Nintendo reaches settlement with RI-based creator of Yuzu emulator. What to know.
PROVIDENCE – Nintendo of America has reached a $2.4 million settlement with the Warwick developer of the Yuzu emulator, which allows people to download for free video games developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch consoles.
Nintendo, the maker of hit games Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and other favorites, sued Tropic Haze LLC last week in U.S. District Court, alleging that the company was “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale" in violation of the anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The game maker alleged that the company was instructing users how to bypass protections to download games on PCs and Android devices “without paying a dime.”
The parties filed a joint motion Monday resolving the matter. Under the terms, Tropic Haze would pay Nintendo $2.4 million and agree to stop producing and distributing the Yuzu emulator.
The agreement is awaiting a judge’s approval and for a permanent injunction to be issued by the court.
'This piracy causes Nintendo tremendous harm'
Tropic Haze has a corporate address listed on Centerville Road in Warwick. The company owns, develops and operates “Yuzu,” a video game emulator for Nintendo Switch games, software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games, according to Nintendo’s complaint.
According to the complaint, Yuzu offers paid “early access” versions of Nintendo Switch games and a free version for Android devices. Yuzu’s membership account on Patreon has more than 7,000 patrons and, according to Yuzu's Patreon page, earns Tropic Haze and its developers about $30,000 a month.
More: Nintendo accuses this Rhode Island company of enabling piracy at a 'colossal scale.'
One recent major Nintendo video game – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – was unlawfully distributed a week and a half before its release by Nintendo, the lawsuit says. Infringing copies of the game were downloaded from pirate websites more than a million times before the game was published and made available for lawful sale.
“This piracy causes Nintendo tremendous harm, including millions of dollars of monetary harm from lost video game sales both of Nintendo’s and its licensees’ copyrighted games, and loss of goodwill,” the lawsuit states.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Yuzu emulator creator must pay Nintendo a settlement, stop producing it
