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

 

[urherenow]

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.

In Japan it's illegal to modify your console (other than aesthetics, of course). How would you then dump your keys? You can argue some soldering for a NAND dump without technically modifying anything or bypassing any kind of security... but it would be useless without those keys. If NoJ could be bothered to go after anybody in Japan, they would win the case faster than you can blink.

Post automatically merged: Feb 29, 2024

I misfired with Dread, sure, but others are worthy of the investment. But not many.

What on Earth are you talking about? You're talking about Metroid Dread? And you regret buying it? You're not a Metroid fan. I haven't met a single one who dislikes Dread. It's a masterpiece. I burned out 2 pro controllers on that game trying to get faster at it. Had to buy a Gulikit to save money. Sadly, some of the speed-running tricks have gotten too complicated for me, but it's still by far the most re-played game I own on the Switch. It's also regularly a featured game on GDQ, raising money for cancer research and stuff.

 

[Tomtani1]

Nintendo blaming Yuzu for the 1 million pirated downloads of Tears of the Kingdom prior to the game's release is BS. Nintendo is f stupid. Most of those downloads were played on soft modded or hard modded Nintendo Switches. Why doesn't Nintendo sue Nvidia for enabling piracy or sue the Chinese for selling the picofly/hwfly for enabling piracy? I read that Tears of the Kingdom could not run on Yuzu without the fan based mods. F U Nintendo.

P.S. There is a ton of v1 unpatched switches out there in the wild. A lot of them are used to play pirated games. I know because I have one. Nintendo's incompetency allowed piracy. Nintendo, you should sue yourself or Nvidia for enabling piracy.

 

[Hassal]

Nintendo blaming Yuzu for the 1 million pirated downloads of Tears of the Kingdom prior to the game's release is BS. Nintendo is f stupid. Most of those downloads were played on soft modded or hard modded Nintendo Switches. Why doesn't Nintendo sue Nvidia for enabling piracy or sue the Chinese for selling the picofly/hwfly for enabling piracy? I read that Tears of the Kingdom could not run on Yuzu without the fan based mods. F U Nintendo.

P.S. There is a ton of v1 unpatched switches out there in the wild. A lot of them are used to play pirated games. I know because I have one. Nintendo's incompetency allowed piracy. Nintendo, you should sue yourself or Nvidia for enabling piracy.

I also believe the vast majority are not played on PC but on modded switches, but apparently they don't want to admit to that to avoid putting blame on themselves or their partner for incompetency. Let's face it, it in the grand scheme emulators are pretty niche no matter how you slice because it requires fiddling.

They are indeed barking at the wrong tree. I'm one of those who played the early leak too AND I also happen to be one who bought this game after release not because I like them, so am I also counted among those 1 millions "thieves" that downloaded the game reducing their imaginary gains?

 

[ertaboy356b]

I don't know man, I don't see our modder bros bragging about how they play those games on a Steam Deck or on PC.

 

[Mayo1990]

that remains to be seen, but its obvious what this software is for

We had a lot of cases regarding emulation and legality. I can also use Yuzu (among any other emulator) to play my legally owned games at higher framerates or higher resolution.

 

[Searinox]

This has to be an attempt to stall and bankrupt them with lawyer costs. Because legally they have no case. The encryption mode in the ROMs, and in general in other DRM'd media, can be decrypted using freeware tools. Yuzu is doing nothing unusual here, it's the key that's the essential part, and they aren't distributing that. This has been tested in courts before. The emulation portion is also backed by precedent.

It is not a new fact at all that in the US wealthy individuals and entities, even when fully in the wrong, both legally and morally, can simply use this tactic to get their way with no recourse. The fact that it's been used sparingly doesn't really matter here. You are dealing with psychotic wealthy men who just want more profits even if it means screwing over the employees who actually make their company and acting out of greed and self-interest, even when what they do won't even help them in that regard.

They will push this norm more not less, they are increasingly an out-of-touch aristocracy who lives by different rules than the rest of us and whose personal whims, when they decide to do something, are becoming unstoppable. It's not yet that bad in the rest of the world but it's gradually becoming so, and it will unless people organize to campaign and put in place legislators to undo this insanity.

 

[ItsAshleyFTW]

Quoting Nintendo in the lawsuit: "A video game emulator is a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games that were published only for a specific console on a general-purpose computing device."


I can definitely see the bias here. Nintendo would obviously claim that emulators are only used for piracy, while emulator developers actually discourage this and recommend getting a clean copy from the disc, cartridge, etc.


And doesn't Nintendo themselves use emulators for Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online? A ruling in Nintendo's favor would surely bite them in the ass since it means Capcom or Konami would be scared to publish a Mega Man or Castlevania Legacy Collection on future consoles because the games require a NES/SNES emulator to run. To say nothing of the countless classic games that can't be re-released due to licensing issues and whatnot.

 

[ertaboy356b]

Quoting Nintendo in the lawsuit: "A video game emulator is a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games that were published only for a specific console on a general-purpose computing device."


I can definitely see the bias here. Nintendo would obviously claim that emulators are only used for piracy, while emulator developers actually discourage this and recommend getting a clean copy from the disc, cartridge, etc.


And doesn't Nintendo themselves use emulators for Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online? A ruling in Nintendo's favor would surely bite them in the ass since it means Capcom or Konami would be scared to publish a Mega Man or Castlevania Legacy Collection on future consoles because the games require a NES/SNES emulator to run. To say nothing of the countless classic games that can't be re-released due to licensing issues and whatnot.

The way I see it, the phrase "general-purpose computing device" (i.e. PC) is the key.

