Switch Emulator Developer Settles Nintendo Lawsuit For $2.4 Million
Splatoon Wii U charger screenshot
Yuzu, the most popular Nintendo Switch emulator to date, has closed up shop and agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million after the latter sued the developers behind the emulator for breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Nintendo filed suit against Tropic Haze, the developers of Yuzu, last month, alleging that Yuzu circumvented technological measures implemented by Nintendo on the Switch by decrypting Nintendo Switch software during runtime. Nintendo says that this is a breach of the DMCA, which prohibits “trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures.”
Nintendo’s proposed judgment, which Tropic Haze has agreed to as part of the settlement, sees the developers paying Nintendo $2.4 million, as well as legally preventing them from offering Yuzu to the public. It also prevents Tropic Haze from continuing to develop or distribute Yuzu and its source code, or any other emulator that works in a similar way and involves Nintendo’s intellectual property.
At the time of writing, the GitHub repo for Yuzu has been taken offline, and the project’s Discord server has been shut down. Citra, a popular 3DS emulator also developed by Tropic Haze, has also been pulled offline, and will seemingly face a similar fate to Yuzu.
— yuzu (@yuzuemu) March 4, 2024
In a statement posted to the official Yuzu Twitter account, Tropic Haze confirmed the settlement made with Nintendo, and that it would be removing its code repos, discontinuing its Discord server, and shutting down its Patreon account. Internet commentators have speculated that the latter was part of the reason Yuzu attracted Nintendo’s attention, as Tropic Haze was earning tens of thousands of dollars each month through its Patreon.
“We write today to inform you that yuzu and yuzu’s support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately,” the statement reads. “yuzu and its team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and were not intending to cause harm. But we see now that because our projects can circumvent Nintendo’s technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy. In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans.
“Effective today, we will be pulling our code repositories offline, discontinuing our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and, soon, shutting down our websites. We hope our actions will be a small step toward ending piracy of all creators’ works.”
