Some fallout from the early leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to be taking place. As players are loading the game into emulators and playing them unofficially on their computers, prior to the launch date, Nintendo is taking action to prevent that from happening. Lockpick and Lockpick_RCM are homebrew tools that allow users to dump unique keys from their Nintendo Switch console, which are required for numerous Switch hacking-related programs, including the Ryujinx and Yuzu Switch emulators. While Lockpick has been around for years, Nintendo has reportedly decided to go after it, by issuing a DMCA takedown to the GitHub project page, igniting concern and discussion within the community.

At the time of writing, Lockpick_RCM's repository is still active, it could be due to GitHub providing a grace period following a DMCA notice. Twitter user Simon Aarons was made aware of the takedown, after forking Lockpick, and allegedly receiving an email from GitHub, on behalf of Nintendo of America's legal team, who asserts that Lockpick is "circumvention software that infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Specifically, the reported repository provides Lockpick to users. The use of Lockpick with a modified Nintendo Switch console allows users to bypass Nintendo’s Technological Measures for video games; specifically, Lockpick bypasses the Console TPMs to permit unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch. The decrypted keys facilitate copyright infringement by permitting users to play pirated versions of Nintendo’s copyright-protected game software on systems without Nintendo’s Console TPMs or systems on which Nintendo’s Console TPMs have been disabled. Trafficking in circumvention software, such as Lockpick, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

Shortly after this, Skyline Emulator, a Switch emulator for Android devices, made the decision to shut down development, via a post on their Discord Server. Since you need the keys dumped from Lockpick in order to run Skyline, the team behind the emulator is concerned that it means Nintendo will target them for also violating their copyright.

It is with great sadness that we bring you this news. Recently, Nintendo has issued a DMCA takedown notice against Lockpick RCM which will likely come into effect on Monday, Lockpick is a core part of legally dumping keys from the Switch. They claim that it circumvents their copy protection (TPMs) and therefore violates their copyright. We find ourselves in a position where we are potentially violating their copyright by continuing to develop our project, Skyline, by dumping keys from our own Switches.

The Skyline team will be making their incomplete source code public, at the very least, and will keep the emulator's GitHub page active. Other homebrew projects are rumored to have been hit with DMCA notices as well. Ryujinx's emulator team stated that they will not be shutting down, following worries after Skyline.

 

[Clydefrosch]

How do you think those keys get distributed from the internet? They don't magically appear.....they use Lockpick to get them. That's why they pinpointed their aggression towards it.

dude what?
they had a law firm (that most likely acts 100% independent and only reacts to current news coverage anyways) send a letter request to cease development.
you're making it sound like they buried them in 5 years worth of legal work. if nintendo was actively working against this community, every homebrew dev would have a dmca notice just about the day they made anything public. they would actually bury emulator devs in legal work, because they can actually afford that and this community will likely never collect the money needed to challenge these things. because most of it is notoriously stingy.
the fact that these only come few and far between and only whenever switch hacking and game leaking becomes a trending topic on twitter and google news speaks for itself, nintendo at their most aggressive is still only scratching the surface of this community and it's not even going about it as cleverly as you're implying.

skyline devs clearly just wanted out and saw this as a good opportunity to leave without bringing the collective pirates fury down on them

 

[Goku1992A]

The logic here makes no sense. If Nintendo behaves like this anyways, then what impact did the leak even have? What exactly are we blaming them for?

So you can understand me...

Let's just say you made a data loader that can backup your games... but you lend it to your friend and he copied games that he didn't own and he post them online. Now Nintendo is sending you a nice DMCA for something you didn't do. Your friend used your data loader in mal intent.

Fast forward Nintendo takes you to court and now you owe 1 million in damages for something you didn't do. Do you see what I'm saying now?

Tears of the kingdom have to business being leaked 2 weeks because we know how Nintendo reacts to things.... I'm blaming the leakers for this good people have to suffer for bad peoples actions.

@Pickle_Rick
Nintendo didn't do nothing wrong they are within their rights. (It is in the EULA)

 

[Xzi]

Dunno why this just now occurred to me, but Switch doesn't have anything else notable releasing all year except Pikmin 4. No wonder Nintendo is lashing out, their release schedule is drier than the Sahara.

 

[WhileTrueBreak]

_

 

[Purple_Heart]

Modchips for the Switch are becoming more readily available and affordable such as the PicoFly, and as of recent, HWFLY are discontinuing their older modchips to focus on their RP2040 model.

true but my problem is.....i cant solder nor one of the shit stores near me do it.
and the reason i have the switch is Pokemon and Fire Emblem.

