Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has caused damages to the company by allowing for its games to be played illegally before release. The suit also claims that the company behind the emulator, Tropic Haze LLC, makes a profit by facilitating piracy, noting that during the leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Yuzu's Patreon saw a large increase in users. Nintendo's legal team makes a case that Tropic Haze profits from and popularizes video game piracy.

NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. pic.twitter.com/SGZVI6Cs0x

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 27, 2024

In the legal document, Nintendo refers to an emulator as, "a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games". They also assert that the Yuzu team is aware of the emulator's use in the context of piracy, and do not try to hide that aspect. In addition, Nintendo's legal team states that extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Source

 

[BaamAlex]

Just to be on the safe side... I have downloaded the source code and the latest .exe. Who knows what will happen with the emulator xD

 

[Ondrashek06]

Nintendo should prioritize those Chinese famiclones that are sold with pirated software already on them, not emulators with absolutely none of Nintendo's code, assets or keys shipped with them.

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

i have one question. those bs lawsuits are mostly made by nintendo of america, or is only my impression? like, sometimes i feel like the "original" nintendo (of japan) not even knows some of the decisions the american counterpart do? o.o (just curious. i dont agree with their decisions either way)

 

[Subtle Demise]

wow, thanks to all the arguing here nintendo has won and/or lost the lawsuit and peace was restored!
Im so proud and/or disappointed in everyone here.

So nobody is allowed to discuss anything unless it's guaranteed to change the outcome of what we're discussing? Thanks for letting me know

 

[PopcornSweetie]

If Nintendo wins (which i hope they don't) this would be very dangerous for emulation in general. Besides, i think the Yuzu team has a ground to stand on: Their emulator uses nothing from Nintendo. Users need to supply their own NAND, keys and games. There is nothing illegal about that. Dolphin also requires a NAND backup and keys from a real Wii for online play on Wiimmfi.

I could only imagine that because the Switch is Nintendo latest console, they will go behind them. Otherwise, they would hunt Citra and Dolphin too.

 

[Bladexdsl]

the RYU team are looking at this and they be like. awww we'll miss you guys

 

[mikeshinoda]

If Yuzu lose and will be shut down them rise up five others emulators

 

[Keylogger]

First time I see legal actions against an emulator

 

[Lumstar]

i have one question. those bs lawsuits are mostly made by nintendo of america, or is only my impression? like, sometimes i feel like the "original" nintendo (of japan) not even knows some of the decisions the american counterpart do? o.o (just curious. i dont agree with their decisions either way)

As far as I understand, the japanese approach to these issues is somewhat different. File sharing is treated more harshly. But I haven't seen much case law regarding encryption.

 

[xbmcuser]

This is going to be a bad day for all emulation.

if you like emulation please support Yuzu court fees.


otherwise this could be the end of emulation

 

[HailfireASG]

extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Keyword: "your own keys"
I don't think they're gonna weasel this one in the courts.

 

[Ondrashek06]

Speaking of keys, they sold you the console. They didn't rent you it. That means that you can do whatever you want with it, as long as it is legal.

This includes copying a key file found in its storage.

 

[linuxares]

youve clearly not read the user agreements to anything youve bought

Doesn't mean shit where I live.

 

[TomSwitch]

Isn't un-patched Switch which Nintendo sold for years doing the same thing?

Porting to Android was the mistake Yuzu team should not have made. Android base is just too big to be ignored by Nintendo.

Un-patched Switch and PC or handheld PC just don't cause much concern to the bottom line.

 

[Hassal]

There's a conspiracy floating around stating that the company was responsible for the early leak of TOTK. It's not far out farfetched they could be the ones behind it. I mean the company sold over 20 million copies and this was 4 months ago, they probably hit 28 million by now. Any rational person would come to the conclusion that the leak hardly made a dent if any at all. They are crying about unrealized gains. This company deserve no sympathy.

 

[Bladexdsl]

First time I see legal actions against an emulator

sony started it with bleem

 

[White_Raven_X]

They should actually be suing Nvidia for the flaw in the CPU! If Nvidia didn't have that flaw then the switch may not have been hacked and therefore game dumps would not be around.
Silly Nintendo!

 

[Tomtani1]

the RYU team are looking at this and they be like. awww we'll miss you guys

No. If Nintendo shuts down Yuzu, then they will go after Ryujinx next.

 

[eyeliner]

Very, very hard. They desperately need new blood and fresh thinking at the top.

Pokémon fans, Mario fans, and Animal Crossing... furries(?) seem to counter your argument.

Nintendo has no discernable reason to change its ways when year after year they show record profits.

How long have you seen a company support a system for so long? Hm? Sure, people complain about how underpowered the Switch is, but do you see the barrage of games still coming to the system?

Dudebros want a new Switch, but the current one is still selling, the games keep coming, and the Nintendo company keeps record profits.

JUST LOOK AT PEOPLE GOING APE WITH THE NEW POKAKAMON!

The new Mario sucks.

 

[squeakycleanswine]

I never followed this too closely, as I haven't even played totk yet, but didn't yuzu not even have support for totk when it leaked? That may sound all fine and great at first, given what nintendo said, but then yuzu went and did a patreon drive to facilitate support for what they know is a currently unreleased game that you can only play via piracy at that moment. Performing a move like that is essentially asking for nintendo to shut you down and I definitely think they have a very small chance of winning based on their knowledge of what they were actually doing. As much as I hate nintendo, and I think a lot of their points they make are bullshit (like yuzu being a piracy tool), I have to acknowledge when the yuzu team is putting their wellbeing in danger instead of simply waiting for the official release, when they'd be safe to add such a thing and likely avoid this whole lawsuit entirely.