'circumvention of technological protection measures' and 'trafficking of circumvention technologies,' bringing the total damages to about $17,500.
In addition, Nintendo is seeking a 'broad, worldwide, permanent injunction' against Keegin that would prohibit all infringement, including the use of emulators. If a broad, permanent injunction is granted, it would prohibit not only existing emulators but also software that is not yet in circulation. Therefore, TorrentFreak, a media outlet that covers topics such as piracy, points out that 'rather than seeking the maximum amount of damages, Nintendo may want to send a deterrent message to suspected pirates to stop pirating and distributing Nintendo games.'
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in Game, Posted by log1e_dh