Nintendo is winning the battle against Switch emulation, but not the war

Gaming News Nintendo is winning the battle against Switch emulation, but not the war

If you’re an emulation fan or at all interested in Nintendo news, you’ve probably already heard about it: the Japanese giant has decided to take legal action against the developers of the most popular Nintendo Switch emulator on the market. , Yuzu, to get “facilitated piracy on a colossal scale“. The hard-hitting action was launched after a disturbing observation for the box: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was illegally downloaded over a million times even before it was published in proper form. A situation that also recalls the case of SEGA’s Sonic Frontiers, which was already seen on emulators such as Yuzu or Ryujinx before its official release. You could almost say it took a while for Nintendo to respond directly, but Nintendo finally pulled out its guns and filed a complaint in Rhode Island on February 26th, some of which was shared online. Tropic Haze, the operator of Yuzu, is accused of causing damage.irreparable“provide”gives anyone in the world the ability to illegally decrypt and play virtually any Nintendo Switch game – including current generation and Nintendo’s most popular games – without ever paying a dime for a Nintendo console or for that game.”

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Tropic Haze Surrenders: The End of Yuzu and Citra

This is a new step for Nintendo in its fierce battle against game emulation and piracy. The publisher has won several lawsuits in the past, most recently against RomUniverse, a website that directly hosted pirated video game files, and was forced to pay more than $2 million in damages and destroy all copies of Nintendo games. The giant also attacked one Gary Bowser, was arrested and charged with selling Switch hacks, and has now been released with a $10 million debt. The Japanese are adamant, but the legal ambiguity surrounding yuzu exploitation did not necessarily guarantee his victory in a lawsuit.

But before Yuzu even gets involved in the fight, he proves Nintendo right: Not only has Tropic Haze agreed to pay Nintendo $2,400,000, but they even claim that Yuzu is “primarily designed for bypassing and playing Nintendo Switch games“. The company will no longer work on its emulator and is now refusing to host the platform, distribute its functionalities and host websites promoting it. The company is also transferring the domain name yuzu-emu.org to Nintendo and deleting “all workaround tools used to develop or use Yuzu – such as TegraRcmGUI, Hekate, Atmosphere, Lockpick_RCM, NDDumpTool, nxDumpFuse and TegraExplorer“Hand everything over to Nintendo”physical bypass devices” and that “modified Nintendo hardware“. In short, Yuzu is now a taboo in the club and brings the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, which was created in April 2014 and continued to receive updates until February of this year.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Yuzu and her team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo, its consoles and its games, and we had no intention of causing harm. But now we see that our plans, by bypassing Nintendo’s technological protections and allowing users to play games outside of authorized hardware, have led to widespread piracy. In particular, we were deeply disappointed when users used our software to leak game content before release, ruining the experience for legitimate buyers and fans – Posted on Yuzu Discord

And for many, it’s a huge blow to game preservation. Some actually believe that if Yuzu lends itself to questionable practices, Citra is more about preserving archive games that can no longer be found in official Nintendo stores since the closure of the 3DS eShop in March 2023. Direct consequence of this drastic decision: the influx of new emulation software distributed through social networks and made available to enthusiasts of the practice in the hope of replacing the Yuzu juggernaut.

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Emulation, a legal but controversial practice

It’s always good to remember that imitation is, first and foremost, a completely legal practice. By definition, it only allows games designed for a specific platform to run on another, often by imitating the original hardware via software. She has her ardent supporters, who champion the importance of video game heritage and the promotion of innovation ; And then there are the owners, for whom emulation raises major copyright infringement concerns. For this reason, some emulators are even developed in collaboration with publishers/developers, which legitimizes their use. A Twitter thread by netizen MisterDorian, CM and journalist, explains that Yuzu does not offer pirated content directly and believes that morally “Accusing an emulator of encouraging piracy is like accusing VLC or another video player of doing the same thing.”. If Yuzu loses Tropic Haze support today, the emulator will remain open source and therefore usable by anyone who wants it.

In the United States there is even a case law between Sony and Bleem, a case from 1999 that is somewhat reminiscent of today’s case, since Bleem is also a company specializing in emulation. Dissatisfied with the possible large exposure among consumers, Sony filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement and counterfeiting. The Japanese accused Bleem of stealing its technology when Bleem claimed to have used off-the-shelf tools, thereby refuting anti-competitive practices. This came at a time when Sony was much less inclined to port its games to the PC, charging royalties estimated at $10 per production. “We prefer an agnostic platform. If Sony fails to keep the PlayStation under control, we developers will shy away from paying royalties“said Robert Stevens, spokesman for Boss Game Studios, in Forbes columns in connection with the affair. Ultimately, the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement in 2000, allowing Bleem to continue operating under certain conditions.. Nevertheless, the case had a significant impact on the debate surrounding the legality of video game emulators and increased the legal ambiguity surrounding it. And because the legal fees were too high, Bleem finally had to close its doors a few months later. First the loser, the big one eventually ate the little one.

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Why did Yuzu surrender?

On the subject of emulation, Nintendo’s position is very firm, The company firmly rejects any form of imitation. On her Q&A page she explains:

“While we recognize gamers’ passion for classic games, supporting emulation also means supporting illegal piracy of our products. Wherever possible, Nintendo and its licensees are working to find ways to bring legitimate classic games to current consoles (e.g. through Virtual Console titles).

There is misinformation circulating on the Internet about the exemption for backup and archiving. This is a very narrow limitation that applies to computer software. Video games consist of many types of copyrighted works and should not be categorized as just software.

If Yuzu does not directly offer the illegal download of Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo accuses its developers of allowing piracy and regrets this “law-abiding customers” have been “They are forced to avoid social media to avoid spoilers and preserve their surprise and delight when the game is released“ after the game’s leak. The giant also points out the terms used in Yuzu’s quick guide: “In order to play commercial games, Yuzu requires some system files from a HACKABLE Nintendo Switch console to play properly“. A quote that questions the decryption methods surrounding Yuzu and her goodwill.

But why does Yuzu give up without even fighting? If Yuzu gave up so quickly, it was probably because he preferred to avoid a scenario that would justify huge legal fees to win the case in a trial. Richard Hoeg, a business lawyer who hosts the Virtual Legality podcast, suggested to The Verge: “It’s a lot of money ($2,400,000 in damages), but it’s a known amount and I suspect the advice they received was that their risk was high and they had a good chance of losing , after paying lawyers for a long time.

If Yuzu is pushed out, Switch emulation is far from being pushed out. It remains to be seen how long Nintendo will wait before tackling Ryujinx, another emulator that has so far avoided legal action. If the giant wants to be uncompromising, it also has to fight against the R4 cards that are now circulating on the Internet, which are equipped with their small micro SD and are already making thousands of potential buyers rave.