Nintendo has secured a legal victory in a copyright infringement lawsuit against an overseas game streamer who obtained and broadcast their titles before the official release.

On October 29 (local time), a Colorado federal court handed down a ruling in the case brought by Nintendo against streamer Jesse Keighin, who operated under the moniker 'EveryGameGuru' across various platforms, including YouTube. The court ordered Keighin to pay $17,500 (approximately 25 million KRW) in damages to Nintendo.

The case began when Nintendo filed the lawsuit in November last year. Nintendo alleged that the defendant had illegally pirated and streamed their games over 50 times over a two-year period before their official release. The affected titles include approximately 10 games, such as Mario & Luigi: Brothership!, Super Mario Party Jamboree, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Pikmin 4, and Splatoon 3.

Nintendo stated that the defendant's actions justified playing illegally leaked games before release, potentially ruining the experience for customers who had been waiting for the games by exposing them to spoilers online. Furthermore, Nintendo claimed that the defendant taught some viewers how to obtain games before release and secretly sold devices that bypassed Nintendo's anti-piracy measures.

Regarding this case, Nintendo stated that damages worth millions of dollars had occurred. However, the final damages claimed against the defendant were $10,000 per game, $5,000 for bypassing technical protection measures, and $2,500 for the illegal trade of circumvention technology. The total damages amounted to $17,500, which the court upheld.

The court also issued an injunction preventing the defendant from infringing on Nintendo's copyrights in the future. However, it rejected Nintendo's requests to 'destroy all circumvention devices' and to 'apply the order to third parties who conspired with the defendant,' as the court deemed both targets unclear.

Throughout the year-long litigation, the defendant, Jesse Keighin, did not hire a lawyer or appear in court. He posted rhetoric on social media, such as, 'You might run a corporation, I run the streets,' and 'I have 1,000 burner accounts, I can stream all day.'

Nintendo stated that during the lawsuit, the defendant attempted to destroy evidence by deleting videos he had posted online. Additionally, attempts to serve the defendant with the complaint at various addresses were unsuccessful. Consequently, the court allowed Nintendo to serve the complaint via the defendant's email and the home addresses of his mother, grandmother, and cohabitants. The final ruling was a 'default judgment' as the defendant failed to appear.