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

 

[ut2k4master]

Please explain

a console isnt just hardware, its also software. you can do whatever you want with the physical object, but the software is just different.
and just saying "I still don’t care what their agreement says" wouldnt protect you in the court of law

 

[The Catboy]

a console isnt just hardware, its also software. you can do whatever you want with the physical object, but the software is just different.
and just saying "I still don’t care what their agreement says" wouldnt protect you in the court of law

So you are saying it would be ok for Apple to sue someone for installing Linux on their MacBook? Because now we are getting into Jailbreaking territory with software, something that is also not illegal. Nintendo’s agreement only holds up for their services, it’s their right to ban someone for using their services with a hacked Switch. But their agreement does not mean shit in any legal sense when it comes to what you do with your system. Hacking your Switch and dumping files from it is also completely legal. Hacking your switch and running homebrew on it, is legal. Installing pirated games is not legal but that’s going into copyright issues. These have all been through the courts in the past. Nintendo‘s agreement doesn’t mean shit to me because Nintendo does not have the law on their end. The most they legally should be able to do is ban someone from their services. I would love for Nintendo to take someone to court for hacking their system because both Sony and Apple tried that and it didn’t turn out in their favor.

 

[ut2k4master]

So you are saying it would be ok for Apple to sue someone for installing Linux on their MacBook? Because now we are getting into Jailbreaking territory with software, something that is also not illegal. Nintendo’s agreement only holds up for their services, it’s their right to ban someone for using their services with a hacked Switch. But their agreement does not mean shit in any legal sense when it comes to what you do with your system. Hacking your Switch and dumping files from it is also completely legal. Hacking your switch and running homebrew on it, is legal. Installing pirated games is not legal but that’s going into copyright issues. These have all been through the courts in the past. Nintendo‘s agreement doesn’t mean shit to me because Nintendo does not have the law on their end. The most they legally should be able to do is ban someone from their services. I would love for Nintendo to take someone to court for hacking their system because both Sony and Apple tried that and it didn’t turn out in their favor.

well a mac is a general purpose device, so again, different thing

 

[Elrinth]

Then Nintendo should sue themselves also. Because they are also using emulators on their console.

 

[The Catboy]

well a mac is a general purpose device, so again, different thing

Now you are just being deliberately obtuse.

 

[Xzi]

well a mac is a general purpose device, so again, different thing

The point is that Apple only controls software within their own ecosystem, they can't control what the user does once they've left it. Same deal with Nintendo and Nintendo's ecosystem. The difference is that Apple offers a lot more incentives for people to stay, whereas Nintendo is only offering a few emulators with a limited selection of ROMs. AKA a worse version of stuff you can get for free if you leave their ecosystem.

 

[ut2k4master]

Nintendo is only offering a few emulators with a limited selection of ROMs. AKA a worse version of stuff you can get for free if you leave their ecosystem.

and doing so would still be illegal with the laws we have today

 

[Xzi]

and doing so would still be illegal with the laws we have today

Violating copyright isn't actually a criminal offense though, and nor is it realistic to prosecute even a quarter of the offenders. Nintendo doesn't offer any alternatives for purchasing older games, either, which means buying used nets them the same amount of revenue as piracy (zero). There's no shortage of people who would buy GCN games at $60 a pop from Steam, let alone anything newer, so Nintendo has nobody to blame but themselves for missing out on those boatloads of cash.

If they want to keep people within their ecosystem, they have to offer at least as much incentive as the competition does. Otherwise people are incentivized to leave and do their own thing instead.

 

[The Catboy]

and doing so would still be illegal with the laws we have today

You really are just doing this on purpose.
The main point is that Nintendo has no legal footing for this lawsuit. The Yuzu team has nothing to do with piracy or anything illegal. It’s not illegal to hack your system and dump your files, that determined when it found to be legal to dump the PS1 bios. It was also found not be illegal to hack/jailbreak your electronics, Apple lawsuit for this. It also not the Yuzu’s team’s responsibility to ensure the user does not use their emulator for piracy, Nintendo is shouldering them with a responsibility that has nothing to do with the team. Nintendo’s case is embarrassingly flimsy. It’s even more embarrassing to think that their user agreement holds any legal precedent.

 

[ut2k4master]

Violating copyright isn't actually a criminal offense though, and nor is it realistic to prosecute even a quarter of the offenders. Nintendo doesn't offer any alternatives for purchasing older games, either, which means buying used nets them the same amount of revenue as piracy (zero). There's no shortage of people who would buy GCN games at $60 a pop from Steam, let alone anything newer, so Nintendo has nobody to blame but themselves for missing out on those boatloads of cash.

the same people saying that would instantly pirate them anyway cause they always come up with another excuse why theyre not paying x amount for anything

 

[Xzi]

the same people saying that would instantly pirate them anyway cause they always come up with another excuse why theyre not paying x amount for anything

The people who want to pirate Nintendo games have already pirated them. As long as Nintendo is not offering a method of legitimately purchasing those games, however, those pirated copies cannot be considered the same as lost sales.

 

[ut2k4master]

The people who want to pirate Nintendo games have already pirated them. As long as Nintendo is not offering a method of legitimately purchasing those games, however, those pirated copies cannot be considered the same as lost sales.

the most pirated games are all available to purchase. availability is not an issue

 

[Xzi]

the most pirated games are all available to purchase. availability is not an issue

Nintendo has a lot of interest in their games from people outside of their ecosystem, people who have never and/or will never buy a Nintendo console. Availability is the primary issue for them, and it's stupid to not capitalize on that interest, because there's no guarantee it will remain at the current level forever.

 

[cakelover4578]

nintendo being nintendo

 

[The Catboy]

there's no guarantee it will remain at the current level forever.

That’s why Big N is abusing the court system. Keeping the current level, by force

 

[Xzi]

That’s why Big N is abusing the court system. Keeping the current level, by force

They'll never be rid of piracy in its entirety though, and the more hostile they act toward consumers, the more consumers will reciprocate. They can either improve their services and hardware, start to embrace multi-platform releases, or just accept the fact that they're incapable of living up to the standard set by their competition; PC/portable PC included under that umbrella. Throwing a litigious bitch-fit every few years ultimately accomplishes nothing.

 

[The Catboy]

They'll never be rid of piracy in its entirety though, and the more hostile they act toward consumers, the more consumers will reciprocate. They can either improve their services and hardware, start to embrace multi-platform releases, or just accept the fact that they're incapable of living up to the standard set by their competition; PC/portable PC included under that umbrella. Throwing a litigious bitch-fit every few years ultimately accomplishes nothing.

They could improve their services, better quality control products like Pokémon, and so many other things but instead they are throwing money into the stupidest lawsuit to happen thus far into 2024

 

[ItsAshleyFTW]

They could improve their services, better quality control products like Pokémon, and so many other things but instead they are throwing money into the stupidest lawsuit to happen thus far into 2024

I honestly thought it was more likely that Nintendo would sue Palworld than an emulator developer.

 

[The Catboy]

I honestly thought it was more likely that Nintendo would sue Palworld than an emulator developer.

They probably didn’t want to deal with the fact that Palworld passed so many checks that their case would have been thrown out, so they went with something they probably think is an easier target

 

[realtimesave]

I like how 99% of people on here like to dump on Nintendo rofl