 

[Bladexdsl]

I can definitely see the bias here. Nintendo would obviously claim that emulators are only used for piracy, while emulator developers actually discourage this and recommend getting a clean copy from the disc, cartridge, etc.

it's one rule for nintendo and you either follow it or they DMCA you. they ARE the new apple

 

[ItsAshleyFTW]

The way I see it, the phrase "general-purpose computing device" (i.e. PC) is the key.

Lol. So if it's not on a PC, it's not an emulator? I'm curious on what Nintendo would call the software that runs Virtual Console and NSO games. If people are actually able to inject their own ROMs into them and play them perfectly with little or no issues, I don't see how that's not an emulator. Of course, this is Nintendo we're talking about so we shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Tomtani1]

Nintendo suing Yuzu is making a lot of people mad as hell. I would not be surprise if some hacker group attack Nintendo to even things out. Where is Anonymous when we need you? Anonymous always seems to do the right things.

 

[ItsAshleyFTW]

The difference in views between the emulation community and normal gamers is interesting.

I mean the top comment on this ign article covering this is essentialy happy about the lawsuit.

https://www.ign.com/articles/ninten...e-release-in-lawsuit-against-emulator-creator

I could only imagine Nintendo's diehard anti-emulation fanboys would be happy about this, given how much of them have been brainwashed into thinking "EmUlAtIoN bAd, $1000 FoR uSeD gAmE oN eBaY gOoD." I remember one of my classmates was emulating NSMB Wii on one of the school computers and the other student went on a rant about how emulation is piracy and that we should support the developers, even though it's a game they don't sell anymore.


I mean, the president of Nintendo could say the N-word and their fans would still find a way to defend them.

Post automatically merged: Feb 29, 2024

It gets better if you scroll down:
"Buying a license one time doesn’t give you the right to play it however and whenever you want to forever. You’re a thief. You’re purchasing the game just to resell it while you keep a copy for free. You are the problem."

In the end Nintendo will sue everyone who breathes next to a Switch.

Nah they won't stop there, they'll probably sue GameStop and every other game store and argue that selling used games hurts their profits. Next they'll sue everyone whose name is Mario, Luigi, Zelda, or Bowser (including their own president). Finally they'll sue the electric company for aiding and abetting piracy. Can't emulate games if you don't have power!

 

[dudeguy2022]

Well that isn't really the fault of the yuzu team; it was more like a coincidence in their favor

It's different in this case because there's observable evidence that the Yuzu devs were at the very least popularizing their emulator using means of piracy.

 

[Lumstar]

holy… imagine being that brainwashed… i guess ign is filled with more normie than I expected

Cross-platform purchases are the exception, not the rule. Most digital games are sold with the intent they'll be played on a particular hardware and/or operating system.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Can't get Mig, let's get Yuz.

 

[JORGETECH]

The difference in views between the emulation community and normal gamers is interesting.

Sorry, but what you probably mean with "normal gamers" really is "people brainwashed by corporations". I bet there are a lot of "normal gamers" that don't support Nintendo and wouldn't accept the attacks on ownership modern corporations are doing.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Can't get Mig, let's get Yuz.

but here's the funny part with mig you have to own the game carts to rip them it basically has zero piracy uses

 

[gisel213]

Funny how migswitch is out with a dumper not needing a switch to dump cartridge hmm who would know the exact formula of a blank switch cartridge to test games via internal sdcard? But more important who has the power to make a unmodified switch recognize it hmm nintendo themselves!! I mean they jailed garyopa then let him out still owing money lol he probably struct a deal making or perhaps he was holding onto it. Nintendo probably like hmm this is a way for us to sell more oleds modders would buy hundreds of switches profit for nintendo but ban people for going online trying to be legit nintendo yet they are really profiting from mig switch selling thousands of switches!!! I say this because garyopas name and email was shown to be involved with migswitch... yet nintendo ain't going after him putting him back in jail put 2 and 2 together cause garyopas migswitch is gonna make nintendo all the money he owes. But think about if the public knows damn I can buy the newest hottest switch don't have mod it insert magic cartridge play free and or pirated games But what stands in their way a free option which is yuzu emulator.... it's kinda like them saying you can play pirated switch games but only on our migswitch you play on a computer and your ass is grass!!!

 

[JORGETECH]

I could only imagine Nintendo's diehard anti-emulation fanboys would be happy about this, given how much of them have been brainwashed into thinking "EmUlAtIoN bAd, $1000 FoR uSeD gAmE oN eBaY gOoD." I remember one of my classmates was emulating NSMB Wii on one of the school computers and the other student went on a rant about how emulation is piracy and that we should support the developers, even though it's a game they don't sell anymore.

OMG, I remember having a similar experience a long time ago. Memories to last a lifetime.

 

[gisel213]

Also adding to my point the switch 2 got delayed till next year. Hmm wonder why cause garyopas migswitch deal with nintendo is gonna make them millions by selling oleds and lites like hotcakes!!! Meanwhile yuzu don't cost a thing making nintendo not one penny so they are the prime target in this silly lawsuit... It's like they're pulling a heist on themselves using a master modder but profiting off if it.. but we all know ain't nobody make that cartridge but nintendo they damn selves and garyopa probably made the code and software execution within the chips... I'm telling you he probably pitched this to them while he was locked up and they probably said screw it we can make up the damages by doing this tested it for months then was made public for sale!!!!! In other words the phrase is if you can't beat em join em... Lol nintendo has entered the Piracy Market tryna compete with yuzu I bet it cost them pennies on the dollar to manufacture millions of Migswitch Cartridges