 

[miash]

Can someone weigh in on a question about Lockpick for me? If that disappeared, is there any alternative? Would someone else pick up where they left off and call it something else? I don't claim to be familiar with the hacking scene, but I do know that I generally need to get the latest version on Lockpick each time I want to dump a game from my switch.

I've dumped every game I own, and with each firmware update, I usually have to redump my keys, and I keep track of which version those keys belonged to. I know I'm in the minority here, but I have no interest in playing any of the Zelda games. It's very possible that my last purchase for my Switch will be Pikmin 4. I have one Mariko switch, and a v1 that I got off eBay. If I get a new game (which isn't too often), I'll turn on my v1, usually there will be a firmware update so I'll do that. I'll update my homebrew stuff on the micro SD (including Lockpick), then run nx dump tool to dump the xci or nsp, along with any dlc or updates, and they go to get used for yuzu and ryujinx, depending on the game.

Like I said, at this point, I'm just waiting for Pikmin 4 and the next 2 Mario kart waves, and it's for no other reason then I just like to play on my PC. I have everything loaded on my steam deck, but that's really just because I put the work into it and I have the space, otherwise it's not too pleasant playing on the deck.

So if Lockpick goes away, is there an alternative? Or is it just like 'we'll know when we know'? Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[SaulFabre]

Please CHILL OUT NINTENDO!!!

 

[Zajumino]

So you can understand me...

Let's just say you made a data loader that can backup your games... but you lend it to your friend and he copied games that he didn't own and he post them online. Now Nintendo is sending you a nice DMCA for something you didn't do. Your friend used your data loader in mal intent.

Fast forward Nintendo takes you to court and now you owe 1 million in damages for something you didn't do. Do you see what I'm saying now?

Tears of the kingdom have to business being leaked 2 weeks because we know how Nintendo reacts to things.... I'm blaming the leakers for this good people have to suffer for bad peoples actions.

Are you saying Nintendo DMCA'd lockpick specifically because the tears got leaked? Or just leaks in general, which have been happening for a long time and probably won't stop even if lockpick goes away?

 

[TomSwitch]

How do you think those keys get distributed from the internet? They don't magically appear.....they use Lockpick to get them. That's why they pinpointed their aggression towards it.

Lockpick disappearing from github is a major inconvenience for regular users.
The key word is "inconvenience". Do you know what is open source? Open source software can not be removed from Earth, it can only be removed from convenient access, it will never be far from a search if you don't already have it.

Can someone weigh in on a question about Lockpick for me? If that disappeared, is there any alternative? Would someone else pick up where they left off and call it something else? I don't claim to be familiar with the hacking scene, but I do know that I generally need to get the latest version on Lockpick each time I want to dump a game from my switch.

I've dumped every game I own, and with each firmware update, I usually have to redump my keys, and I keep track of which version those keys belonged to. I know I'm in the minority here, but I have no interest in playing any of the Zelda games. It's very possible that my last purchase for my Switch will be Pikmin 4. I have one Mariko switch, and a v1 that I got off eBay. If I get a new game (which isn't too often), I'll turn on my v1, usually there will be a firmware update so I'll do that. I'll update my homebrew stuff on the micro SD (including Lockpick), then run nx dump tool to dump the xci or nsp, along with any dlc or updates, and they go to get used for yuzu and ryujinx, depending on the game.

Like I said, at this point, I'm just waiting for Pikmin 4 and the next 2 Mario kart waves, and it's for no other reason then I just like to play on my PC. I have everything loaded on my steam deck, but that's really just because I put the work into it and I have the space, otherwise it's not too pleasant playing on the deck.

So if Lockpick goes away, is there an alternative? Or is it just like 'we'll know when we know'? Any insight would be appreciated.

Sorry for your coming pain, it will be a pain for many people. Now you don't know who to trust and may end up with malware. In time you will find what you need. Won't be as convenient as before but you will survive.

JoeTheHero will come to the rescue, the trouble is there will be imposters and you won't know who is the real Joe

 

[WhileTrueBreak]

_

 

[TomSwitch]

We can't know for certain, but Zelda leaking so early seems like an obvious catalyst for Nintendo suddenly coming down hard on tools that make piracy possible. It's too coincidental otherwise. Breath of the Wild sold gangbusters and its sequel is likely to do the same. Nintendo is understandably upset that a bunch of people are playing it for free, on systems they're not supposed to be able to, one or two weeks before everyone else.

This could be good news that the next console is about to be released and has totally nothing to do with totk.

