Current Events > RIP Yuzu Switch emulator

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.polygon.com/24085140/nintendo-totk-leaked-yuzu-lawsuit-emulator

It's a shame because my fiancee and I actually play Mario Kart 8 with it since the modding scene is huge, meaning we can swap the tracks

I don't think Nintendo has a case but I doubt the makers of Yuzu can face them in court

Updated to the latest version today just in case

Nintendo blames Yuzu for pirated copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom being played early

LOL. As someone around and partaking in that fiasco, Official Yuzu didn't even run ToTK before launch. You had to use an unofficial fork made by some dude who has nothing to do with the Yuzu team. Yuzu literally sat on their hands and did no updates regarding playability for ToTK until the game launched, which was smart of them.

Ryujinx on the other hand was pushing official updates to get the game playable ASAP, before the release date. They should have went after Ryujinx if this was their actual concern but I guess Yuzu makes more money.

The biggest thing against them is likely the whole $30k per month Patreon they have going. Hopefully any potential rulings don't set any annoying precedents.

Nintendo blames Yuzu for pirated copies playing early.... maybe if they actually gave people a demo to play the damn game people wouldn't need to pirate. And for me pirating is a lot more of a grey line than selling something for 10 dollars more than its release price 6 years earlier.

I would mod my switch if I had the motivation to do it. I really don't.

Nemu posted...

The biggest thing against them is likely the whole $30k per month Patreon they have going. Hopefully any potential rulings don't set any annoying precedents.

I don't know if there's any legal problems regarding that, but it is incredibly scummy to do this. It's one of the unwritten etiquettes regarding stuff like this.

Nintendo's doing this because they delayed the Switch 2 an entire year while padding out the rest of the Switch's lifespan with remakes and ports, which inadvertently puts a lot of would-be buyers in a position where they deem the existing Switch and its EOL games not worth getting since the next platform will come soon enough, and with backwards compatibility. Emulation seems like a more viable option for people who want to check out these smaller, less important games without shelling out money.

This will set a precedent that all emulators can be targeted and in ten-fifteen years, we'll be in a future without even NES emulators, much less modern emulators.

GhostFaceLeaks posted...

This will set a precedent that all emulators can be targeted and in ten-fifteen years, we'll be in a future without even NES emulators, much less modern emulators.

It ended in a Settlement. It doesn't appear that Nintendo will be expanding its reach to gutting Emulation as a whole, at least for now... They didn't target Ryujinx for instance.

God, those devs were absolute idiots. People have taken donations for working on things like this in the past, but I don't think anyone has so blatantly tried to monetize something like that. This should always be limited to the realm of passion projects, with maybe some cups of coffee on the side.

Nemu posted...

The biggest thing against them is likely the whole $30k per month Patreon they have going. Hopefully any potential rulings don't set any annoying precedents.

This + the whole encouraging piracy thing are ultimately what sunk them, I think. Emulation survives on the grey technicality scale of copyright law. The only thing saving it in the past was it being open source and free. Locking updates behind paywalls and seeking donations to fund your emulator only encourages the big boys to come recoup your revenue.

GhostFaceLeaks posted...

This will set a precedent that all emulators can be targeted and in ten-fifteen years, we'll be in a future without even NES emulators, much less modern emulators.

Nintendo went after quite a few ROM hosting sites in the past, but they've mostly left the emulators themselves alone. I think this one was because they were making money off of Yuzu.

Charged151 posted...

It ended in a Settlement. It doesn't appear that Nintendo will be expanding its reach to gutting Emulation as a whole, at least for now... They didn't target Ryujinx for instance.

As long as those emulators don't do anything where money is involved, they can exist because of "technicality's" of emulation as a whole. Without those "technicality's", you can bet your ass that Nintendo and even Microsoft and Sony would also go after those other emulators as well. As long as those other emulators don't give them a reason to go after them, they should be safe. The biggest thing that can take down all emulators is if there's a precedent decided in the court of law to do so, which is most likely the reason Yuzu settled so fast. Either way, Nintendo won but at least Yuzu is open source so it will always exist.

You'll notice places like V***'s Lair are still around... They don't run any ads at all.

Nintendo seem to be okay with that.

Also, as always, just stay away from the current gen in piracy. Like, now is the time to emulate all the Wii and PS2 games you never played, not the time to emulate switch.

GhostFaceLeaks posted...

This will set a precedent that all emulators can be targeted and in ten-fifteen years, we'll be in a future without even NES emulators, much less modern emulators.

What's stopping random users from uploading emulators and roms? Who is Nintendo gonna sue? Anonymous users?

I think in cases like these people are always gonna upload stuff regardless. The only thing companies can do is go after established named groups with patreons and stuff.

I'm not a big fan of emulators for consoles that are still putting out games. Like I wouldn't mess around with PS4/PS5 or Switch emulation. I love my Retroid Pocket, and even if it can play some Switch stuff I won't put Switch on it.

And I think that's how Nintendo views it too. They aren't going after Dolphin which does Gamecube / Wii.

It's kind of like the whole Mother 3 fan translation thing. They know about it. Employees, and high up ones of Nintendo have talked about it. But they aren't going after it.

I wonder how long until the new switch flash cards get sued.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

I'm not a big fan of emulators for consoles that are still putting out games. Like I wouldn't mess around with PS4/PS5 or Switch emulation. I love my Retroid Pocket, and even if it can play some Switch stuff I won't put Switch on it.

And I think that's how Nintendo views it too. They aren't going after Dolphin which does Gamecube / Wii.

It's kind of like the whole Mother 3 fan translation thing. They know about it. Employees, and high up ones of Nintendo have talked about it. But they aren't going after it.

I wonder how long until the new switch flash cards get sued.

Is this completely true though if Nintendo prevented the dolphin emulator from being officially put up on steam though, even if for free?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Ah gotcha okay

Cool, maybe people should actually buy the games they like.

Charged151 posted...

It ended in a Settlement. It doesn't appear that Nintendo will be expanding its reach to gutting Emulation as a whole, at least for now... They didn't target Ryujinx for instance.

How many smaller emulator devs are willing to face Nintendo in court? I doubt theres even a single one

firedoom666 posted...

Cool, maybe people should actually buy the games they like.

Emulators aren't just for pirates.

Rika_Furude posted...

How many smaller emulator devs are willing to face Nintendo in court? I doubt theres even a single one

Easy solution. Don't be an LLC like Yuzu's developers were and base the development/work of the emulator in a country that doesn't care about Nintendo's BS. Problem solved.

I wonder why they haven't gone after the emulators that are pay to play on the Play Store?