Switch Emulator Creator Ordered to Pay Nintendo Millions

04.03.2024 - 23:42 / gamerant.com / James Ratcliff / Nintendo

The creators of Yuzu, a popular open-source Switch emulator, have agreed to settle a lawsuit that will lead to a payout of $2.4 million to Nintendo, pending approval. Further, the settlement prohibited Yuzu and all related parties from distributing and developing its Switch emulator in its current form, and that Yuzu's websites and code repositories would be pulled.

At the end of February, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze, the development company behind Yuzu. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court of Rhode Island, with Chief Judge John J. McConnell presiding over the case. In the filing, Nintendo claimed that the Yuzu emulator was designed to bypass the software encryption layers of the Switch, which could then be used for piracy of its games. Nintendo summarized that Yuzu was, by design, in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because of the tools it utilized. Before the lawsuit, Yuzu created a Patreon page to support continued development, which Nintendo claimed had increased in support during the days leading up to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. By pirating the game before its release, Nintendo claimed that story spoilers made the rounds on social media.

Though Tears of the Kingdom sales were largely unaffected by Yuzu and other emulators, that did not stop Nintendo from living up to its reputation of being protective of its IPs. On March 4, the US District Court of Rhode Island stated that, pending final approval, Nintendo would be awarded $2.4 million as part of a permanent injunction and settlement it reached with Tropic Haze. But that was not the only thing Tropic Haze had to do as part of the settlement, as the settlement stated that Yuzu would cease production and development in its current form and surrender control of its websites to Nintendo. Yuzu then released a statement on social media to confirm that it would immediately end the emulator's development while reiterating its stance against piracy.

However, the Yuzu case is not the first time Nintendo has used the DMCA in court. In May 2023, Nintendo filed a DMCA takedown notice against Valve and the creators of the Dolphin emulator, which is used to emulate GameCube and Wii games. While the Dolphin Emulator has since been pulled from Steam, its development is still ongoing at the time of writing.

The pending settlement between Tropic Haze and Nintendo is not the first time the company has flexed its anti-piracy muscle. Only time will tell what countermeasures against piracy Nintendo will develop for the Switch's successor.

Nintendo's newest system features a vibrant 7-inch OLED screen, a wide adjustable stand, a dock with a wired LAN port, 64 GB of internal storage, and