PS: There is nothing "early" about this so call "leak". This isn't a leak, the game card needs to be in the channel before release and many people in the channel has access to it. There really isn't any surprise that some of them will decide to dump and release it. Nintendo shouldn't be surprised at all. As long as the technology to dump exist for virtually everybody it being used shouldn't be a surprise. The only way to not "leak" is to make the game card functionality dependent on a internet connection to activate ( this hurts the paying customers so Nintendo won't do it )

 

[Zajumino]

We can't know for certain, but Zelda leaking so early seems like an obvious catalyst for Nintendo suddenly coming down hard on tools that make piracy possible. It's too coincidental otherwise. Breath of the Wild sold gangbusters and its sequel is likely to do the same. Nintendo is understandably upset that a bunch of people are playing it for free, on systems they're not supposed to be able to, one or two weeks before everyone else.

It doesn't seem obvious to me. Pokémon Scarlet got leaked a week early, and plenty of other games before then. One might even say that if this really was a response to Zelda, it probably would have taken longer to happen.

 

[godreborn]

Nintendo, a family-friendly company? I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing it. I'll tell you what I see. I see a very greedy corporation that maintains a profit at all costs approach to business. people are going to pirate regardless, so unless Nintendo pulls itself out of this fantasy world where they can stop that altogether, it's going to happen even more so. the more stuff they try to take down, the greater the response by hackers. their next console is going to be hacked up the ass, and Nintendo has no one to blame but themselves. and, this is coming from a legit user too. Nintendo is incredibly naive. they should be doing what Sony has been, which is knowing hacks and piracy are going to happen, but mitigating how much damage they can do.

 

[Joom]

See what happens when people are impatient? We all lose nice things. I see people blaming Nintendo, but they didn't start on this warpath until people started posting emulation tutorials for a leaked game in droves. These tools and emulators were somehow allowed to exist without fear for quite some time before that.

 

[TomSwitch]

Nintendo, a family-friendly company? I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing it.

You are confusing family friendly with pocket friendly. It just mean you can rest assured that you child is safe.

If someone beat the child up cause he may have been foreced to spend too much on that Nintendo toy and have remorse it's not on Nintendo.

 

[godreborn]

You are confusing family friendly with pocket friendly. It just mean you can rest assured that you child is safe.

If you beat the child up cause you may be foreced to spend too much on that Nintendo toy it's not on Nintendo.

you seem to have a habit of defending the big N. I told you in the other thread that my post was an opinion, yet you don't seem to understand what that means. you think your opinion somehow overrides mine, like it's factual. I'm starting to get upset with you, and I'm getting ready to put you on ignore list and forget about you forever.

 

[TomSwitch]

you seem to have a habit of defending the big N. I told you in the other thread that my post was an opinion, yet you don't seem to understand what that means. you think your opinion somehow overrides mine, like it's factual. I'm starting to get upset with you, and I'm getting ready to put you on ignore list and forget about you forever.

Is only Nintendo hater allowed to express opinion?

 

[lwiz]

Should I buy overpriced ancient android in order to play 2 games that interest me in its library, Xenoblade 2 & 3, or should I just play them on the platform I already own and which runs them probably better than the intended hardware? In my case, Nintendo loses money due platform locking. (And I sincerely hope Monolith will split from the big N.)

Usually when a company starts trashing about like Nintendo is doing at the moment, it means death throes.

 

[Dimensional]

Should I buy overpriced ancient android in order to play 2 games that interest me in its library, Xenoblade 2 & 3, or should I just play them on the platform I already own and which runs them probably better than the intended hardware? In my case, Nintendo loses money due platform locking. (And I sincerely hope Monolith will split from the big N.)

Usually when a company starts trashing about like Nintendo is doing at the moment, it means death throes.

Monolith would have to buy their own shares from Nintendo. At this time Nintendo wholey owns Monolith.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

To be honest though people like Kotaku doing the bullcrap they did with Metroid Dread and now Tears of the Kingdom it's like... what the actual HELL did you expect? Now, as usual, Kotaku and possibly other people have screwed over others because "Oh they didn't let us do this, or give us this? LET'S DO THIS." and they're surprised.

Seriously, it seems after Kotaku's BS with TotK stuffs goin' downhill. What the hell good could even COME of telling people how to freaking pirate and emulate a NEW GAME coming out soon just because you want to throw a tantrum because daddy nintendo didn't give you a review copy and black listed you? Pretty sure there is WAY more going on but seriously Kotaku seems to be the main source of this and honestly they can go f**k. How many fan projects went down because they wanted to report on it and bam DMCA soon after... Stuff like that.